Professional services company Accenture has acquired Brazilian industrial robotics provider Pollux to expand its capabilities for clients in consumer goods, pharmaceutical and automotive industries.
The acquisition is Accenture’s first of an industrial robotics solutions provider and will encompass Pollux’s operations in Brazil, Ecuador, Mexico, Canada and the USA.
Pollux designs, engineers and deploys fully functional assembly lines that include robots and other hardware as well as the software that controls them.
Furthermore, it offers visual analytics inspection solutions, autonomous mobile robots and robots-as-a-service for shopfloors and warehouses.
José Rizzo Hahn Filho, CEO of Pollux, said: “As part of Accenture, we can offer existing and new clients complete transformation of manufacturing and logistics processes.
“Combining IT innovations with industrial automation can enable powerful new business models, in which, for example, a consumer’s purchase at home immediately triggers a robot’s next move in a factory on the other side of the planet.”
Some 290 Pollux employees will now join Accenture’s Industry X group, which provides intelligence for Accenture’s clients on how to run factories and plants, as well as designing connected products and services.
Nigel Stacey, global lead for Accenture Industry X, said: “Automation and human-machine collaboration is digitally transforming manufacturing and supply-chain operations to be more flexible, resilient, sustainable and safe, and to better meet ever-changing customer demands.
“Tangibly seeing these benefits in practice requires a true integration of information technology and operations technology, which is what Pollux will allow us to offer our manufacturing clients.”
Completion of the acquisition is subject to customary closing conditions. Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
