Latest / The Retail Podcast / NRF 2023 Thompson Brockmann, VP of Operations, talks us through Tompkins Robotics demo

Transcript

NRF 2023 Thompson Brockmann, VP of Operations, talks us through Tompkins Robotics demo · The Retail Podcast

• 0:00
  Hello and welcome back to another episode of the retail
• 0:03
  podcast. Today, we're looking at
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  robotics, I'm here with Tompkins Robotics and I'm with Thompson,
• 0:09
  who is VP of operations. He's going to talk us through
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  the setup that they've got here and then I'm going to ask him
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  some tough questions on the future of Robotics.
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  What we have here is a robotic sortation Solution.
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  That's used throughout the supply chain.
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  What we're doing training at this show is an order,
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  fulfillment solution that can handle both e-commerce.
• 0:30
  He is Essaouira Qantas read. But you can really use this
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  technology as I said anywhere throughout the supply chain that
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  can started the inbounds rotation is in a warehouse, go
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  through all the outbound for order, fulfillment?
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  And even the shipping sortation. So, getting the right Parcels of
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  the right cartons, to the right shipping destination, we could
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  also leverage this technology in the back room of the store.
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  Possesses a very scalable solution.
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  It can be sized appropriately, to whatever the volume and
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  destination. Requirements are so in this and
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  the back room of a store, we Users were BioLite pick up in
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  the store where you would have your Associates, picking a batch
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  of Wars, to take it to the back room and sorting that out into
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  individual customer orders or even for the inbound.
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  Sortation, for a cases of mixed product, we can prepare that
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  for. I already put away.
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  We see this as a very flexible scalable solution, we can add
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  robots, we can add destinations, we can add induction stations
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  throughout the system and grow to your needs and growing year
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  by year. I'm curious.
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  A lot of retailers will be used to having Robotics and the
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  distribution and Warehouse Systems.
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  Where do you see the future of the technology?
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  And how do you see what solve problems are retailers?
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  Coming to you to solve? Is it still in the back of the
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  house? If you like in the supply chain
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  or are they re thinking what the actual business model looks
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  like, what? As I said earlier, the business
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  model for a robotics rotation can be anywhere in their supply
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  chain and the biggest problem of the biggest issue, lot of the
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  retailers and Warehouse operations, having very finding
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  labor and keeping labor, secure it in their facility, and
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  continue to work. So by taking out a lot of the
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  manual processes, a lot of repeatable process, so you can
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  easily do what the robot you listen, that need to go out
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  there and hire people bring them on board, even for these short
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  periods of time where, you know, you just need to flex up and use
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  operators and little bored. Quite a lot of sick people and
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  go through the training process. Don't have the training, the
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  robots, they're going to be reliable, they can work.
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  Seven. They don't even take breaks.
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  I'm not. How is this?
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  How is predictive maintenance on these?
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  How are you? I'm curious about predictive
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  maintenance. So we offer a life cycle service
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  program with all of our installations.
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  So we could actually come out for De Lis, do any maintenance,
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  do any, repairs are needed, but this is a very durable solution
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  is without in the market, has been on size for many, many
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  years, five, plus years with very little issues, there's no
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  single point. Failure in this type of
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  technology that you may have with some of the more
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  traditional automated Solutions. So if there is an issue with the
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  robot somebody damages or something, you simply remove
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  that robot, put a request from background there if you back up
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  and running in a matter of seconds if not just a couple
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  minutes. So the maintenance aspect is
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  very handy is a matter of fact it's so easy.
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  We have customers out there that don't have a maintenance staff
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  at all. They just rely on our lifecycle
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  services that come in there on the quarterly basis.
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  Do the repairs, do the claim of the system?
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  In that keeps the system running off away.
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  So they rarely have to follow us F and from your experience
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  setting up my new robotic system.
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  Well what's the Project Life Cycle on a project like this?
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  Is this year's one stay weeks. I agree really appreciate that
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  question because our system is designed to be completely
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  modular and mobiles everything. You see out here in the system
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  is on casters, we can manufacture the major components
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  all site, very little disruption.
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  When we come on site because we could roll those off the
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  trailers, snap this together, like Legos it have a system
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  actually up and running it just a month or two here that
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  includes, not just insulation, but also all the configuration
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  and all the Indian testing and final question because I could
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  carry on Old a data. So how much of the data on the
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  stock? Do you actually does your
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  platform? Look at all rights?
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  The no, you don't. Look at that.
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  You're just purely. Robotics.
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  We are purely a sortation solution so we are not actually
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  we don't need that all the image are we don't get to school at
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  William Joy. But we do get to individual line
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  level ordered a do so that gets downloaded we see the immediate
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  demand and we're agnostic to the picking solution so that could
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  be a good sir person technology that brings the product directly
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  to deduction operator and then we just take a look at what is
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  being inducted and we will scan out across that demand of data.
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  That's out there. And fulfill the customers based
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  on quality, whatever sort of analytics, we need to optimize
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  the use of the system. Okay.
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  Stock, accuracy would absolutely say hydrogen accuracy we track
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  every item as it's being ducted. If you watch Ross here in dark
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  dining rooms so we know exactly what's being inducted on the
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  item. We calculate where needs to go,
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  we track that robot throughout the whole process and we know
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  is, when it's been diverted into the destination, all of the
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  outbound orders are scanning In and track says, those are being
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  exchanged in, or core back to the host.
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  Exactly what's in there when you got dropped in there.
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  And when to order yet closed and is available to the next door to
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  be processed and slow. I didn't ask where he base
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  doesn't know. We're base out of Orlando,
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  Florida, we have an entire demonstration, lab and a test
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  live down there, so we're always evaluating and they bring it on,
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  dude, clue technology, expand our product line, it
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  demonstrating to our clients, what our capabilities of the
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  Ring orders down in my actual product down. tested running
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  through our tests or system, it is