IAM Robotics, makers of autonomous mobile manipulation robots, has won a contract with new client A.S. Watson Group, one of the world’s largest international health and beauty retailers with over 15,700 stores in 25 markets.
A.S. Watson will implement a fleet of Swift robots from IAM Robotics at its Benelux e-commerce fulfillment center in the Netherlands to help solve labour and capacity constraints due to a fast-growing, high-volume health and beauty retail business.
Ed van de Weerd, CEO of A.S. Watson health and beauty Benelux, says: “Our business in e-commerce is growing rapidly, and we need a way to keep up with the growth while offering next-day delivery within our existing fulfillment center, which is important for us to deliver the group’s online and offline strategy.
“IAM Robotics’ robots pick in a way similar to our manual pickers allowing us to leverage standard storage infrastructure, data flows, and workflow processes.
“This gives us a larger breadth of SKUs that our online shoppers are demanding and helps us build better customer connectivity by fulfilling our delivery commitment.”
IAM Robotics Swift robots combine product piece picking with full warehouse mobility, thereby automating an entire task within the warehouse without human assistance.
Swift robots pick and transport products like a human worker. A.S. Watson will deploy a fleet of Swift robots to pick products and place them on conveyors for transport to pack-and-ship stations, thereby freeing up existing picking workers for more productive roles.
Tom Galluzzo, CEO and founder of IAM Robotics, says: “E-commerce operators who can satisfy consumers’ preference for more product choice and faster delivery enjoy a competitive advantage.
“Truly innovative operators utilizing advanced autonomous automation to mitigate the resulting pressure from labour and capacity constraints, enjoy a sustainable competitive advantage.
“We are excited to be working with A.S. Watson and to be a part of their innovation and sustained growth.”
