Lucas Systems, a provider of voice and warehouse optimization software for fulfillment and distribution centers, has formed a partnership with Silicon Valley-based Fetch Robotics to enable the next generation of smart warehouses. Through the partnership, Lucas and Fetch say they will offer tailored solutions to orchestrate and optimize how warehouse workers interact with Fetch’s autonomous mobile robots (AMRs).
Lucas executives say its clients need help increasing throughput and maintaining high worker productivity while meeting accuracy and more stringent customer delivery requirements. These market pressures have led to rethinking old models and focusing on new, innovative ways to improve DC performance.
“The future environment of warehouses and distribution centers will be a mix of people, robots, machines and systems all working together. The precise orchestration of all the pieces will be key to achieving a competitive advantage in performance,” said Ken Ramoutar, CMO at Lucas Systems.
The combined solutions from Fetch and Lucas will, it is hoped, materially redistribute the division of labor in the warehouse. Robots will manage tasks best suited to machines, and this will free up warehouse workers to focus on higher-valued work.
In an AMR-supported picking workflow orchestrated by Lucas, for example, a worker can avoid unnecessary walking by picking items to a tote on a Fetch AMR, directing the AMR to a conveyor system to unload, and then triggering another robot to move into place for the worker to continue picking.
“The combination of Lucas’s AI-based warehouse optimization software and Fetch’s broad portfolio of AMRs enables optimized order, batch, case and pallet picking in distribution centers and automates virtually any manual material movement in a facility,” said Stefan Nusser, chief product officer at Fetch Robotics. “This enables our joint customers to increase picking efficiency, reduce cycle times, and reduce the impact of labor shortages.”