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Tag: ProMAT

Warehouse Digital Twins with Artificial Intelligence

Posted on by Keith McKinley

Synkrato, the next-generation logistics platform with Digital Twin, Mobility, Digital Labelling, and AI-Driven Logistics (slotting), announced a major update to their Digital Twin and slotting solutions. The update allows users to connect a warehouse digital twin to the slotting engine and perform slotting and re-slotting using digital twins.

“We believe the key to supply chain resilience and innovation is to simplify transformative technologies. Companies are looking for solutions that streamline operations without requiring a high level of IT skills, said Amin Sikander, Synkrato president. “Managing slotting algorithms in a spreadsheet is a labour-intensive, error-prone process, especially with a lot of inventory coming in and going out. By connecting Synkrato Digital Twin to the adaptive slotting algorithm, businesses gain real-time warehouse efficiency through a user-friendly interface.”
Maximum warehouse capacity utilization and reduced travel time

After users create a digital twin, the latest version of Synkrato automatically provides recommendations on where to find, store, and relocate inventory within a warehouse. According to Sikander, “warehouse space and labour availability are both becoming scarce in some areas of the United States. The shortage of warehouses, rising rent, and capacity constraints have firms searching for ways to get the most out of their existing industrial space. Additionally, low inventory visibility and poor pick-up paths require extra labor to prepare orders at a time when finding warehouse operators is challenging. This software update helps companies optimize their available resources.”

Synkrato’s dynamic digital twin sends data to slotting, like inventory location, distances, sales history, personnel, and stock levels, in real time. The slotting algorithm then uses this data to provide ongoing slot recommendations for all incoming and outgoing orders in real time. This integration simplifies slotting and supports an agile strategy by removing bottlenecks, recommending optimal pick paths, and streamlining put-away.

“Imagine a warehouse with a single staging area and three inventory storage zones. The price to move inventory to the staging area is proportional to the distance, so the closest distance has the lowest movement cost. Synkrato provides recommendations on where to store products based on sales history, forecast, and staging distance to reduce costs and order-preparation time, all from the digital twin interface,” said Jason Mancuso, Synkrato product director.

Synkrato is showcasing its Digital Twin and AI-Driven Logistics solutions at ProMat 2023 in Chicago. Synkrato was also selected as a Best IT Innovation award finalist, an award presented by MHI at ProMat to recognize innovative supply chain products. Attendees can visit Synkrato at booth #N6256 to see a live demonstration.

Ravas Launches Weigh in Motion Tech

Posted on by David Priestman

Imagine a logistics process where you could weigh your palletized goods on the go. Or one where you consistently capture accurate weighing and dimensioning data in real-time without stopping. RAVAS can offer it all with Weigh in Motion technology. Visit RAVAS at booth S149 at ProMat and witness this technological revolution yourself.

Intelligent carriage plate with Weigh in Motion technology RAVAS USA has expanded its current range of iCPs, intelligent carriage plates, with Weigh in Motion technology. In the past, operators had to physically stop their forklift truck to capture the weight of a pallet. With RAVAS’ Weigh in Motion technology, you can weigh on the go without stopping or interrupting your logistics process. While driving at a consistent speed on a level surface, you can now generate reliable data on weight and volume in real time. The data can be transferred to any ERP or WMS and used to invoice your customers by weight. RAVAS’ Weigh in Motion technology is set to revolutionize supply chain optimization.

The RAVAS iCP is a proven, dependable product that enables you to weigh ‘difficult to pack’ products in combination with pre-construction equipment, such as a clamp or rotator. The iCP is available in wired or wireless models. Also, the iCP is NTEP certified to ensure you meet legal-for-trade requirements so you can invoice your customers by weight.

