Let the consolidation begin

I early 2016, I drove the 50 miles from my home in New Hampshire to Devens, Massachusetts, to visit with Bruce Welty. I met Bruce way back in 2001 when visited Modern’s offices as part of the sale of AllPoints Systems, a WMS provider, to EXE Technologies. Now, I was visiting him at Quiet Logistics, the 3PL he co-founded to do e-fulfillment for small-to-mid-size specialty e-tailers.

Quiet had been one of the earliest adopters of Kiva’s autonomous mobile robotics technology. Like the rest of Kiva’s customers, Quiet was going to lose system support in a year or so now that Kiva was owned by Amazon. So, he and his team were developing their own replacement AMR solution. Welty didn’t want to be beholden to another robotics company that might get bought by Amazon, Walmart or another big gun.

The technology now known as Locus Robotics, was still in the piloting and tinkering stage. But, as I drove back to New Hampshire that afternoon, two things stood out. The first was that Welty was so confident in the technology they were developing that he predicted a billion dollar market in the not so distant future. 3PLs were his prime target for commercializing the technology. I wasn’t convinced of the size of the market, but I was certain that I’d seen the future of order fulfillment in piece-picking environments. Here’s a link to the article I wrote about that visit.

Fast forward to the summer of 2020, when I had a chance to visit NorthShore Care Supply, a Chicago-area e-tailer specializing in products for incontinence. NorthShore was using AMRs from Waypoint Robotics (www.waypointrobotics.com) for case picking; the system was capable of loads of up to 700 pounds, far in excess of what you’d load onto an AMR from Locus or 6 River Systems. Like visiting Quiet earlier, I thought I was seeing a new frontier for AMR technology.

I bring up this history because Locus just announced its acquisition of Waypoint. You can read the press release and story by my colleague Roberto Michel here.

The deal struck me as an indicator of how market leaders like Locus are looking to expand the market for AMR technology. It adds a new dimension to what Locus can offer it’s customers, as I’m sure there are other applications like the one at NorthShore that aren’t being served right now. And, it gives Waypoint access to resources that you only get from a parent as well-funded as Locus.

It also strikes me as another example of a shift in a market that is saturated by startups, but is, little by little, seeing big players buy their way into the market, including Teradyne’s purchase of MiR and Universal Robot, Shopify’s acquisition of 6 River Systems and the more recent purchase of Fetch by Zebra.

How is Locus viewing the acquisition? I exchanged email questions with Rick Faulk, CEO of Locus Robotics.

Q. Why was Locus interested in Waypoint?

Faulk. While Locus has enjoyed tremendous growth in the fulfillment warehouse space – particularly in piece-picking – we’ve long believed that there are significant growth opportunities that require handling larger, heavier payloads. The acquisition of Waypoint Robotics will extend the use cases and applications for AMRs across a wider range of industries. Waypoint’s innovative Vector and MAV3K are industrial-strength, flexible mobile robot platforms that feature omnidirectional mobility and can be fitted with any number of top modules and attachments, making them versatile and scalable for a variety of applications. They are also interoperable with LocusBots and can easily communicate with other machines and IoT devices throughout a facility.

Q. What does this say about the evolution of the AMR space?

Faulk. With the sudden emergence of online ordering, there is significantly more pressure on the supply chain to handle the increased volume, faster delivery times, and customer expectations while facing the challenge of an ongoing labor shortage has led to AMR automation becoming a solution of choice in the industry. With the range of use cases from ecommerce fulfillment, case-picking, pallet movement and more expanding, platform and system integration and interoperability will be key to delivering solutions that address the entire spectrum of a customer’s needs, both today and tomorrow.

Q. Are we seeing the consolidation of this space?

Faulk. While there have been several recent acquisitions in the industry (Shopify acquiring 6 River Systems and Zebra acquiring Fetch Robotics), this is the first time the an AMR company has acquired another AMR company.

Q. How will Waypoint continue to operate?

Faulk. The new organization will be managed as one company under the name of Locus Robotics. As CEO, Rick Faulk will continue to be responsible for all of the operations of the company. We will continue with our current executive leadership team that will also include ex-Waypoint members who will have now become Locus employees. Waypoint employees will remain in their NH locations for the foreseeable future, however, they will now have access to all of the Locus resources and facilities.

It’s an exciting time in robotics in the warehouse. In fact, the next three issues of Modern will include stories of different robotics applications. And, hand it to Welty and his partner for have the forsight to develop AMR technology. Keep an eye on this space.

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