No Warehouse Left Behind

Re-brands are sensitive and critical operations and the warehouse automation sector is no exception. David Priestman attended the launch of Movu Robotics in Belgium, late September.
“Automate, in a easy way, the distribution centres of our customers. Democratise automation.” This is the mission statement espoused by Jos de Vuyst, CEO of stow Group, at the launch of Movu Robotics, formerly known as stow Robotics. With a large existing client base for its racking, storage, silo and rack clad products stow Group is well-positioned to sell and integrate robotics and automation technology. It can scale-up fast.

The company wants to help these facilities transition to automated operations, thereby not leaving any warehouse behind in the darkening warehouses of the future. “Plug and play, dense, low-energy usage systems with fast deployment,” is the offering, according to de Vuyst. Automation provides a productivity boost and is scalable, with no need for new warehouse infrastructure.

The rationale for a new brand name – Movu – is because the ‘stow’ name is perhaps too associated with rack and storage – traditional materials handling. Disconnecting from this and switching to a ‘catchy’ new brand fits the mission statement. Employing more than 300 employees by the end of this year across Europe and the US, Movu Robotics expects order intake of more than €300 million in 2023.

The Movu Robotics portfolio comprises automated storage, picking and transport for pallets, bins and items, offering an easy buying journey, competitive pricing, cost savings, quick delivery, high density storage and space optimisation. The portfolio allows end customers and integrators globally to benefit from a seamless and user-friendly warehouse automation ecosystem.

The portfolio includes:
• ‘Movu atlas’ – Pallet shuttle for multiple deep storage
• ‘Movu ifollow’ – slimline AMR for collaborative picking or transport of pallets, made near Paris. A unique selling point of ifollow is that it works in deep freeze areas of a warehouse.
• ‘Movu escala’ – Robotised 3D storage and fulfilment system without lifts
• ‘Movu eligo’ – Integrated picking robot arm
All Movu systems are controlled and managed via their own warehouse execution software (WES).

The impressive, iconic headquarters in Lokeren, situated between Antwerp and Ghent, combines modern offices with manufacturing operations for atlas and escala robots (500 per week) under a single roof. There is also an experience centre – one of the biggest in Europe – where the latest technologies are showcased live to customers and partners. One factor in choosing its location is the desire to partner with local Universities to recruit young engineers.

I asked de Vuyst to describe the journey taken by stow Group leading to the launch of Movu Robotics:
“Since 1987 stow Group has grown rapidly into a €1 billion global company that today ranks among the top two racking manufacturers in the world. Originally a family-owned company, then owned by Kardex for a decade, a management buyout in 2013 was backed by private equity funding. The racking business of stow stands out in the sector by having a production footprint spanning Europe with 10 racking factories and a network of 20 sales companies giving direct access to, and close contact with, the customer. Our racking solutions are customised around standard products, enabling us to have highly automated factories. This results in stow being a cost leader as well as fast growing and very profitable.

“stow Robotics was born the day we started writing Warehouse Control Software (WCS). We are now developing our own WES suite and control software on the machines, which we build ourselves. We will not develop our own WMS as it is too complex. We are evolving into a supplier that can provide an automated pallet warehouse, from a small scale operation up to large projects. The investment climate is softening a bit, big investment decisions are taking a bit longer, due to high interest rates.”

Will we see ‘Dark Warehouses’ (without workers)?

“I’m a big fan in principle. The ideal is racks and robotics, but you must go high. Labour is disruptive, people often hate working in warehouses. Forklift usage is falling, as will conveyor coverage and manual picking. We have the products to achieve a dark warehouse via four or five main technologies.”

How is Movu Robotics positioned in the market?

“We expect double-digit growth. The global material handling equipment market size is forecasted to reach $350 billion by 2030, driven by AS/RS systems and robotics. By our Movu Robotics positioning and portfolio we are very confident of becoming an essential player in this market. Movu Robotics will follow the same development path as stow Racking, so we will build a network of sales companies in the main territories allowing us both channels to the market: direct and through integrators – not just to new customers, like competitors do.

