Hy-Tek and Geek+ are working on several projects to grow their partnership. | Source: Geek+
Geekplus Technology Co. and Hy-Tek LLC announced that they have installed a shelf-to-person system for a rural lifestyle retailer with stores in 49 states. The companies said this deployment builds on their existing partnership. By deploying the Geek+ goods-to-person system, the retailer has compressed its entire e-commerce storage and picking operation by 45%, freeing up space for future expansion, they said.
“We are excited to be expanding our partnership with Geek+, a major innovator for the goods-to-person space,” stated Donnie Johnson, president of Hy-Tek Intralogistics. “By leveraging their shelf-to-person solution, we were able to transform the operations of one of our key customers, giving them more flexibility and agility for their supply chain operations.”
“We look forward to all of the projects to come and being able to allow our customers to experience Geekplus’ technology in our cutting-edge Innovation Lab,” he added.
With 60 years of experience, Hy-Tek Intralogistics said it integrates “traditional material handling, automation, robotics, and full-stack software to solve complex product and information flow inefficiencies.” The Columbus, Ohio-based company recently announced logistics automation partnerships with K.Hartwall and CASI.
Inside Geek+’s goods-to-person system
“We’re proud to further develop our partnership with Hy-Tek Intralogistics, empowering their customers with the most comprehensive array of goods-to-person mobile order-fulfillment solutions on the market,” said Randy Randolph, vice president of channels and partnerships at Geek+. “Hy-Tek and Geek+ are really presenting a complete package to customers, allowing them to expand into our different solutions as their business continues to grow.”
Founded in 2015, Geek+ develops robots for order fulfillment and claimed that more than 1,000 customers use its systems to increase supply chain flexibility, reliability, and efficiency. The Beijing-based company has offices in the U.S., Germany, the U.K., Japan, South Korea, China, and Singapore.
Geek+ said its goods-to-person (G2P) system offers high flexibility, easy deployment, and high throughput with a short implementation period. Customers don’t need to add extra infrastructure for the robots, and they can handle goods of all sizes, the company asserted.
The system works by using Geek+ robots to carry shelves to picking stations. This eliminates the need for workers to walk back and forth across the facility to retrieve items., it said.
Hy-Tek and Geek+ continue scaling fleets
Hy-Tek Intralogistics and Geek+ said they are also working on other opportunities. Hy-Tek said it is demonstrating Geek+ order-fulfillment robots at its 20,000-sq.-ft. (1,858-sq.-m) Northern Kentucky innovation lab to give customers a feel for the systems before they invest in automation.
Earlier this year, Geek+ deployed its self-to-person system in Alpen’s new 355,209-sq.-ft. (33,000-sq.-m) e-commerce warehouses in western Japan. Alpen manufactures and sells sports products and is based in Nagoya, Japan.
Alpen has already been using 56 flagship Geek+ G2P robots in its eastern Japan e-commerce center since 2018. As its business grew, the company scaled up to 216 units in the 247,570-sq.-ft. (23,000-sq.-m) facility.
With the robots, Alpen said it has quadrupled fulfillment efficiency and doubled storage capacity. At the same time, the company said it has been able to shorten delivery lead times.