Lightfoot, Inc. has developed a revolutionary robotics based order picking system for the wholesale distribution industry. The Lightfoot solution eliminates the costly, labor-intensive, and error-prone manual case-picking processes that are used today to fill customer orders in nearly 250,000 distribution centers in the United States.
Unlike the fixed base robots deployed today in many manufacturing and warehouse applications, the Lightfoot solution is an agile, track-based robotics system that is used to pick cases from pallets located in standard racks (rather than custom-built storage bays). Lightfoot’s intelligent robots work in teams to fill orders, dynamically adapting to changes in order requirements and complex product mixes found in large distribution centers. The solution is modular and can be incrementally implemented in existing facilities with minimal disruption and no need for the customer to make an “all or nothing” facility-wide commitment.
The Lightfoot solution interfaces with a distribution center’s warehouse management system (WMS) via a carefully engineered intelligent software system. Through this innovative combination of hardware and software, distribution centers will be able to manage their case picking process in a more efficient and effective manner. Since labor averages between 60 to 65 percent of total warehouse operating costs and labor related shortages/high turnover is a chronic problem, management is highly motivated to pursue new strategies to reduce costs and improve operations.
In addition to a 50% reduction in per-case labor related costs over the life of the system, the Lightfoot solution delivers a critical strategic benefit by providing improved levels of consistency and predictability in order fulfillment. This will enable operations management to improve customer service and satisfaction by meeting increasingly tight stock delivery windows.