“Where many companies are built around one automation product, we have an integrated ecosystem of scalable, automated warehouse solutions for pallets and bins. That’s quite rare, and the portfolio will continue to grow. We will take a deep dive into some vertical markets and develop specific automation products for particular sectors. One trend is third party logistics operators beginning to automate. We’re strong in cold stores, pharmaceuticals and food logistics.

“We want to offer the possibility of automation to SMEs that have a few thousand pallet locations. While bigger projects are generally more complex, a straight forward pallet project of, for example, 80,000 pallet locations requiring 60 shuttles has a low complexity and fits our profile. If, however, that same warehouse had sorters, a mix of complex software and machines we don’t have in our portfolio, then we’d defer to a systems integrator.” Movu does not offer robots-as-a-service as the company offers a broad range or solution.

Supermarket of Materials Handling

How do the business units in stow Group benefit from each other?

“stow Racking and Movu Robotics together are a unique one-stop-shop with proven interfaces that combines best of racking and robotics. Sales is another of the most important synergies between stow Racking and Movu Robotics, with many leads for automation coming via the racking side, which has 10,000 customers across Europe and US. Many of these customers take the decision at some point to automate their operations. stow Racking has more than 200 sales people globally, which also bring leads for robotics and automation products.

“Movu Robotics benefits from having the strength of stow Group behind it, with all of its management experience and expertise. Another important factor is the backing of Blackstone, a private equity company with a vast experience in logistic real estate, who are very supportive. Also, stow Racking activity successfully generates cash, fuelling growth in Movu Robotics without the need for continual equity rounds.”

How does the company’s culture drive development?

“While stow Group has become a large organisation, with a well organised corporate structure, it still has the dynamics of an SME company. We have direct contact with our people through a relatively flat management structure, which gives an agility and dynamism that is popular with our customers. This allows us to attract talent to support our know-how in engineering, software and other departments. Joining Movu Robotics is more akin to working in a start-up than a corporate environment. While enjoying an agile environment, staff also gain the support of being in a solid company.”

Where do you see the stow Group and Movu Robotics in five years?

“stow Group will continue to grow the racking business, we will definitely not lose interest in the racking business. Racking is an essential and profitable part of the Group, so it is important that it continues to grow. Having established stow as a racking market leader in Europe, with approx. 30% market share, we started to build the US business over the past 18 months, where there is huge potential. We have created a sales office in Chicago and have just taken the decision to build our first racking plant in the US – the location is not yet fixed. With strong sales in this market, it no longer makes practical sense to ship containers of racking across the Atlantic. We’re not excluding the Asian market later on in the future, just not now.

“Of course, we will continue to grow Movu Robotics. While entering the market with systems that are easier, standardised, scalable, and flexible, in the next five years we will be tackling more complicated projects. I think in five years’ time, Movu Robotics’ activity will be equivalent to, or even exceed, that of stow Racking, creating two very strong legs for the stow Group.”

What about further acquisitions and new products?

“Coming from a manufacturing background, doing things ourselves is in our DNA. We will develop our own technologies as much as possible, only seeking partnerships when we don’t have the time to develop them ourselves. For example, it makes no sense to start developing vision technology on our own. In such cases we will partner with an appropriate supplier or licence it in. AMRs with forks or for bins and gripping technology are interesting. The sales side is different because we want to grow as fast as possible and whilst we are developing our own sales network are open to work together if we find a good partners for specific regions.”

Gripping Innovation for Robotic Piece Picking

Movu Robotics, supplier for designing, developing, and implementing innovative and easier warehouse automation solutions, announces the launch of the innovative Movu eligo robot picking arm.

A fully integrated robotic bin picking solution, developed in close collaboration with Righthand Robotics, Movu eligo can automatically piece-pick from a single-SKU source bin and place the individual items into multiple mixed-SKU destination bins. Developed to close the gap between manual and fully automatic pick operation, Movu eligo provides warehouse operators with a huge step forward in order picking. It also provides a solution for labour shortage issues, with a robot that can work through inconvenient work hours at reduced cost but with higher pick accuracy and quality. Other key benefits include:

• Reliable and effective robotic picking of up to 600 items per hour at any time;
• Enabling the picking and placing of a wide variety of SKUs;
• Providing a unique plug and play sub-system that is integrated with the Movu escala bin shuttle, resulting in an innovative end-to-end automated solution from storage to picking;
• Easy way to automatically pick SKUs that are suited for robotic picking, store the bins and then finish the order with a manual pick when the time is convenient
• Reduced cost per pick, resulting in a strong Return on Investment (ROI).

