Robotic Case Picker Doubles Worker Throughput

Designed for use in the consumer packaged goods, food and beverage and medical 
supplies industries as well logistics and retail, CaseFlow orchestrates a fleet of Vecna 
Robotics CPJ pallet jack robots to perform all pallet-based travel in a warehouse and direct 
human pickers, equipped with connected wearables, with tasks generated from a 
warehouse management system (WMS). Using Vecna’s Pivotal orchestration software, 
CaseFlow continuously prioritizes orders and optimizes robot routes and picking tasks. 

According to Vecna, CaseFlow dynamically adjusts worker picking zones to keep goods 
flowing and maximize units picked per hour.

CaseFlow was developed by Vecna Robotics based on work it has done over the past 18 
months with transport and logistics provider GeoDis. The project with GeoDis was focused 
on increasing case picking productivity by automating both robot travel and human work. 
Since deploying CaseFlow at its Indianapolis pilot site, GeoDis has more than doubled 
workflow productivity with no reported safety issues, Vecna reported.

Available via an annual subscription service, Vecna said the robots-as-a-service (RaaS) 
delivery lowers the cost of entry and enables operators to focus on optimizing case picking 
throughput and redirecting labor to more critical workflows in the warehouse.

Benefits of CaseFlow, according to Vecna, include:

• Doubles worker unit per hour performance: Dynamic, directed zone picking 
  removes the need for manual driving resulting in more than 2x performance 
  improvement in units picked per hour through orchestration of both human and 
  robotic work.
• Short ROI payback: With reduced picking workforce required to handle daily 
  volumes, ROI payback is less than 12 months through the RaaS pricing.
• Fast implementation: Less than 4 weeks to implement and a 50% reduction in new 
  employee training time (vs. traditional operations) with minimal up-front investment 
  and no disruption to existing operations; hot swappable robot batteries maintain 
  continuous goods movement.
• On-site control: CaseFlow Console delivers full control with real-time telemetry 
  and performance data, empowering operations managers to monitor order releases, 
  and associate behaviors and robot status in real-time. It also enables industrial 
  engineers and site managers to identify bottlenecks for future optimizations.
• WMS interoperability: Provides native compatibility with warehouse management 
  systems from Manhattan Associates, Korber, Blue Yonder, SAP, Oracle, Tecsys and 
  others.
• Improved safety: Travel-related safety incidents are virtually eliminated with no 
  need for associates to get on and off trucks, having them focus exclusively on 
  picking-to-order.
• 24/7 remote monitoring: As with all Vecna Robotics workflow solutions, CaseFlow 
  features remote monitoring from Vecna Robotics 24/7 Pivotal Command Center.

Read more about the changing face of warehouse automation.

Original Article: https://www.automationworld.com/factory/robotics/news/55241900/robotic-case-picker-doubles-worker-throughput