Warehouse robotics firm Geek+ has won two more contracts with major international contract logistics providers – Radial and CEVA Logistics – to boost its continuing growth.
Radial, a bpost group company, has opened its second fulfilment centre in Indianapolis, USA, and selected Geek+, a global provider of advanced robotics for logistics, to automate its operations on site.
The new 55,839 sqm, state-of-the-art facility will enable Radial to support high-volume order fulfillment for a well-known clothing and apparel brand. Nearly 200 P800 autonomous mobile robots (AMR) will ensure seamless e-commerce fulfillment operations while creating over 100 new jobs for the local community.
"We are thrilled to open our second fulfillment centre in Indianapolis, expanding our North American footprint and increasing our ability to deliver exceptional customer experiences with the deployment of Geek+’s autonomous mobile robots," Esteban Gutierrez, Vice President of Fulfillment Operations at Radial, said.
"What sets us apart is our commitment to constantly push the boundaries of innovation and technology. With the new centre and Geek+’s robots, we're continuing to invest in e-commerce fulfillment, ensuring that retailers partnering with Radial can scale their operations in a cost-effective and efficient manner.”
Automation without human intervention
Geek+’s P800 is a goods-to-person AMR designed for warehouse automation that uses advanced sensing technologies to navigate and move around the warehouse without any human intervention. The P800 is part of the Geek+ Picking System, which closes the gap between the goods and the person, enabling efficient order compilation.
The P800 can transport pallets and bins weighing up to 1000kg and can move at a speed of up to two meters-per-second when fully loaded. Geek+’s goods-to-person AMR utilises AI to optimise picking efficiency and increases storage capability with the least amount of robots possible, ensuring rapid ROI. The implementation of Geek+’s P800 robots and their picking system in Radial’s new fulfillment centre will serve to enhance capability, efficiency and accuracy in warehouse operations.
“We are very pleased to advance and deepen our partnership with Radial. Building on our success together in Europe, Radial and Geek+ can now provide replicable, standardised solutions to Radial’s North American customers with even greater deployment speed,” Rick DeFiesta, EVP of Sales & Solutions, Geek+ America, commented.
Robots with footwear
Meanwhile, CEVA Logistics and Geek+ are teaming up to more efficiently connect consumers with their favorite footwear and apparel from an “iconic brand” through the use of autonomous mobile robots (AMR).
The modernization efforts at CEVA’s Grobbendonk warehouse, located in Belgium’s Antwerp province, clearly demonstrate the benefits of AMRs through delivering a more ergonomic working environment and improving efficiency, all while maintaining accuracy.
The warehouse is now equipped with a fleet of 27 Geek+ P-series picking robots and five workstations. The picking robots feature a 1000-kilogram payload and operate at a maximum speed of 2 m/sec. The goods-to-person solution devised by CEVA and Geek+ provides a high degree of flexibility, quick integration into the existing operations and can handle daily volumes of more than 10,000 outbound items.
The Grobbendonk project represents the latest collaboration between Geek+ and CEVA Logistics. In 2021, Geek+ robots were introduced in certain automated operations at a CEVA warehouse in Australia, one of the largest distribution centers in the southern hemisphere. The Grobbendonk site applies those previous successes to online retail operations in Europe, including the creation of safe working conditions for warehouse staff.
Jean Gateau, Global Key Account Director at Geek+, said: “This project with CEVA once again demonstrates what Geek+ can do for retail operations and warehouse operators. We have already had great success with CEVA in Australia, and it’s fantastic that we can reproduce that in Europe, too.”
Bart Beeks, Global Head of Contract Logistics at CEVA Logistics, said: “At CEVA, we define innovation as the implementation of new ideas with business impact. As a result, we are always looking for the best solutions for our clients, scanning the technology horizon alongside our partners. The Geek+ solution is a great fit for our operation in Grobbendonk, providing a more comfortable working environment for on-site employees, while at the same time handling a far greater order volume.”
Geek+ robots pick 10 billion items in one year
In 2022, Geek+ robots achieved a groundbreaking milestone of 10 billion pieces picked in a single year as they covered great distances and handled huge volumes of stocks thus contributing to more efficient and sustainable logistics operations.
Yong Zheng, Founder and CEO of Geek+, said: “We are very proud of what we have achieved recently. The amount of merchandise that our robots have handled, coupled with the savings in time and energy, demonstrate that mobile robots are a technology for today’s problems and a brighter future.”
Geek+’s picking robots traveled more than 175 million km throughout the year, which is more than the distance from the Earth to the sun. Each day, the number of items managed by Geek+ robots and warehouse management systems reached 750 million.
These combined efforts saved Geek+ customers over 17,000 hours of laborious manual tasks during the year. By switching from manual operations to robotic automation, these Geek+ operators could replace inefficient logistics equipment with modern mobile robots that do not require electric lighting, heating, or air-conditioning. The result was a savings of over 16 million kilowatt hours of energy. This translates into 140,000 tons of carbon emissions: to transport the equivalent amount of coal would require 887 trains.
Software optimisation
The software behind Geek+’s warehouse management systems was optimised to boost robot efficiency by 15%. Geek+ will continue to improve and enhance its technology and expects further gains in sustainability and efficiency in 2023.
In North America, where Geek+ has been present since 2019, the company has deployed more than 4,000 robots in 24 locations. In 2022, Geek+ secured partnerships to expand into Canada and Brazil. It also has expanded its operations by adding a 1,400 sqm experience centre and two new offices in North America, with over 100 employees.
Zheng added: “The United States is one of the most important countries for us, and seeing the enthusiasm for new automation technology is extremely exciting. I’m confident that our team and our technology can push Geek+ toward new heights of excellence.”