Provided with seamless integration as a pick station option for the Movu escala bin shuttle, the Movu eligo combines advanced software with intelligent grippers and machine vision to ensure reliable throughput. Gently grasping an item from a bin retrieved from the escala while picking, the robot then places the item in a delivery bin. Providing feedback on grasp success, the intelligent grippers ensure an accuracy of 100%. In addition to a low gripping failure rate the Movu eligo reduces the number of manual ‘touches’ required for order fulfilment or replenishment and can reach a pick success rate greater than 99%.

Able to achieve 600 picks per hour, depending on the specific implementation, the robot can pick goods up to 2 kg and with dimensions of 1 cm minimum to a maximum of 30 cm. Being completely product agnostic gives it the flexibility to handle changing product mixes.

The robot arm stands 2.2 metres high and has an operating radius of 1.3 metres. A safety interface makes robotic work cells safe when human interaction is required.

Driven by software, the system leverages machine learning to continuously improve picking. Movu eligo runs on a plug-and-play Application Programming Interface (API) which integrates directly with the Movu escala bin storage solution. This user-friendly complete solution allows the seamless integration of robotic and manual picking operation for maximum efficiency. Movu escala interacts with overlying Warehouse Management Software (WMS), Warehouse Control Software (WCS) and Warehouse Execution Software (WES) as needed to mission the piece picking operations. By planning tasks for the robot such as robot arm movements around the source and destination bin exchange phases, the software optimises pick cycle times to maximise throughput.

Real-time operational data is presented to staff stationed away from the active systems to resolve exceptions quickly and efficiently. Performance dashboards enable warehouse operations to visualise current and historical data. Available with full 24/7 support, the Movu eligo allows customers, particularly those involved in pharmaceuticals, apparel, e-commerce, manufacturing and kitting, to realise the benefits of reliable robotic piece-picking without worrying about integrating all the elements.

Stefan Pieters, CEO of Movu Robotics, commented: “Movu eligo is the next level for Movu Robotics to offer innovative and easier Automation solutions to our customer. It is a data-driven, intelligent piece picking platform unlike any other. Automating the conventionally manual operation or piece picking results in a lower cost per pick, leading to a strong return on investment. Integrated seamlessly as a work station for the Movu escala bin storage system, eligo offers a flexible and scalable automation solution for predictable and accurate order fulfilment, adding value for warehouses pursuing improvements in efficiency, productivity and customer service levels.”

Gripping Innovation Transforms Robotic Piece Picking

Movu Robotics, one of the leader suppliers for designing, developing, and implementing innovative and easier warehouse automation solutions, announces the launch of the innovative Movu eligo robot picking arm

A fully integrated robotic bin picking solution developed in close collaboration with Righthand Robotics, Movu eligo can automatically piece pick from a single SKU source bin and place the
individual items into multiple mixed SKU destination bins. Developed to close the gap between manual and fully automatic pick operation, Movu eligo provides warehouse operators with a huge step forward in order picking. It also provides a solution for labour shortage issues with a robot that can work through inconvenient work hours at educed cost but with higher pick accuracy and quality.

Provided with seamless integration as a pick station option for the Movu escala bin shuttle, the Movu eligo combines advanced software with intelligent grippers and machine vision to ensure reliable throughput. Gently grasping an item from a from a bin retrieved from the escala while picking, the robot then places the item in a delivery bin. Providing feedback on grasp success, the intelligent grippers ensure an accuracy of 100%. In addition to a low gripping failure rate the Movu eligo reduces the number of manual ‘touches’ required for order fulfilment or replenishment and can reach a pick success rate greater than 99%.

