20 DC VELOCITY NOVEMBER 2018 www.dcvelocity.com
newsworthy
Mobile robots enter the warehouse,
following deals by Honeywell/Fetch
Robotics, XPO/GreyOrange
Honeywell International Inc. in October announced a strategic collaboration
with Fetch Robotics Inc. to supply distribution centers with autonomous mobile
robots (AMRs) to help them fulfill growing volumes of e-commerce orders more
efficiently.
Morris Plains, N.J.-based Honeywell offers a suite of warehouse technology
products that enable a unified flow of software, automated equipment, orders,
and labor. The firm expanded that capability in 2017 when it acquired systems
integrator Intelligrated for $15 billion in a bid to provide automated supply chain
solutions for e-commerce operations.
In August, the company’s Honeywell Intelligrated division reinforced that
portfolio through a partnership with Carnegie Mellon University to develop
next-generation artificial intelligence and robotics technologies for distribution
centers.
The collaboration with Fetch Robotics now adds mobility capability to the
range of robotics solutions Honeywell is bringing to market, the company says.
Honeywell Intelligrated says it can help customers increase warehouse productivity and boost labor efficiency by deploying Fetch AMRs to transport items
through DCs without human guidance or fixed paths.
“As staffing challenges and the continued growth of online shopping are pres-
suring supply chains, robotics can be an effective solution to help make large
integrated distribution centers more efficient,” Honeywell Intelligrated President
Pieter Krynauw said in a release.
BIG BET ON ROBOTS
In another sign of the rising popularity of mobile robots in the DC, transportation and logistics service provider XPO Logistics Inc. said last month that it
plans to deploy 5,000 mobile robots from GreyOrange Pte. Ltd. throughout its
international logistics sites, and that it will become the exclusive supplier of those
robots for certain logistics applications across North America, the U.K., and eight
European countries.
Under terms of the strategic partnership agreement, XPO will become the only
logistics service provider authorized to use the robots in those regions, although
other customers—such as shippers—will still be able to buy the bots, XPO said
in an e-mail.
Singapore-based GreyOrange makes rectangular rolling robots that combine
with pick-and-put stations, mobile storage racks, and the firm’s GreyMatter
software to create a goods-to-person fulfillment system. The company’s “Butler”
autonomous mobile robots locate and deliver racks of goods to human order
pickers, minimizing the time required for walking and training, Chris Barber,
CEO of GreyOrange North America, said in an interview at the CSCMP Edge
conference in Nashville, Tenn.
News of XPO’s large-scale adoption of the firm’s robots follows GreyOrange’s
announcement in August that it had opened a U.S. headquarters in Atlanta and
planned to build a research and development center in Boston as well as a U.S.
manufacturing facility by 2019. At the time, GreyOrange said it planned to deploy
20,000 robots in the U.S. in the next three years for applications in e-commerce
and omnichannel retail, and third-party logistics. The firm also said in September
that it had secured $140 million in venture capital to fuel that expansion.
Truckload and logistics
giant Schneider was recently named a finalist for the
Daniel H. Wagner Prize for
Excellence in Operations
Research Practice for its
optimization of bulk tanker transport. The Wagner
Prize, which is awarded
each year by the Institute
for Operations Research and
the Management Sciences,
rewards the use of operations research, analytics, and
mathematics in practice. …
Transplace, a provider of
transportation management
services and logistics technology, has announced the
winners of its annual Carrier
of the Year awards, recognizing 23 of its best carrier partners in a variety of
categories. For the complete
list of winners, visit www.
transplace.com. … To recognize its top-performing dealers throughout the Americas,
UniCarriers Americas Corp.
(UCA) has selected the following as its 2017 President’s
Club award winners: Lift
Solutions Inc., which also
received UCA’s President’s
Award; CFE Equipment
Corp.; Forklift Systems Inc.;
J.M. Equipment Co. Inc.;
Vegusa Maquinaria; Capital
Equipment & Handling
Inc.; M&L Industries LLC;
Montacargas Galeria, S.A.
de C.V.; Sunbelt Industrial
Trucks; and H&K Equipment
Inc. … Transportation and
logistics company J.B. Hunt
has named regional less-than-truckload carrier Dayton
Freight its 2018 Carrier of the
Year. This is the third time
Dayton has won the award.
accolades