RPW EL scale for electric walkies and rider trucks

The revolutionary RAVAS RPW EL, a scale for electric walkies and rider trucks and order picking trucks, is available for every make and model of truck. Whether you are about to purchase one or more new trucks or you already own a fleet of trucks, our RPW EL solution is available for both retrofit and factory fit. To make a truck weighing, the fork construction of the truck is mechanically modified so that scale components can be mounted with only 5 mm extra fork height. Every lifted load is immediately weighed and communicated. Data communication and integration turns your order picking applications, supply chain optimization or production optimization into a true data collector. This data saves you time, money and obviously makes your processes more efficient and insightful.

iForks

The world’s first and most complete wireless forklift weighing fork sets, the RAVAS iForks can be quickly mounted on any forklift and immediately improve the efficiency of your logistics process. iForks improve crossdocking, weighing incoming and outgoing goods, and safely loading and unloading containers. The weighing system’s components are fully integrated into the forks, eliminating the need for additional cabling, that means installation on all makes of forklift trucks (new and used) is quick and effortless. The weight captured by the iForks is displayed on an indicator positioned in the forklift truck’s cabin. That information is then sent wirelessly via Bluetooth to your WMS. Available with both regular forks and extra thin forks, these weighing forks are powered by compact Lithium-ion batteries and come standard with Bluetooth 4.0 data transfer capabilities.

RAVAS manufactures and distributes mobile weighing solutions, integrated in hand pallet jacks, warehouse trucks and forklift trucks. Mobile scales enable you to weigh and measure your load during transport. Our connectivity solutions help you to improve logistics and optimize your supply chain.

RightHand Robotics Appoints New CEO

Posted on by David Priestman

RightHand Robotics, a leader in data-driven, autonomous robotic picking solutions for order fulfilment, announces the appointment of tech industry veteran Brian D. Owen (pictured) as Chief Executive Officer. With 30-plus years of experience and leadership in finance, technology, and commercial deployment, Owen will guide RightHand Robotics through its next phase of growth and lead the continued scale-up of its piece-picking business.

“For eight years, the team and I built, hardened, and scaled our product, improving the technology every year, deploying the robots across the U.S., Europe, and Japan and continuing to grow our customer base. Now is the time to build on these foundations by accelerating the scaling of customers and deployments. I’m very proud of this company and I look forward to working with Brian in my new role as chairman.” said Yaro Tenzer, co-founder, former CEO, and now Chairman of RightHand Robotics.

Owen is a six-time public and private company CEO of global enterprise hardware and software companies with experience driving corporate strategy, mission, and purpose, while fostering a culture of trust, responsibility, commitment, and innovation among employees, partners, and customers. He has served in numerous roles as executive and non-executive, chairman, and director in more than 25 technology companies – two of which were public – overseeing multiple financings, IPOs, mergers, acquisitions and divestitures, and more than 15 exits while working alongside top-tier private equity investors.

Previously, Owen was the CEO and President of Cambridge Semantics Inc., a modern data management and enterprise analytics software company, where bookings grew 300 percent to $24 million during his leadership. He also served in senior roles at White Cup, SunGard, ORACLE Corporation, MapInfo and Computer Associates, among others. Owen earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and computer science from Boston College and an MBA from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

“I am thrilled to be joining RightHand Robotics as the next CEO and incredibly proud for the opportunity to build on eight years of progress that the team has accomplished,” said Owen. “The company’s piece-picking technology is in high demand in the market and I look forward to working with this amazing team to continue that momentum to grow the company worldwide. I’ve led six companies through various stages of growth and execution and have the scar tissue resulting from the many successes and lessons experienced along the way. I plan to apply that knowledge to this role and carry on the company’s mission and vision of ‘owning the pick in the supply chain so humans don’t have to.’”

Tenzer will remain in the company as Chairman to work with the management team on GTM strategy and business development.

Since the company’s $66 million Series C financing, RightHand Robotics has seen major developments in its business and made significant global moves. The company launched its Partner Integrator program, resulting in recent collaborations with leading players like Vanderlande and AutoStore™ integrator Asetec. RightHand Robotics also solidified its automated piece-picking leadership in the growing online pharmacy market with a new pharma customer, Apotea. With more growth to come and ambitious plans for the future, RightHand Robotics is ready for this natural next corporate step. To learn more about the company and its executive transition, visit the RightHand Robotics booth N8107 at ProMat 2023 in Chicago, Illinois, from March 20-23, 2023.