Able to achieve 600 picks per hour, depending on the specific implementation, the robot can pick goods up to 2kg and with dimensions of 1cm minimum to a maximum of 30cm. Being completely product agnostic gives it the flexibility to handle changing product mixes. The robot arm stands 2.2 metres high and has an operating radius of 1.3 metres. A safety interface makes robotic work cells safe when human interaction is required.

Driven by software, the system leverages machine learning to continuously improve picking. Movu eligo runs on a plug-and-play Application Programming Interface (API) which integrates directly with the Movu escala bin storage solution. This user-friendly complete solution allows the seamless integration of robotic and manual picking operation for maximum efficiency. Movu escala interacts with overlying Warehouse Management Software, Warehouse Control Software and Warehouse Execution Software as needed to mission the piece picking operations. By planning tasks for the robot such as arm movements around the source and destination bin exchange phases, the software optimises pick cycle times to maximise throughput.

Real-time operational data is presented to staff stationed away from the active systems to resolve exceptions quickly and efficiently. Performance dashboards enable warehouse operations to visualise current and historical data.

Available with full 24/7 support, the Movu eligo allows customers, particularly those involved in pharmaceuticals, apparel, e-commerce, manufacturing and kitting, to realise the benefits of reliable  robotic piece-picking without worrying about integrating all the elements.

Stefan Pieters, CEO of Movu Robotics, commented: “Movu eligo is the next level for Movu Robotics to offer innovative and easier Automation solutions to our customer. It is a data-driven, intelligent piece-picking platform unlike any other. Automating the conventionally manual operation or piece picking operation results in a lower cost per pick, leading to a strong return on investment. Integrated seamlessly as a as a work station for the Movu escala bin storage system, eligo offers a flexible and scalable automation solution for predictable and accurate order fulfilment, adding value for warehouses pursuing improvements in efficiency, productivity, and customer service levels.”

Movu Robotics Opens HQ and Experience Centre

Movu Robotics, supplier for designing, developing, and implementing innovative and easier warehouse automation solutions, announces the opening of its new headquarters located in Lokeren, in the East Flanders province of Belgium.

Under a single roof, the facility houses engineering, R&D and production departments. It also features a state of the art of Experience Centre – one of the biggest in Europe where Movu Robotics’ latest technologies can be demonstrated live in operation to customers and partners. Logistics Business was given a tour on Monday.

As an independent business unit within the stow Group with different requirements to the stow Racking brand, Movu Robotics requires its own premises to produce its growing range of increasingly popular shuttles and robots. Movu’s new headquarters provides the room to support the continued and future significant growth in the robotics and automation business unit.

Lokeren is an ideal location: not too far from stow Group’s headquarters and conveniently situated between Ghent and Antwerp, which gives good access to a pool of skills required by the business, which is important given the number of people Movu will continue to hire going forward. The building itself combines a rare set of characteristics: it has large office area, covering approximately 5000 square metres, combined with a 10,000 square metre surface for logistics and manufacturing operations.

In addition, the building has an area of approximately 2500 square metres where it has a high ceiling, which provides the ideal space for the Experience Centre. which provides the ideal space for the Experience Centre. At 100m long, 25 metres wide and 20m high the Experience Centre is bigger than many actual warehouses, providing the ideal venue for Movu Robotics to present its product portfolio technologies: Movu atlas pallet shuttles, Movu escala bin shuttles, Movu ifollow AMRs and the new picking arm robot Movu eligo are all showcased in action, in a real life warehouse setting.

Visitors to the Experience Centre can see a 20m high Movu atlas pallet shuttle rack with lifts, has shuttles transporting pallets operating inside. There are Movu ifollow AMRs picking up pallets from
the racks and transporting them to different locations. AMRs can also be seen supporting picking from racking. There is a huge Movu escala bin shuttle warehouse containing 1000 bins with shuttles
operating inside. The Movu escala also demonstrates the Movu eligo picking robot application as well as conventional pick stations. A special attention is also devoted to the Movu software. Visitors can get deep insights into the self developed Movu Warehouse Execution System that is formed by three pillars: Movu ops for managing all operations, Movu tower for checking the available resources and selecting the most suitable shuttle or AMR and Movu pilot that ensures the execution of the order at the level of the individual shuttle or AMRs.

