Episode 3 – Patty Katsaros from Locus Robotics: Audio automatically transcribed by Sonix

Episode 3 – Patty Katsaros from Locus Robotics: this m4a audio file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.

Winn Hardin:
Everybody. Here we are at manufacturing matters in Boston, at the Autonomous Mobile Robotics and Logistics Conference, which is co-located with the Vision show here in Boston. And I'm lucky enough to be with Patty Katsaros, director of marketing operations at Locus Robotics. Thanks for being with us, Ben.

Patty Katsaros:
Thanks for having.

Winn Hardin:
Me. My pleasure. So, Patty, this is one of the first times we've had a chance to talk. Tell us a little bit about locus robotics.

Patty Katsaros:
So Locus Robotics is a automation solutions provider and we help ecommerce companies and third party logistics companies really increase their productivity. But with a robotics automation solutions that help ecommerce people in warehouse logistics essentially help improve the productivity for their picking operations.

Winn Hardin:
Fantastic. So do you you obviously have a lot of the hardware that we've seen at the booth also, but you do, I think, some some warehouse optimization interfacing with the WMS. Can you tell us a little bit about the zone?

Patty Katsaros:
Absolutely. Yeah. So it's great we take the information from WMS system, the picking the orders, and it all goes into our system and we optimize the picking paths and essentially the people stay in zones and the robots come to them and they direct them picking, they, they tell them exactly what to pick, where the people stay, the robots come, they pick, the robots go and they go to the next station or they go to the PAC out. And it really helps to optimize and increase productivity. And we see our customers. We have customers all over the world. Over 200 deployments worldwide. And we've seen them increase productivity 2 to 3 times in a matter of like six months. It's pretty crazy. And they have to make no changes to the to the infrastructure in order to deploy our.

Winn Hardin:
Robots, which has been one of the biggest drawbacks to AMR solutions, right, where you had to go with magnetic strip or some other type of navigation system. But how is locust overcome those challenges?

Patty Katsaros:
Well, we use slam navigation and the robots create maps themselves, so there's no infrastructure changes. And really you put them in and we we really offer this white glove treatment where we deploy, we help, we develop a concept of operations. We help to. So the founders of Lucas started at a third party or started a third party logistics company. And so they took all of that deep knowledge and built a robotics company. So it's really it was all about the logistics and the operations and and how to optimize it. So starting with that foundation. Exactly. Exactly. So we bring to bear all of that deep knowledge and learning. And now with every we've grown and and improved productivity for all kinds of different warehouses from small to enterprise level, like in DHL, for example. And so there's a lot of stories that you can find all over on our website, on social media to help learn how we can actually help help other other companies.

Winn Hardin:
So you're not just working with the big carriers, the big national internationals, too. You've got a solution for some of the smaller retailers and the regional distribution centers.

Patty Katsaros:
Yeah, absolutely. That's the great thing about the solution is you can get it up and running in in weeks.

Winn Hardin:
No, that was going to be my next question. So someone contacts you. You're going to it's a very consultative sale. You said white glove. So obviously a little bit of handholding.

Patty Katsaros:
To the process.

Winn Hardin:
If a customer comes to you and says, okay, you know, I've got I've got 100,000 SKUs, I've got what is the actual time to to production, time to to commissioning, I guess, of the system.

Patty Katsaros:
Usually it can be as fast as 2 to 3 months. I mean, from and from the time where we've worked through exactly what it's going to be to deployment. Yeah, it can be months, sometimes weeks. It's incredible. But we really do take a look. And the reason that the deployment goes so smoothly is because there's a lot of time in the front end to work through the concept of operations to really understand what the challenges are and to ensure that it's going to be that they're going to get the fit and the ROI that they want. Because if it's not a good solution for them, we won't work with. It's not going to give the return the fast and successful. Yeah, we say speed to value is one of the things we say a lot is really important to us. And if it's if it's not going to help them immediately, then it's not worth moving forward.

Winn Hardin:
Now, I would assume that a lot of that pre-planning and that strategic development in the early part, that probably also helps to you do feel the solution that's customized without really having to get in the middle and slow down their operations for long.

Patty Katsaros:
Absolutely.

Winn Hardin:
Yeah. It's not like ecommerce or warehousing right now can slow down.

Patty Katsaros:
Right. Right. And then another wonderful thing and because of the ecommerce and how think about peak periods, you know that happens around the holiday times with. With with Lucas, there's two things working where we we do robots as a service. So there's very limited upfront costs and you're going to pay for what you need. And then it's always improving and you're always you always have the latest equipment, the latest software, it's all included and all of our services included. But also we offer peak programs where if you need to flex up for a period of time during peak and have 20 more robots for your system, we have a service that will bring in 20 and then we'll take more if you don't need them any more. So it really allows that flexibility that's so critical for e commerce operations.

Winn Hardin:
Now, this may be a left field question, but I got to ask him, So what's the fastest someone has achieved payback? I mean, the leasing lease to own the race, that takes a big part of the cap. Yeah.

