Picking it right
On Wednesday, RightHand Robotics introduced its new picking solution, RightPick. Due to growing pressure from the rise of e-commerce and a shrinking workforce, the company developed a solution to address difficulties within the warehouse. The solution will help fulfill orders faster and more efficiently, as well as reduce costs. It focuses on the task of picking individual items or ‘piece-picking’, a trend which has emerged after a decrease in bulk-buying. The robot is said to be unlike any other, handling thousands of different items through the use of machine learning to work in sync with existing industry-leading robotic arms. The device is able to sort batch-picked items and maintain order quality assurance.
The company will exhibit RightPick at ProMat 2017, an event hosted in April in Chicago. Furthermore, the company has raised $8 million in Series A funding to expand product development, hiring and marketing. Through the funding, it will be able to further address this opportunity that is arising in the logistics industry.
Find more information on the solution here.
One pizza please Mr. Robot
This week, Dominos announced its partnership with Starship Technologies, a U.K company producing autonomous robots for the purpose of local food delivery. The pizza company will begin deliveries using the self-driving food cart this summer in Hamburg, Germany. If all goes well, it has the intention of expanding the service throughout the country and to the Netherlands. The robot will deliver pizzas within a one-mile radius of a Dominos’ store and is able to travel at 4 miles per hour with up to 20 lbs. of cargo. This equates to approximately 8 pizzas or an assortment of pizza, desserts and drinks. When the delivery has arrived at its destination, the customer will be able to unlock the goods with an individual code, which will be sent to their mobile devices.
This is yet another tech-enabled service to be offered by Dominos, complementing its growing efforts to entice Millennials with innovative ways of ordering and delivery. The company also believes that demand for deliveries will eventually surpass its amount of drivers, meaning autonomous delivery will be essential to its operations in the future.
Read more information here.
Fresh is here, for employees
On Tuesday, Amazon officially announced its new drive-in concept grocery store, AmazonFresh Pickup. Currently only Amazon employees may use the service but it will be available to members of its Prime loyalty program in the near future. The concept consists of ordering groceries online then driving to one of Amazon stores to collect the items. On arrival, the delivery will have been bagged and is subsequently brought to your car. At the moment, there are only 2 sites supporting the concept, both of them in Seattle where Amazon’s headquarters are located.
Amazon are hoping to attract customers with its competitive strategy. The company will strive to have the most efficient service, taking advantage of its already established logistics network and expertise. While the concept is not too dissimilar to Walmart’s services, Amazon promises orders will be ready to collect within as little as 15 minutes or in a preferred time-slot, compared to the 2-4 hours waiting period offered by Walmart.
To find out more on the service click here.
Have a great weekend!
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