The Experience Centre has integrated everything possible into the demonstration rack, including a tunnel under the rack, a stairway around the vertical lift, a mezzanine with a picking area. There are also many software screens around the centre demonstrating the controlling software and how visibility of what is going on in a warehouse can be provided from a distance.

The expansive footprint of the Experience Centre provides room for three versions of every Movu Robotics system in its product portfolio o ne providing a permanent demonstration set up to be
available anytime ; a second set up for R&D purposes, which allows Movu to test new generations of products, or to test customer products for specific set ups; a third installation is for testing all products after assembly, before shipping to the end customer site.

In addition to customer visits there will be industry groups visits and workshops in the Experience Centre, which will act as a live and dynamic demonstration of what is possible now and, through
examining trends and market direction, how the needs of tomorrow can be answered.

Stefan Pieters, CEO of Movu Robotics, commented: “The new Movu Robotics headquarters in Lokeren is a centre of excellence, bringing together sales, R&D, manufacturing and one of Europe’s largest materials handling Experience Centres to provide a concentration of knowledge and expertise around robotics and automation. Creating a close connection between research, production and customer visits to the Experience Centre enhances Movu’s interaction with customers and provides the company with rapid market feedback to fuel our continued innovation and growth path.”

stow Announces New Robotics Brand: Movu

stow Group, a globally recognized leader in the design, manufacturing, and implementation of advanced storage solutions and automated warehouse systems, announces the launch of the new ‘Movu Robotics’ brand, developed to strengthen its Robotics business unit and to meet increasing customer demand for Automation and Robotics solutions. The new brand replaces the name ‘stow Robotics’ as of now.

Movu Robotics is a new and dynamic warehouse automation brand that stands out by bringing easier logistics automation solutions to the world’s warehouses and ensuring that, when it comes to opportunities for automation, no warehouse is left behind. Movu is based in new headquarters located in Lokeren, near Antwerp in Belgium that, under a single roof, includes engineering, R&D, production, and a state of the art Experience Centre where the latest technologies can be demonstrated live in operation to customers and partners.

stow Group is a highly successful company with 40 years’ experience as a supplier of logistics and materials handling solutions , and a product DNA based on racking. As customer and market demand for automated solutions increase s driven by labour shortages, the need to increase profitability, efficiency, flexibility, accuracy as well as shortening lead times stow has been delivering innovative solutions to meet these challenges.

stow Robotics was e stablished in 2021 a s part of the stow Group and has developed a comprehensive and competitive portfolio of automation and robotics solutions for pallets, bins and items that provides a more energy efficient and practical alternative to stacker crane bins and items that provides a more energy efficient and practical alternative to stacker crane based solutions-based solutions. This comprises Movu atlas, a leading pallet shuttle system; Movu escala, an innovative ramp shuttle solution for totes/bins; Movu ifollow, a collaborative Autonomous Mobile Robot (AMR) system for pallets and additional load carriers: and the new picking robot Movu eligo.

Despite all their advantages, automated technologies and robotics are perceived by many customers as being complex, expensive, resource intensive with long lead time for installation. Movu Robotics addresses this issue by bringing easier automation to the world’s warehouses.

Movu – No warehouse left behind

For projects in the main vertical markets, especially in e-commerce, FMCG and cold storage in Europe and North America, Movu Robotics will deliver simple, standardised plug and play solutions that require less engineering and grant short lead times for execution, allowing customers to keep their operations running.

Jos de Vuyst, CEO of stow Group told Logistics Business: “Faced with challenges of labour shortages, cost increases, storage density, growing volumes and improving accuracy, companies are turning to robotics and automation for solutions. Movu Robotics offers an offers an integrated ecosystem of standardised and scalable automation technology that speeds roll out and reduces risk for all for all kinds of customers. We want to democratise materials handling through bringing the opportunities of easier automation and robotics to warehouses that would otherwise find them hard to attain. Expecting the global material handling equipment market to reach USD 350 billion and understanding the key driver AS/RS systems and Robotics systems for this, we are optimistic that Movu Robotics will become an essential player.”

