December 26, 2005—Kiva Systems, Inc., has announced that its material handling system for the order fulfillment and warehousing industry has increased distribution center productivity by more than 200 percent in two pilot deployments.
Kiva has developed a revolutionary approach involving hundreds of low-cost mobile robots that bring inventory shelving pods directly to operators resulting in triple the number of orders per hour per person, the company says.
During 2005, Kiva completed two pilot deployments of the technology in fulfillment centers located in Texas and Pennsylvania, demonstrating over 200% increases in productivity at both sites. The company serves distribution centers in support of direct-to-consumer, business-to-business, and retail store restocking operations across a wide range of vertical markets including office supplies, apparel, books, music, video, drugstore, grocery, medical, sporting goods and others.
The first full-scale commercial installation of a Kiva Mobile Fulfillment Solution is scheduled for deployment in early 2006.
By combining mobile hardware and powerful software, Kiva’s modular systems deliver any item to any operator at any time, says the company. For more information on Kiva Systems, visit its Web site.
