Ehrhardt Partner Group, or EPG, yesterday said it is expanding its technological network in warehouse automation through a strategic partnership with Locus Robotics Corp.
Boppard-Buchholz, Germany-based EPG has fully integrated Locus’ technology into its warehouse management system (WMS). The company said it can now provide customers with a ready-to-use offering that sustainably accelerates picking processes and enables flexible scaling in warehouse operations.
“With Locus Robotics, we are gaining a strong partner whose technology ideally matches our goal of making automation quickly integrable and practical for everyday warehouse operations,” stated Jens Heinrich, principal strategic product manager at EPG. “Our visitors experience firsthand how flexibly EPG’s WMS controls different robotics solutions and how quickly the systems adapt to changing conditions.”
The Locus fulfillment system is already in use at EPG’s Logistics Solution Center (LSC) in Boppard. With this collaboration, EPG said it is responding to a growing demand for ways to keep pace with dynamic market requirements and increasing order volumes.
Robots help reduce employee workload
Many companies are facing the challenge of stabilizing picking processes while simultaneously reducing the workload for employees. The combination of EPG’s WMS and Locus’ software-driven autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) provides a robust foundation, said the partners.
The AMRs can take over travel-intensive transport routes, relieve employees, and enable structured process control. The WMS coordinates all operations, managing the order backlog and distributing tasks to the robots, which are orchestrated via Locus software.
The AMRs move safely through the warehouse, position themselves at the designated picking stations, and save time by reducing walking distances. This reduces pick times and increases picking performance, said Locus.
Locus and EPG noted that the quality of their partnership shows how well modern robotics can be integrated into existing IT landscapes and how they can contribute to existing operations.
“EPG and Locus share the vision of more efficient, safer, and scalable warehouse logistics,” said Denis Niezgoda, chief commercial officer at Locus Robotics. “Integrating our software-driven fulfillment solution into EPG ONE WMS delivers clear added value for customers and demonstrates how powerful software-supported human–technology processes can be in the warehouse.”
Locus robots join EPG Logistics Solution Center
EPG said the Logistics Solution Center at its headquarters has for years provided a practical environment for demonstrating a wide range of hardware and software components working together.
Visitors to the showroom can now experience in real time how manual and robot-assisted process steps interact – such as in handovers between systems – gaining insights into the control logic of EPG’s WMS.
The company also noted that they can directly compare different technologies. In addition to Locus’ robots and software, EPG shows complementary storage systems from AutoStore and Kardex.
It said this creates a comprehensive picture of how different levels of automation interact, how they can be scaled, and which configurations are suitable for different warehouse profiles. On this basis, companies can make well-founded decisions about entry scenarios or expansion stages, said EPG.