Stefan Pieters, CEO of Movu Robotics, commented: “Smart enough to make any operation feel simple and easy, Movu robots help to take a load off the customers’ minds as well as their shelves. Our solutions are designed to make warehouse automation and robotics not only more accessible, but also more scalable. They will enable any warehouse around the world – big or small, regular or awkwardly shaped – to be upgraded and become more productive, more efficient and more successful. This is the philosophy behind our brand claim: ‘’Movu – No warehouse left behind’.”

Group structure

stow Group now has two independent brands under its roof: stow Racking and Movu Robotics. While both of these brands retain their independence, they strongly impact each other in terms of expertise, know how, technology and global resources. All products, business activities and operations of stow Group in the field of Robotics and Automation, including R&D, production, sales and finance, will be grouped as an independent and standalone business unit under the Movu Robotics brand in the new headquarters in Lokeren. This includes the operations of the ifollow business, which is now the brand name of AMRs offered by Movu.

The management team will be led by Jos de Vuyst, CEO of stow Group and Stefan Pieters, CEO of Movu Robotics. Both stow Group and Movu Robotics are driven by a strong a strong team of board members, comprising experience from the Logistics Industry and from other sectors.

Movu Robotics technologies

Unlike many automation companies that have a single product, the new Movu Robotics brand includes a range of key technologies: Movu atlas pallet shuttles, Movu escala bin shuttles and Movu ifollow AMRs for pallets and roll cages that work either standalone or as collaborative robots. Joining these is the new Movu eligo picking robot, which is offered as a picking workstation for escala.

Movu Robotics provides solutions for easier automation that can make better use of every corner of the warehouse – irrespective of the customers’ storage space or what they are storing, conveying, picking or handling. Customers gain the key advantage of seamless integrated racking and robotics solutions – for example, the Movu atlas shuttle system working with Movu ifollow mobile robots, or Movu eligo acting as a workstation for Movu escala. A key benefit is that a customer talks to a single face representing a single partner, providing efficient project management and reliable lead times. They will also receive efficient project commissioning for a safe and resilient supply chain that assists in delivering high service levels to their customers.

Autonomous sub–systems for minimal TCO

Technologies in the Movu Robotics product portfolio can be integrated into a single autonomous sub-system as a solution, with components including racking, shuttles or AMRs, software, wifi and commissioning. This enables easy installation, adaptability to new business needs through simple integration of new applications and a minimal Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) approach. This makes upgrading warehouses easier, not only for existing users of logistics automation who want to upgrade their systems with plug and play robotics and automation, but also those yet to adopt automation but who urgently want to take the first step.

Standardisation and simplification, which is an essential part of Movu Robotics, results in shorter lead times and lower engineering costs, producing higher profitability. To maximise flexibility, Movu Robotics systems are modular in design, acting as a set of building blocks to minimise complexity and cost of upgrading. This makes the systems highly scalable – installations can start small and then expand or, if needed, they can downsize just as easily. Modularity also enables a fast roll out for projects.

For not leaving any warehouse warehouse behind, Movu Robotics will target the market with a dual strategy: providing end users with a direct channel, for which Movu relies on a network of sales offices in main territories. Its portfolio of simple, standardised, scalable, and flexible systems provide opportunities for SMEs with as few as 5000 pallet locations to automate, to address challenges such as labour shortages and cost efficiency -– a huge growth area. The other part of this strategy is the indirect channel where Movu can supply a fully functional storage sub-system from its portfolio to a systems integrator for integration into a complete project. All of this is supported by a global network in customer service and stow’s 40 years’ industry experience.

Movu Robotics is consistently working to improve existing technology for the customer, with innovation, R&D and entrepreneurial thinking being an integral part of the dynamic business unit. The next product launch is planned for 2024, to further expand the portfolio.

Movu Robotics’ headquarters in Lokeren, Belgium, combines a 5,000 square metre large office area with a 10,000 square metre surface for logistics and manufacturing operations under a single roof, next to a state-of-the-art experience centre – one of the biggest in Europe — where where the latest technologies are showcased live to customers and partners.

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