Logistic Solutions for the Circular Economy

Posted on by David Priestman

Breaking new ground by developing tailor-made products that meet the circular economy and customers’ individual requirements – that’s what drives Cabka. The market leader for reusable transport packaging made of recycled plastic will be presenting its broad portfolio of large load carriers and pallets at ProMAT in Chicago (March 20-23, 2023) at booth S4149.

ProMat is an ideal platform for Cabka’s large load carriers and pallets, which combine innovation and sustainability. Cabka’s vision is that logistics not only moves goods, but can fundamentally change storage and transport processes – with benefits for both customers and the environment. That’s why the company focuses on reusable and durable products made from recycled plastics. This not only saves the user energy, transport and storage costs, but also helps to address the growing need for companies to reduce their scope 3 emissions for Green House Gasses (GHG). To achieve this, Cabka’s development team is continuously working on intelligent product design with lightweight, resource-saving and volume-reduced solutions.

The company also focuses on individual product developments. “We are the contact for customers who want customized products made from recycled plastics,” reports Jean-Marc van Maren, Chief Product Development Officer at Cabka. “That’s why we are not only showing our broad standard portfolio at the trade fair, but also some customized solutions”, adds van Maren.

One highlight in Chicago is the Retail US5 order picking pallet, which makes the transfer of goods more cost-efficient, safer and more sustainable. It replaces the traditional wooden pallets for transporting goods between the distribution center and the sales floor. It is compatible with existing retail nestable pallets and available with special dog bone feet. The solution does not require the usual runners and therefore offers significant advantages.

As a nestable and thus volume-saving load carrier, this pallet reduces both warehouse and transport costs. The Retail US5 is robust, durable and significantly exceeds the usual service life of GMA-pallets. The pallets are also convincing in terms of occupational safety with their smooth and clean surface and beveled edges. The light-weight design facilitates manual lifting and stacking. It also avoids excessive strain on the backs of employees during lifting and carrying work.

In terms of environmental protection, the load carriers score with their resource-saving construction made of recycled plastic and the fact that the material cycle is closed at the end of their useful life. Other properties ensure that the commercial pallet offers a significantly lower carbon footprint in its application compared to a wooden pallet: low tare weight, volume-reduced return transport and long service life. The Retail US5 is available in GMA-pallet dimensions of 40 x 48 inch, weighs 23 lbs and can carry loads of up to 3,000 lbs.

Enabling the circular economy

Another novelty at the Cabka booth is the CabCube 4840. The superior product protection offered by the units results in lower product damage and waste. This large container features a two-piece sleeve for improved handling. The foldable case is simply stored between pallet and lid for the return of empties. The four-piece CabCube remains together as a closed packaging unit. With its high foldability ratio, it assures savings in space and freight costs and increases the efficiency in return logistics.

The two-piece C-folding sleeves are ideal for ergonomic loading. The four grips make it easy to lift the lid from all sides, the bottom support has eight feet. CabCube 4840 is designed for supplier industries in all sectors and is ideal for distributing and storing large and lightweight parts. The large container has dimensions of 48 x 40 x 48 inch and an internal volume of 247 gallons.

Users can reduce their logistics and warehousing costs with the clever Cabka solution and protect the environment at the same time: The CabCube 4840 is injection-moulded from 100% recyclable high-quality plastics and is designed for extreme reusability. This makes it durable, robust and sustainable at the same time.

For the first time Cabka will also show a CabCube on wheels at the fair. The wheels make it easy to move the CabCube around the warehouse, shop or production hall without using a forklift or hand pallet truck.

Sevensense Robotics Present at ProMAT

Posted on by David Priestman

Automation has the potential to exponentially increase efficiency, profitability, and safety in the logistics and manufacturing sectors, as will be seen at ProMAT Chicago. So far, the lack of a robust, yet flexible navigation technology has limited the scope and scale of automation in material handling operations.

