Waytek, an electrical components distributor, has deployed autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) from Zebra Technologies in its facilities in an effort to increase warehouse automation and improve efficiency.
Zebra claims that the introduction of its Zebra Fetch AMRs have had a positive impact on the efficiency of Waytek warehouses, relieving workers of the duty of carrying out certain manual tasks. For example, staff can monitor the status and direct the movement of the robots to reduce the distance that needs to be covered on foot in order to move products around the warehouse.
Jim Lawton, Vice President of Robotics Automation at Zebra Technologies, said: “The race to automate the warehouse is on, but there’s still a lot of uncertainty among warehouse operators about where and how to begin.”
He continued: “We’ve created integrated automation solutions that pair our AMRs with mobile devices such as Zebra tablets, barcode scanners, wearables, fixed industrial scanners, and machine vision imagers – giving customers ways to automate critical workflows that are less complex.”
The particular model of AMR used by Waytek, the Zebra Fetch AMR, and Fetchcore, the cloud-based software platform that enables on-demand automation, are a result of Zebra’s acquisition of Fetch Robotics in August 2021.
Zebra claims that these AMRs are also leading to ‘significant savings in labour time’ in other companies, allowing workers to focus more time on production, which is in turn helping firms to meet demand surges.
Zebra (Stand i820) will be at IntraLogisteX on 28-29 March 2023 at the NEC Birmingham. For more information, visit www.intralogistex.co.uk.
