MSC Industrial Supply integrates systems from Plus One Robotics at fulfillment centers

MSC Industrial Supply is integrating Plus One Robotics systems at its fulfillment centers.

MSC is a distributor of metalworking and maintenance repair and operations products and services for industrial customers throughout North America.

The company says the partnership with Plus One Robotics will “support and enhance the efficiency” of its customer fulfillment centers.

With Plus One Robotics, MSC says it has successfully deployed a patent-pending 3D-vision and AI-enabled robotic packing system in its Harrisburg, Pennsylvania customer fulfillment center and now plans to implement the system across its five major centers.

Doug Jones, executive vice president and chief supply chain officer for MSC, says: “We are excited to be working with Plus One as a strategic partner to introduce AI-powered automation supporting our growth and optimizing the efficiency of our customer fulfillment centers.

“After experiencing the productivity of Plus One’s solutions and seeing that we can redirect our associates to more value-added activities, we saw the benefit of expanding this technology across our network.”

MSC plans to leverage Plus One’s proprietary machine vision systems, along with a cloud service that connects the robots to a remote crew chief working at Plus One’s headquarters in San Antonio, Texas.

This cognitive collaboration service combines the vision and problem-solving skills of a single human crew chief with the accuracy, reliability and endurance of multiple robots.

Erik Nieves, CEO of Plus One Robotics, says: “Plus One Robotics supports the growth of companies by acting as a force multiplier for labor. There simply are not enough people to pack all the orders and meet cutoff times.

“Cognitive collaboration between humans and robots – combining the strengths of each – is the fastest, most reliable solution to a tight labor market.”