Furthermore, the AMR manufacturing sector is extremely competitive. Most of its players rely on navigation technologies like 2D LiDAR SLAM or magnetic line following: proven in the field but limited in performance. To gain a competitive advantage, many AMR manufacturers are looking into new technologies; but often they lack the resources, time, expertise, and talent to develop them.

This industry landscape is now changing with the arrival of the VSLAM navigation technology developed by Sevensense Robotics. The Alphasense Autonomy Evaluation Kit accelerates the development and deployment of automated guided vehicles (AGVs) and autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) while improving their performance and expanding their operational capabilities.

“We observed that many AMR manufacturers considered Alphasense Autonomy as an option to incorporate 3D Visual Autonomy capabilities into their offering but integrating, testing, and validating the fit of this navigation technology in their own vehicles and their use cases still required more expertise and time than they were able to invest without any in-house validation of the technology. The Alphasense Autonomy Evaluation Kit offers them an off-the-shelf option to easily and quickly test Alphasense Autonomy and take a generational technological leap forward,” says Gianluca Cesari, CBDO at Sevensense Robotics.

Alphasense Autonomy leverages the 360 degrees view of the vehicle’s surroundings and cutting-edge Visual SLAM technology to offer <0.3 inches (<4 mm) precise and reliable positioning capabilities in all indoor and outdoor environments, even over uneven floors and ramps. Without any need for additional infrastructure. The Alphasense Autonomy Evaluation Kit allows mobile robot manufacturers (AGV/AMR OEMs) to test the Alphasense Autonomy 3D Visual Autonomy technology quickly and easily.

The kit is a plug-and-play software and hardware bundle that combines the Alphasense multi-camera sensor with Alphasense Autonomy and Sevensense’s proprietary software stack and configuration tools that dramatically reduce the time required to integrate a fully functioning Visual SLAM navigation system on a vehicle. The hardware consists of a compact device including 5 factory-calibrated cameras and a computer unit with pre-installed software. The system can be easily mounted on top of any vehicle and requires a minimal amount of connections such as power and ethernet. Optionally, additional 3rd party sensors can also be connected.

Thanks to a web-based interface, the user is guided through a simple step-by-step installation wizard to calibrate, set up the interfaces, and configure and deploy the target AMR. With this, any technical department can now run and test Alphasense Autonomy on their own vehicles. The Evaluation Kit enables all Alphasense Autonomy features for trial: from easily teaching an A-to-B motion layout to performing virtual line following with obstacle avoidance. All this, while delivering the same performance as the series Alphasense Autonomy product in terms of robustness and repeatability.

On top of the provided in-depth documentation, the device contains a 4G connectivity module that allows Sevensense to provide immediate support by directly accessing the unit. Together with access to Sevensense’s service desk, this level of support allows customers to confidently perform their technical evaluations in little time.

In 2022, during a closed trial, the Alphasense Autonomy Evaluation Kit already helped several AMR manufacturers to reap the benefits of the Sevensense Visual SLAM navigation solution. Now, Sevensense is supporting these early-adopter customers going to market with their new AMRs equipped with Alphasense Autonomy. In a broader industry context, the DHL Trend Radar indicates that 3D visual autonomy technology is currently maturing and will exponentially increase its potential within the next 5 years.

The Sevensense Robotics team will be offering live demos at booth #N8539 from Monday, March 20th to Thursday, March 23rd at ProMAT 2023 show in Chicago IL.

 

AR Racking Lands in the United States

Posted on by Keith McKinley

AR Racking, a company specialised in manufacturing, designing, calculating and installing storage solutions, strengthens its presence in North America with the creation of its US subsidiary and the opening of its office in Charlotte (North Carolina). It is a strategic commitment initiated at the end of last year that will be consolidated in 2023.

