ATLANTA – Manhattan Associates Inc. has launched an automation network, a program designed to speed the development and implementation of modern distribution centre automation and robotics in partnership with major warehouse automation solution providers.
The Manhattan Automation Network is launching with five inaugural members: Kindred AI, Locus Robotics, Matthews Automation Solutions, RightHand Robotics and VCO Systems.
The recent growth of omnichannel retail and a shortage of warehouse workers due to the healthy employment market is putting tremendous pressure on distribution centres. As a result, many warehouses are aggressively adopting automation and robotics solutions to supplement their human workforces. However, integrating the workflows between these automated solutions and human workers, other automated solutions and other DC software can be difficult and expensive.
The Manhattan Automation Network is designed to reduce the cost and complexity of adopting warehouse automation solutions. It provides a certification process to ensure that Manhattan WMS customers gain the advantage of prebuilt integration as a strong starting point to their automation projects, leading to a significant reduction in overall project costs.
This new program builds on Manhattan’s more than 25 years of successful integration projects inside some of the world’s most automated DCs. In this time, the company has developed and refined integration capabilities that drive faster, less costly implementations. Manhattan is also the first company to embed a warehouse execution system (WES) within a WMS that quickly and seamlessly orchestrates workflows across the full spectrum of DC resources.
“As warehouses and distribution centres continue to struggle with labor challenges, more and more are turning to automated and robotic systems to bolster their human workforces,” said Bernie McCabe, senior partner, alliances manager at Matthews Automation Solutions.
“Matthews has long been a Manhattan Value Partner (MVP) with a proven material handling interface to their WMS. This partnership was a natural extension for our newest technologies—including the self-navigating Autonomous Mobile Robot (AMR)—validating them to be just as easy to integrate with Manhattan software.”
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