Autonomous mobile robot provider Tompkins Robotics has announced a strategic partnership with software and robotics company GreyOrange to offer a new ‘zero-walk’ solution designed to eliminate all walking previously required by human pickers in distribution centres and increase order pick rates.
The solution combines Tompkins’ tSort, a modular and flexible sorting solution that travels freely to deliver picked inventory for packing, with GreyOrange’s Ranger goods-to-person system, which brings inventory to warehouse associates at a picking station.
These are integrated through GreyOrange’s GreyMatter, a decision-making engine that powers and connects the robots, and Tompkins Robotics’ WES software, to create a solution that eliminates time-consuming and labour-intensive walking for associates.
As a result, a warehouse pick station operator can reportedly fill hundreds of orders simultaneously and safely from a single picking station.
What’s more, according to GreyOrange, the efficiency driven by the solution allows companies to fulfil 10 times the e-commerce order volumes achieved with conventional automated picking solutions, which require humans to walk large warehouse picking areas to access a broad assortment of SKUs before walking further to a put wall to sort the SKUs to orders for packing.
“This ‘zero-walk’ collaboration takes e-commerce order fulfilment to pick rates never seen before by the retail industry,” said John Seidl, retail consulting partner at GreyOrange.
“With this new joint solution, e-commerce retailers can achieve picks rates exceeding 500 to 1,000 units per hour while also providing a more ergonomic work environment for associates, helping them attract and retain the best people,” he continued.
“It’s really the perfect solution for all retail segments.”
According to Seidl, by adopting this joint solution along with automated packing, retailers can create an end-to-end fully automated solution.