AR Racking, present in more than 60 markets, has been carrying out major storage projects in the United States for years in partnership with the most important system integrators for large automated warehouses. AR Racking arrives in the United States to help American companies improve their competitiveness through the optimisation of their logistics centres or warehouses, regardless of their industrial sector and their intralogistics needs. For this it has a wide range of industrial racking solutions for both pallet loads and small and medium-sized loads.

AR Racking Inc. is led by Pablo Montes, who has specialist training and extensive experience in various strategic and technical management roles, providing exhaustive product knowledge, as well as project and team management skills. “We have interesting contacts and customers, and in this initial phase our task is to be perceived in the United States as a reference in the sector and as a reliable, innovative company offering a specialised service that covers all the installation phases,” explained Montes.

The core of the activity will be new projects in which AR Racking will provide its added value with the advanced technology of its systems, its excellent response capacity and maximum exposition of the ‘turnkey’ concept. To offer the best solutions, the company has strategic partnerships with pioneering intralogistics company specialised in technical and robot components integrated in its industrial racking systems.

Members of MHI and presentation at ProMAT

AR Racking belongs to MHI (Material Handling Industry), the most important logistics and the supply chain association in the United States with around 800 members and 18 interest groups, and the RMI (Rack Manufacturers Group), which endorses the company’s expertise in everything related to steel, racking and engineering solutions.

The company will also be present at one of the largest logistics and supply chain events in the United States, the ProMAT trade show, which will take place in Chicago from 20 to 23 March and serve as an ideal showcase to make itself known to the professional audience.

AR Racking currently has offices in France, Germany, United Kingdom, Colombia, Chile and Peru, as well as its headquarters and production centre, both in the north of Spain. With an export rate of over 85%, the company has carried out to date more than 34,000 storage projects worldwide. It has a production capacity of +100,000 tonnes of steel. AR Racking’s industrial racking systems come with a 5-year quality guarantee and are made of pre-galvanised material as standard.

AR Racking is part of the Arania Group, an industrial group of companies with extensive experience and scope, and with a multi-sectoral activity based on the transformation of steel that dates back more than 80 years. It provides the market with a wide range of solutions with high certified quality standards and a comprehensive project management service. The company’s industrial storage systems stand out for their innovation, reliability and optimum efficiency.

25 Years of Materials Handling Innovation

Posted on by David Priestman

It’s going to be a busy few months on the exhibition circuit for Irish materials handling specialist Combilift. It will be using the ProMAT event in March to kickstart celebrations to mark the company’s 25th anniversary. Amongst the many and varied exhibits that are always a feature of Combilift’s trade fair appearances, the 75,000th truck to roll off the production lines will also be on show. This model, with its special livery, will take centre stage at the booth and will be formally handed over to the customer during the show. An evening of entertainment and dinner for guests is also planned at a location close by the McCormick Place show venue.

As testimony to Combilift’s tireless R&D department, five new products will be launched throughout the year at various European trade fairs and in-house at the global HQ and manufacturing facility in Monaghan. The first of these will be unveiled at LogiMAT in April in Stuttgart. These will all feature the groundbreaking technology and innovation that has been a hallmark of Combilift products since the first C4000 multidirectional model first appeared on the market in 1998. More information on these new developments will be released in due course.

Further exhibits will of course represent the dozens of solutions that Combilift now offers for the safe, space saving and productive handling of long products, pallets and oversized loads. These will include multidirectional forklifts, sideloaders, pedestrian stackers and Aisle Master narrow aisle articulated trucks, all of which will be able to be seen live in action.

“We are looking forward to marking this company milestone at events and in person with our customers, dealers, sales personnel, representatives from the international trade press and of course our workforce,” said Combilift CEO and co-founder Martin McVicar. “Their loyalty and support has been pivotal in enabling us to achieve the amazing level of growth and success that we have experienced during the last 25 years. We’re not going to rest on our laurels though – you can expect more innovation from us in the next few decades to come!”

ProMAT: Booth # N6936. LogiMAT: Hall 9. 9B45

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