Movu Robotics leads the way in warehouse automation with innovative, accessible, and scalable logistics automation solutions to ensure that no warehouse is left behind. Movu is part of the international stow Group, which has 40 years’ experience in supplying logistics and materials handling solutions.
Thomas Meyer-Jander, Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) at stow Group speaks to Warehouse & Logistics News.
What are your best-known products/solutions/services?
Movu Robotics’ comprehensive portfolio of accessible automation and robotics solutions for pallets, bins and items comprises: the Movu atlas 2D pallet shuttle systems; the Movu escala 3D shuttle solution for bins; Movu ifollow, a collaborative Autonomous Mobile Robot (AMR) system to support order picking and transport pallets and other load carriers, and the Movu eligo picking robot.
Which industry sectors are your customers in and which ones are growing fastest?
Our customers are in a range of sectors including E-Commerce, Food & Beverage including F&B / Cold Storage, Wholesale, Pharmaceutical, Manufacturing, Automotive, Apparel and Third Party Logistics (3PL).
What are your most recent product innovations?
The innovative Movu eligo robot picking arm is a fully integrated robotic bin picking solution, enhanced by artificial intelligence (AI), that can automatically piece-pick from a single-SKU source bin and place the individual items into multiple mixed-SKU destination bins. Provided with seamless integration as a pick station option for the Movu escala bin shuttle, the eligo combines advanced software with intelligent grippers and machine vision to provide reliable and effective robotic picking of up to 600 items per hour.
What are the major trends and developments affecting your category and your customers, and how are you responding?
The Movu solutions are designed to contribute to mastering current challenges in the warehouse industry, including labour shortages, cost increases, storage density, growing volumes, flexibility in peak times and improving accuracy. Through easier, modular, flexible technology, Movu is bringing easier automation to the world’s warehouses and is ensuring that no warehouse is left behind when it comes to automation.
Can you tell us about any recent customer contracts and how you helped the customer meet their challenges?
ABB Electrification Norway AS chose the Movu escala bin storage and retrieval system for its production premises in Skien, Norway. The international technology company needed to use its limited space better by moving the storage component out of production and supplying the latter via smaller blocks at a time. When the installation is there will be about 6,000 locations, which are not dependent on being picked from the most accessible first. In addition to providing flexibility, efficiency and scalability, we could mention redundancy if a robot requires maintenance.
A Movu Robotics atlas pallet shuttle system gives leading logistics service provider Kris De Leeneer (KDL) approximately 45,000 storage locations and the capacity to manage a potential throughput of up to 11,000 pallet movements a week. It fulfils KDL’s need for flexibility by allowing pallet throughput to be increased simply by adding more shuttles, while the modular rack can be extended to increase capacity to help futureproof the facility.
How does business in 2023 compare to previous years? What’s your strategy for succeeding in the current climate?
In 2023, our business experienced steady demand for accessible automation solutions, reflecting strong customer interest in innovative technologies. In 2024, while we continue to see reasonable demand in this sector, macro-economical and geo-political challenges have emerged, impacting the readiness for investments in certain countries.
What’s the latest news from your company?
Our innovative Movu escala bin shuttle system was awarded “Product of the Year 2024” by the readers of the logistics trade magazine Materialfluss.
Can you tell us about any areas where you’re currently making technical advances e.g. safety, sustainability, environment?
Warehouses are seeking to become more energy efficient. A 300 kilogram robot shuttles provides a substantial saving in energy consumption simply from not having to move a stacker crane may weigh up to 15 tonnes around, so a shuttle system can be up to five times more energy efficient than craneage.
Are you investing in staff training and skills development?
Staff development is an important part of our culture. By various programs we continuously invest in the quality of our people to remain on top of R&D and project management.
Are you taking part in any major trade shows? Can you tell us what you’ll be exhibiting there?
Despite the still growing importance of digital marketing, trade shows will remain a strong pillar in our marketing mix. Already in 2024 Movu has exhibited our portfolio of plug and play robotics technologies at LogiMAT in Germany, Intralogistics in the UK, SITL in France and MODEX in the US, which all took place in quarter one.
stow UK
t: 01527 573 170
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