GreyOrange Inc. and Hai Robotics this week announced that they are “elevating” strategic partnership, which offers GreyOrange’s software for automated fulfillment and inventory optimization with Hai Robotics’ autonomous mobile robots, or AMRs. In the past two years, the companies said they have jointly installed their systems for more than 10 customers.
The partners claimed in a release that their customers include fulfillment operations for the largest retailer in the U.S., one of the world’s biggest fashion retailers, and many other large U.S. and European retailers.
“The Hai Robotics and GreyOrange partnership is the perfect use case for innovation within the warehouse automation space,” asserted Akash Gupta, co-founder and CEO of GreyOrange. “This partnership combines our cutting-edge GreyMatter software that orchestrates the largest and most complex robotic installations in the world with the vertical AMRs from Hai Robotics, including a first-of-its-kind, five deep storage solution.”
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GreyOrange orchestrates heterogeneous fleets
GreyMatter is a fulfillment orchestration platform that uses artificial intelligence to help fulfill customer orders, according to GreyOrange. The company said its hardware-agnostic product orchestrates software, robots, and people.
The platform can model warehouse or distribution center workflows to optimize decision making in real time, GreyOrange said. The Atlanta-based company also has its own portfolio of AMRs for materials handling.
With Multi-Agent Orchestration (MAO), GreyMatter can connect and run a heterogeneous fleet of GreyOrange’s goods-to-person (G2P) AMRs with Hai’s person-to-goods AMRs on a single grid. This can simplify complex or cross-functional operations across a facility, said the partners.
Hai Robotics integrates flexible ASRS
Haipick is a high-reach AMR that is part of Hai Robotics’ automated storage and retrieval system (ASRS). The Shenzhen, China-based company said its systems can provide vertical storage up to 10 m (32.8 ft.) and reduce storage footprints by up to 75%.
With warehouse construction slowing after the COVID-19 e-commerce boom, operators want to make the most of their available, and expensive real estate, noted several industry experts. An ASRS is one solution. Haipick was a 2022 RBR50 award winner.
Hai Robotics explained that its autonomous case-handling robots (ACRs) work with most industry-standard racking and totes, bins, or other containers. Its ASRS can store them up to five totes deep and can be modified to help facilities in ways that previous storage technologies were too rigid to achieve, the company said.
In July, Hai Robotics partnered with Chang Industrial to target North American manufacturers and with Hy-Tek Intralogistics to jointly install a G2P buffer system for a manufacturing and engineering customer in Ohio.
GreyOrange and Hai Robotics claimed that their unified offering can maximize operational efficiency, increase the speed of order fulfillment, and improve order accuracy. They added that their partnership enables customers “to adapt to surges in demand and ever-evolving consumer behavior.”
“What we’ve done together is provide end users with the throughput they need to meet their growing demand, the storage density to make the best use of their warehousing space, as well as the flexibility so that they’re not tied down in this ever-changing environment,” stated Brian Reinhart, chief revenue officer of Hai Robotics.
In addition, the partnership has resulted in direct picking into on-demand packing boxes, which the companies said can eliminate extra human touches from picking operations. GreyOrange and Hai Robotics said their integrated micro-fulfillment center (MFC) automation boasts “the highest storage density in the industry,” providing the efficiency to fulfill orders in less than an hour.