inVia Robotics and Rufus Labs announce a strategic partnership by which inVia solutions leverage the Rufus Labs wearables to enhance warehouse worker productivity. inVia Robotics manufacture and deliver a complete warehouse automation solution that can take an existing warehouse layout and deploy autonomous mobile robots to automate inventory storage and movement through the warehouse. inVia solutions automate goods-to-person workflows within the warehouse, and address warehouse labor shortages.
Rufus Labs delivers wearable scanning technology that helps human warehouse workers to be more productive and accurate with order fulfillment tasks. Rufus Labs wearables leverage barcode scanning technology to close the loop on item picking and instruct workers about the next picking task.
inVia Robotics was selected as a 2021 RBR50 company for its innovation of the inVia picker wall. This warehouse workflow optimization process has enabled some inVia customers to experience a 10x improvement in units per hour, without the use of additional human or robotic workers. Core to the inVia Robotics picker wall is the integration of wearables on the human pickers The wearable coordinates the operations of both human pickers and the robotic systems.
Increasing warehouse pick rates
The combination of these two technologies ensures a continuous flow of orders through the warehouse that increases picking rates with existing labor. inVia Picker robots autonomously retrieve ordered items and bring them to a stationary picker or to a staging area. That worker is directed by inVia PickMate software running on Rufus’ android wearables & tablets to scan the items, place them in an order bin, and then scan the bin. This cycle repeats and is continuously improved with intelligence from inVia Logic and Rufus Labs WorkHero software to create the most efficient movement of goods and people throughout the warehouse to increase productivity.
inVia’s unique Robotics-as-a-Service (RaaS) model allows customers to pay only for the services they use, keeping investment targeted and delivering faster ROI. The system includes inVia Logic AI-driven software and inVia Picker robots. The system optimizes inventory placement, directs people or robots on the most efficient paths, and orchestrates workflows to ensure idle time is minimized.
“inVia Logic alone doubles worker’s productivity and paves the way to later quadruple productivity once inVia Picker robots are deployed. , With the added efficiencies introduced with Rufus Labs’ wearable technology, we expect productivity to reach new highs in our shared customers’ facilities,” said Lior Elazary, chief executive officer and co-founder of inVia Robotics.
Rufus Labs’ WorkHero is a complete Productivity-as-a-Service (PaaS) solution that includes workforce analytics software, rugged wearable technology, and superhuman support. Wearable computers and barcode scanners offer real-time scanning metrics, scan and non-scan labor task management, and workforce data to continually improve warehouse operations.The wearable barcode scanner is modular, allowing warehouse workers to choose their ergonomic preference by sliding the scanning module into a ring, glove, or palm scanner attachment.
“Optimizing humans and robots in the warehouse is key to future sustainability, increased productivity, and ensuring a safe environment for workers. Rufus WorkHero already cuts pick time in half and provides added safety features to pickers. Our partnership with inVia will continue to improve throughput for our mutual customers, and allow for future innovations between humans and machines,” said chief executive officer and founder of Rufus Labs, Gabe Grifoni.
With the first joint deployment of inVia Logic AI-driven software, and Rufus WorkHero connected operator technology , Cargo Cove 3PL will see immediate benefit across warehouse configuration optimization, worker productivity, and visibility analytics. Cargo Cove expects to double productivity as a result of the joint integration. With options to scale and add services as needed through the subscription model, 3PLs can benefit from the consistent ability to quickly and efficiently automate in line with business growth.
Takeaways
The core of inVia Robotics innovation is in the software that coordinates both the robots and the human pickers. With the inVia robots capability to move bulk inventory storage around the warehouse, inVia can optimize the location of items based on order demand. the solution can be deployed into existing warehouse footprints with zero changes to the warehouse layout.
inVia and Rufus Labs both help warehouses to accelerate the digitization process without requiring large capital expenditures. Both companies are “all in” on the robots-as-a-service (RaaS) business model that enables their customers to easily afford the productivity enhancements from operating budgets, rather than from a capital expenditure.
The intimacy of the RaaS business model has enabled inVia Robotics to react quickly to customer needs and the rapidly evolving market requirements. The partnership with Rufus Labs is one more example of quickly pivoting to bring a best-of-breed solution to their customers. For this reason, inVia Robotics stands out as a market leader within the warehouse logistics market, while other companies struggle to figure out how to make the balance sheet economics of RaaS viable for their business.
Elazary said: “with the inVia Picker Wall, we’re improving order throughput and accuracy without the need to add additional robots to the warehouse floor, and our customers are more than happy to pay for that additional capacity”.
The partnership between inVia and Rufus Labs is likely to drive additional innovation both in the fulfillment workflow, as well as the design and operation of warehouse wearables. It will be interesting to watch this partnership evolve.
