Swisslog wins major award for Automated Item Pick

The motto of this year’s competition was “Success through Progress,” and AIP was chosen as the winner in the “Intralogistics & Production Management” category for its outstanding economic and societal benefits.

The prestigious award was presented to Dr. Christian Baur, CEO of Swisslog’s Warehouse & Distribution Solutions (WDS) Division, on the opening day of HANNOVER MESSE. 

Whether in e-commerce, the pharmaceutical industry, spare-parts logistics or the supply of industrial assembly lines, the trend towards ever smaller batch sizes calls for reliable and efficient solutions. To master this challenge, Swisslog is betting on robot-aided intralogistics concepts. At the 2016 HANNOVER MESSE, its fully automated picking system Automated Item Pick (AIP) was recognised with the 2016 INDUSTRIEPREIS in the “Intralogistics & Production Management” category.

Now in its 11th year, the annual INDUSTRIEPREIS is awarded by Huber Verlag für neue Medien, a German media company. An expert jury comprised of professors, scientists, industry specialists and trade journalists had assessed the submitted applications and chosen winners in a total of 14 categories.

“We are very happy to receive the 2016 INDUSTRIEPREIS,” says Dr. Christian Baur. “This award recognises our pioneering role in integrating advanced human-robot collaboration solutions in logistics. The cooperation between Swisslog and KUKA delivers synergies at every level. Ultimately, it is the customers who benefit from intralogistics solutions that are more efficient, flexible and intelligent.”  

The centrepiece of Swisslog’s Automated Item Pick solution is KUKA’s lightweight robot LBR iiwa, which is equipped with state-of-the-art sensor technology and a 7-axis gripper. In Swisslog’s advanced logistics application, if networked with automated goods-to-person warehouse systems such as AutoStore or CarryPick, LBR iiwa is able to assist human workers with picking tasks without the need for a barrier or fence between man and machine.

Automated Item Pick has the potential to significantly boost efficiency in item picking. Smart human-robot collaboration makes order fulfilment significantly faster, less error-prone and more flexible. This gives companies the opportunity to benefit from improved quality and customer satisfaction.

As a result of the close cooperation between Swisslog and KUKA, Industry 4.0 solutions such as AIP are becoming the centrepieces of state-of-the-art material flow and logistics concepts. Both companies are working at full speed to advance the AIP solution and to soon present an initial industrial application featuring a large range of grippers. In addition, a robot-aided material flow innovation called Automated Case Picking is being readied for launch. Featuring state-of-the-art robotic technology, this logistics solution will be able to automatically create mixed pallets from multiple single-SKU pallets.

Key acquisition

Swisslog enhances its pallet storage and retrieval offerings with acquisition of Power Automation Systems (PAS)

Swisslog Warehouse and Distribution Solutions, leading provider of best-in-class intralogistics solutions, has announced the acquisition of Power Automation Systems (PAS), the world-wide market leader in pallet shuttle automated storage and retrieval systems (ASRS). Now with offerings ranging from advanced robotics to fast case shuttles and pallet shuttles, together with KUKA Swisslog continues building the Automation Powerhouse chain offering clients compelling solutions. 

Christian Baur, Swisslog CEO of Warehouse and Distribution Solutions (WDS), stated: “The acquisition of PAS allows Swisslog to expand our product portfolio and offerings with focus to the North American and APAC markets. As the leader in logistics automation, our goal was to offer our clients a new dimension of speed and storage density for pallet warehouses that handle a confined number of SKU’s with high volume, not only in the green field, but also for existing buildings.”

PAS and Swisslog customers will remain top priority throughout the acquisition and leadership change. “The combination of Swisslog and PAS will deliver benefits to our customers greater than the sum of our parts,” said Markus Schmidt, Senior Vice President, Swisslog Warehouse and Distribution Solutions Americas. Continued Schmidt, “Furthermore, Swisslog offers its world class service with our customer support team consisting of 24/7 help desk, remote system monitoring, on-site support, spare parts and system retrofit expansions, and modernisations, which will be of great benefit to PAS’s existing customers.”