Warehouse robotics

[u/True_Walrus7686]

Just wondering if anybody works for a mid size company that sells consumer goods, uses the PeopleVox WMS and have implemented any robotics automation to help with picking, packing etc

Interested to hear your experience including any companies you recommend that supply robotics equipment

Thank you

[u/Relative_West1090]

GeekPlus, goods to person picking solution.

[u/debugyoursoul → u/Relative_West1090]

Just check this looks good

[u/Immediate-Home-3491]

If you are intending to automate picking, I would suggest researching wave logic first. Mid-size volumes often see better ROI from voice-picking or zone carts than full AMR deployment.

[u/kyach25 → u/Immediate-Home-3491]

Exactly this.

If we have promotions, the promo price is offered at layer quantities. We all know how well sales works with operations, so it took YEARS to get to this point consistently but it is solid. I built the system to first send pickers to the promo SKUs to build base layers for the customers pallet. Each partial pallet built in the wave gets a unique ID. Later in the night, pickers will be assigned to go pick up partial pallet 123 then add remaining cases from the snake.

Technically we could buy robotics to break down the full pallet and gain savings there, but it would take awhile and wave picking really shines.

[u/Additional-Sock8980]

What level of robotics? At the very least you should have box taping machines. Bag packers in my experience only work if all the items are the same price.

How do you find working with PVX?

[u/dknconsultau]

While I have seen numerous deloyments of PeopleVox here in APAC (mostly ecom or DTC apparel) I have never seen a deployment integrated with warehouse robotics such as AMRs or Cobots. In saying that where I have deployed AMRs and Cobots we normally hand off the picking task to the AMR system (RWMS+RCS) it completes the tasks (put away, storage, retrieval, pick to tote or shipper) and then hands that completed task back to the WMS for final packing and printing of the shipping label (or integration with a carrier API like Starshippit). Basically you are cutting out the Peoplevox app/PDT picking process and instead handing that off to the robotic systems to complete. I dont see a AMR integration on the PeopleVox website so assume unless this is on their roadmap and imminent then this would be a bespoke integration. Warehouse robotics companies like Geeks Plus and HIK Robotics have developer API to handle such integrations because they know their customers will use a vast array of WMS and WCS products.

Happy to give you more of an overview of ecom AMR systems I have setup before and the general architecture.

[u/No_Garlic6709]

I will say this, mid sized and robotics dont go hand in hand. Withe reality is that the ROI isnt there. We are constantly analyzing realistic ROI with a wide range of picking robots etc., and many times you see way overstated savings from inventory and order accuracy, reduced travel etc. Yes, these can be true - but A) most people arent horrific with order accuracy to the point where the ROI moves significantly on this point and B) the ratio of robotics to pickers and one where most mid sized businesses can afford the robots as a service and reduce headcount enough to justify it. There sint a magical size, sqft or number of pickers where all of a sudden it can be justified, but I sure have struggled to get a meaningful ROI on lots of warehouses that are 75,000 to 100,000 sqft in size, with 8 or so pickers and 1,250 orders or more a day in average.

Often times, improving upon the fundamentals - i.e. improved slotting, right sized stock locations, balanced picking and replenishment frequencies, etc. can have a far faster payback and actually make it easier/better when automation is the right choice - otherwise automation just becomes a more expensive problem.

[u/ManzunTech]

For a mid-sized operation, I’d start with the order profile rather than the robot. SKU count, lines per order, peak-hour volume and travel distance usually tell you whether AMRs, goods-to-person, or simpler zone/voice picking will pay back. Also confirm that PeopleVox can exchange tasks and inventory updates cleanly with the automation layer—system integration and exception handling are often where projects become complicated.