BlueSkye and Geek+ are offering warehouse automation to improve sortation speed, picking efficiency, and throughput. | Source: Geekplus Technology
Geekplus Technology Co. today said it has partnered with BlueSkye Automation to deploy “a fully automated smart warehouse system” The deployment at a Georgia-based third-party logistics provider, or 3PL, includes Geek+’s suite of goods-to-person mobile robots.
“Our integrated solutions are all about making work more efficient and increasing productivity,” stated Armando Gonzalez, president of BlueSkye Automation. “With Geek+, we can help our food and beverage, automotive, manufacturing, pharmaceutical and e-commerce customers leverage the benefits of autonomous mobile robots [AMRs].”
Charlotte, N.C.-based BlueSkye Automation said it provides integrated, cost-effective, and turnkey systems for retailers, wholesalers, manufacturers, and logistics providers. These systems can help clients boost their labor productivity, improve order accuracy, increase worker safety, and make other vital adjustments to their operations, claimed the unit of Weisger Group.
Geek+ systems go to work
The BlueSkye collaboration includes three Geek+ systems alongside other technologies:
- Shelf-to-person: This system uses AMRs to move inventory shelves and pallets to picking stations. It is intended to eliminate the redundant walking of picking workers, improve picking accuracy, and reduce labor intensity. In comparison with manual picking, Geek+ said its system can improve picking efficiency by two to three times.
- Sorting: Geek+ offers both floor-based and multi-layer sortation systems. The company‘s S20 series robots sort small to midsize parcels at floor level. With multi-layer sorting, the robots work on different platforms, improving efficiency and warehouse space usage, it said. In both systems, the movement is orchestrated by a strong algorithm that monitors robot traffic and balances the task of each robot to achieve maximum sorting efficiency.
- Four-way, pallet-to-person shuttles: Geek+ asserted that it integrates storage and picking operations to deliver high density and high throughput. Its robots work together to automate the retrieval, storage, and picking of pallets. This enables users to pick whole cases or individual items directly from pallets, it said.
- Robot arms: These systems from other technology vendors work alongside Geek+ robots, as well as print-and-apply systems and conveyors.
The combination of four types of automation enables the 3PL warehouse to fulfill a range of business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) orders in each picks and case picks, said the partners.
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+ this month won an RBR50 Robotics Innovation Award for updates to its PopPick shelf-to-person system.
BlueSkye provides ongoing support
The initial deployment helped a 3PL specializing in the e-commerce and wholesale fulfillment business keep up with ballooning e-commerce sales and navigate labor shortages. BlueSkye and Geek+ said they updated the customer’s previously manual processes by combining their expertise and systems.
“Working with BlueSkye Automation, we were able to greatly increase this customer’s picking efficiency and storage density,” said Randy Randolph, director of channel partner sales at Geek+. “Partnering with BlueSkye is extremely important, as it allows us to collaborate and bring that kind of game-changing improvement to customers.”
After the installation and go-live of the automated systems, BlueSkye has continued to provide support and service to the end user through its certified team of experts.
The companies are already preparing for future projects together. These include implementations for a large consumer goods producer and an integrated autonomous system for a leading automotive manufacturer.