Toll Group has deployed sortation robots South Korean facility. | Source: Geek+
Mobile robot deployments are growing worldwide. Geekplus Technology Co. this week announced the deployment of its PopPick shelf-to-person system for Med24.dk in Denmark. Beijing-based Geek+ recently also announced a collaboration with Toll Group to launch automated sortation in a warehouse in South Korea.
“With the rise of e-commerce, Med24.dk had been struggling with huge sales growth coupled with fast delivery demands from customers in Denmark, Norway, [and] Sweden searching for pharmacy, health, and beauty products,” stated Blond Shkodrani, channel partner manager for the Nordics at Geek+.
“Peak-season events had also caused considerable strain to their operations,” he said. “Due to their overwhelming success, Med24.dk needed a modular, automated order-fulfillment solution for fast, efficient order fulfillment.”
System Teknik helps deploy shelf-to-person system
Geek+ partnered with Danish integrator System Teknik A/S on its first PopPick deployment in Scandinavia, which included three PopPick stations and 30 shelf-to-person robots. The company said its modular system can handle goods of all sizes, reduce the need to invest in fixed infrastructure, and provide flexible order fulfillment.
“Due to Med24.dk’s growth, we are thrilled to be able to deliver a tailor-made, automated solution that matches their needs,” said Morten Kirch, chief sales officer at System Teknik.
The PopPick workstations use two retrieval arms and four presentation locations to present pickers with multiple, moveable 78-tote racks at one time, explained Geek+. This resulted in “an industry-leading throughput of 450 totes per hour,” it claimed.
“We are very pleased to invest in flooring robots from Geek+,” said Med24.dk CEO Nils Træholt. “We believe that this new and innovative technology can help us realize our growth ambitions, while maintaining good delivery times for the benefit of our customers.”
System Teknik partnered on the Med24.dk robot deployment. Source: Geek+
Toll Group rolls out its first Geek+ robots
Geek+ said its partnership with Toll Group is its first with the global logistics provider, which is part of Japan Post. Toll Group has 16,000 employees and supports more than 20,000 customers worldwide with 500 sites in 27 countries.
“The investment reflects Toll’s commitment to innovation and is part of our broader strategy to grow in key Asian markets by providing our customers with the very latest in warehouse automation technology,” remarked Dongseop Yoon, senior business development executive at Toll Group. “As our business grows, Geek+’s sorting system has enabled us to manage increasing volumes quickly and efficiently.”
Geek+ offers both floor-based and multi-layer sorting systems. Its floor-based offering uses S20 series mobile robots to sort small or medium-sized parcels at the floor level. It monitors robot traffic and balances the task of each robot to achieve maximum sorting efficiency, said the company.
The multi-layer system involves robots working on different-level platforms. Geek+ said it can optimize warehouse space while still improving efficiency. All packing, sorting, and loading areas are integrated, making the entire outbound process run smoother, it asserted.
Toll Group’s newest site in Baeksa, South Korea, can store up to 300,000 inventory items and spans an area equivalent to four football fields. The company is using Geek+’s system to support e-commerce, retail, and omnichannel fulfillment for its customers.
Since implementing the sorting system, Toll Group has reported a 70% increase in productivity and sorting efficiency. This improvement has led to cost savings associated with time and labor, enabling Toll Group to deliver orders faster. It also provides real-time tracking and traceability for enhanced customer satisfaction.
“We are thrilled to deliver a competitive edge to Toll through the seamless integration of robotic automation into their supply chain,” said Stephen Kim, sales director of Geekplus Korea. “This is the first Geekplus partnership with Toll Group, and we will continue to explore future opportunities jointly. We anticipate empowering Toll to expand the applications of mobile order-fulfillment robots and replicate the success of this project in the future.”
See RBR50 award winner at the Robotics Summit & Expo
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. It has offices in the U.S., Germany, the U.K., Japan, South Korea, China, and Singapore.
The company’s upgrades to PopPick won a 2024 RBR50 Robotics Innovation Award for technology. Geek+ noted that this its third such award.
“We’ve seen high demand for PopPick in the retail and e-commerce space due to the need for increased throughput and efficiency, said Lit Fung, managing director at Geek+. “That high demand has resulted in multiple projects around the globe, including large deployments with UPS Supply Chain Solutions in the United States. The [RBR50] recognition of our shelf-to-person PopPick advancements is a welcome acknowledgement that we’re on the right track.”[
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