NextShift Robotics announced today that its autonomous robot workflow will be featured in the newly expanded Innovation Lab of Kenco Logistics, North America’s leading third-party logistics provider. NextShift’s fundamentally different piece picking workflow, based on its advanced autonomous mobile robot technology, will be featured in Kenco’s expanded 10,000 square foot physical warehouse space. The Innovation Lab, launched in 2015, provides a rigorous test facility where Kenco’s team of innovation specialists assess new value-added technologies. By exercising technologies of many types within a dedicated real-world warehouse environment, Kenco can provide accurate visibility into the solutions and reduce implementation times for customers.
As one of the innovative technologies on display, NextShift has deployed a fully functional autonomous mobile robotic piece picking workflow. Robots place empty totes in the pick area, workers pick order lines to the totes, and robots move the totes between pick locations and off to packing stations. Kenco customers and partners can see firsthand the fundamental advantage in the NextShift workflow, which achieves optimal efficiency through a unique collaboration between independent workers, orders and robots.
The scale of the Innovation Lab allows many technologies to be tested simultaneously by technology experts and supply chain engineers to deliver full value insight on a breadth of technologies and how well they integrate with other warehouse environments to produce business benefits.
“In the logistics industry, experience is the new differentiator. Our expanded Kenco Innovation Lab lets us accelerate our industry experience and insight,” said Kristi Montgomery, Vice President of Innovation at Kenco. “The NextShift robotic solution is an example of an innovative advanced technology that can create major value for customers when coupled with Kenco’s industry expertise.”
“We look forward to supporting Kenco as they help their customers evaluate new technologies,” said Mary Ellen Sparrow, CEO NextShift. “Kenco provides more than a showcase for our technology, it is a powerful opportunity to prove the real-world benefits of the NextShift solution to supply chain leaders that are hungry for innovation.”
