Not only can robots help warehouse operators maximize the productivity of scarce staffers, but they could also provide opportunities for people with disabilities. SVT Robotics Inc., a provider of software to integrate, monitor, and scale automation, has partnered with nonprofit ORC Industries Inc.
La Crosse, Wis.-based ORC Industries empowers neurodiverse workers to succeed in complex manufacturing and logistics environments. The company recently upgraded its systems and wanted to improve its productivity while staying focused on its core mission.
“We don’t have the technical prowess in-house to do what SVT can do,” acknowledged Scott Iverson, president and CEO of ORC Industries. “With my background in the computer science world, I understood the value of working with somebody that was already able to do this kind of stuff and not reinvent the wheel.”
How did ORC Industries find SVT Robotics?
“It was luck, actually,” Iverson told Automated Warehouse. “I was at a conference and walked by SVT as it did a demo of its system and integrations. Speaking of luck, just yesterday, a customer found us through ChatGPT. Somebody from Ireland was looking for Midwest logistics.”
ORC Industries chose Chuck AMRs
“Our mission is working with people with disabilities, and we do a lot of cut and sew projects for the military,” explained Iverson. “We stepped back and said, ‘What else can we do and still be competitive?’ and that was warehousing.”
with a Chuck AMR from Ocado.
Source: SVT Robotics
ORC Industries needed 99.9% accuracy and chose Chuck autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) from 6 River Systems, which Ocado acquired in 2023.
“I knew as soon as I saw what Chuck was doing, but 6 River didn’t feel it was a good fit at first,” Iverson recalled. “I’m glad they stepped off and then came back and said, ‘You know what? This is going to work.’”
The companies simplified the picking processes with colors to indicate a correct or incorrect product for people with severe cognitive disabilities, he said.
“When you’re picking the product and you scan the product, it’s either going to turn red or green. It’s that simple, right?” said Iverson. “It almost feels like a game. You’re guaranteed that you’re going to get the product in the right place.”
“We knew we had a solution that was going to provide opportunities to people that no other warehouse was going to be able to do,” he said. “But we needed someone to integrate the robots and software.”
SVT Robotics supports the automation journey
SVT Robotics often needs to spend time and effort identifying customer pain points, noted Jim Hodson, co-founder and senior vice president of customer operations at the Norfolk, Va.-based company.
“Some customers that are just starting out in their automation journeys don’t realize what they’re getting into,” he said. “SVT makes it a lot easier to get the integration done and to get everything working, but understanding the problem you’re trying to solve is still pretty hard.”
“Scott and his team knew what they where trying to do,” noted Hodson. “It’s appealing for people who work at SVT to work on a project like this, where our product is going to help ORC provide good, high-paying jobs to people with disabilities and still compete in this marketplace.”
SVT Robotics integrated its SOFTBOT platform with the Chuck AMRs and an existing warehouse management system (WMS). The ability to start from scratch as a startup made deployment easier for ORC, said Iverson.
“We met with Ocado, and it quickly became clear that we needed a way to get the data out of our WMS — which was the wrong one to start with, and SVT also helped us out with that,” he said.
ORC’s ability to accept some risk made it easier to pivot to a new WMS, said Hodson. “You can choose a good technology like Chuck, and if you find out that there’s some other connected technology that you need to change, it’s not the end of the world,” he said.
SOFTBOT provides visibility as nonprofit plans to scale
The AMRs and SOFTBOT helped ORC Industries increase productivity and scale in a 60,000 sq. ft. (5,574 sq. m) space, said Iverson.
“We’ve been able to locate five customers and manage over 2,000 SKUs. We have plans for the same program in a 500,000 sq. ft. [46,451.5 sq. m] facility in Brownsville, Texas,” he added. “It’s a model you can drop anywhere. Folks love how fast we can train somebody.”
“SVT provides us with bridge capability, where the Chucks can provide enough help for people be successful,” Iverson said. “We need them to be individuals on the floor being successful on their own. But that bridge allows us to see if somebody is struggling.”
“It’s almost like it was built for us, and we have very happy customers,” Iverson added. “If other companies can do something similar, it would make a significant employment change for people throughout the country.”
“We did not have to do anything that was really out of the ordinary for us,” said Hodson. “Chuck is very reliable, as is SOFTBOT. But there’s also the network infrastructure and the Wi-Fi. There’s all kinds of places where things can go wrong, and having as much visibility as possible, which our platform provides, helps ORC make sure everything is up and running.”