As we have moved to virtual vendor briefings, I have increasingly been excerpting short segments (with permission from vendors), as part of my Analyst Cam series.
Guy Courtin, Head of Global Alliances at 6 River Systems (acquired by Shopify but run as an independent unit) gave me a crisp presentation on "Chuck" - their collaborative mobile robot and the machine learning and other software which makes up their warehouse automation/fulfillment offering. During the pandemic, we have all seen how ecommerce has skyrocketed. Fulfilling that massive volume has accelerated the automation of warehouses and the need for much more efficient last mile deliveries.
He does a nice job explaining the agility of the solution. You can start in small locations, closer to customers, without needing to invest much in traditional conveyors or large warehouse infrastructure. Chuck can be easily be reconfigured for up to 6 levels of inventory and payloads up to 200 pounds. The bot minimizes physical worker walking and lifting effort across put-away, picking, counting, replenishment and sorting tasks. The UX is intuitive - they promise "your associates will be picking efficiently and accurately in 15 minutes". You can scale the solution rapidly up or down - especially with incremental, seasonal units 6 River can provision.
He says people get enamored with the bot, but the software and the data/insights the solution generates are even more important. Final bonus - with COVID protocols, Chuck also helps with safe distancing of employees.