Patty Katsaros:
Yeah. So I mean, I've heard, you know, I'm not on the sales front end and the front lines, but I mean, I've heard I've heard six months.

Winn Hardin:
Six months.

Patty Katsaros:
Yeah. I mean, it's it's fast. It's fast.

Winn Hardin:
Right?

Patty Katsaros:
Absolutely.

Winn Hardin:
Planning is almost like the precursor to getting payback. That's just.

Patty Katsaros:
It's amazing. It's amazing. Yeah. It's incredible how fast and how happy. And we have many stories and we don't just have like some testimonials, but we have a lot of companies that are on that want to go on record and talk about how much, not only how the company loves the robots, but I think more importantly how the associates love the robots. And we get a lot of because they're really the most important part of it is they're happy because it makes their jobs a lot easier. They go from walking, you know, 7 to 10 miles a day to cut that by a 10th. I mean, they're and they go home with more energy at the end of the day. And it's a lot better place to work because they're not just pushing heavy carts all day. They're instead they're standing around, they're working with technology. They become robot wranglers and they enjoy working with them.

Winn Hardin:
I wish we had some statistics on what that means for retention, because I know in warehousing operations, the biggest problem is turnover. Now human asset, capital turnover. So anything that can really improve that culture has got to be absolutely.

Patty Katsaros:
I've even I've even heard some of the customers I've talked to. I've heard that they'll use it as a training. It's so easy to get going and work with. Yeah, we offer multi languages, we offer because it's a Bluetooth, so they wear Bluetooth tag and as soon as they walk up to the robot it knows it's that individual associate and it'll change languages if needed. French You know, they'll change to Spanish, it'll change whatever it might be very easy to work with. It's very prescriptive and directive so that companies will actually bring on new employees and they'll train them on the robots to help train them on the on the entire operation because they get because it's so easy. They're so easy to work with.

Winn Hardin:
Yeah. Now tell me a little bit, if you would mind about the waypoint acquisition.

Patty Katsaros:
Sure. Yeah. So Locus is very focused on warehouse operations expanding within the four walls. The e commerce typically kind of go in £100 smaller each picking. But with the acquisition of Waypoint, it brought on higher capacity robots. So now you can think about case picking, the robots can move carts. We have a vector that will actually pick up and move carts. We have Max, which will can handle £3,000. So you can now do case picking or you can do pick to pallet. There's a lot of opportunities that opens up within the warehouse. And then even beyond expanding into industrial and potentially manufacturing applications as well.

Winn Hardin:
Are you guys able to is that eliminate the need for an AGV or an automated forklift, or is that something maybe a next phase down the road?

Patty Katsaros:
It really depends. I think, you know, possibly certainly for Agv where you don't have to put lines in the floor and that kind of stuff with the forklifts, it could work together with the forklift where the forklift could be used to put things on and off the robot potentially. Sometimes those high bay forklifts can stay in the in the High Bay area and then marry with a robot, and then the robot takes it away. We've seen it where it keeps, whether it's automated forklifts or just manual forklifts, keeps them on the perimeter because they're very dangerous. And then then you have the robots interior because they're a lot safer, safer and more consistent.

Winn Hardin:
So is that usually the supervisory software is the WMS system in that case.

Patty Katsaros:
Yeah.

Winn Hardin:
And I bet you Lucas has spent a lot of time and effort developing your software.

Patty Katsaros:
Yeah, well, I guess technically the WMS is where all the orders are coming or going into, and then we're getting that information and then our system is supervisory In terms of the robotic solution. That's kind of.

Winn Hardin:
Yes, I was I was wondering who would be interfacing the hubs with the locus solutions, you know, those that was going to assume. So I knew that you were. Pulling data from the.

Patty Katsaros:
Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Winn Hardin:
And I was just in terms of locus integration with other agv solutions, if that's something that's, you know, you have APIs for that or if that's maybe just handled by the WMS. So, you know, in that case, something that's not really in Lucas's primary area of concern.

Patty Katsaros:
It's one of the things that we're doing and I'm really proud of our work with the mass robotics and other companies for the interoperability standard. And those are the types of standards that are going to help those those robots work together from other vendors work together and work kind of on the same. So one one company can we'll be able to to visualize all different types of robots from different from different manufacturers. That's going to help with that integration.

Winn Hardin:
So I think since this is the first year at Armour that's been in Boston, it's also the first time I've seen a demo on show floor demo area. And I believe you feel that a couple of demos.

Patty Katsaros:
Do you want to share? We did, yeah. Yeah, we did. So we we're showing our cart connect capabilities with one with two of our, two of the demos with our vector picking up. It could easily dynamically pick up a cart, move it, drop it off easily. So that allows for great case picking applications. Really think of all of the areas within a warehouse where people are pushing carts. You can start to now have the robot drive the cart and just have the people picking on and off the carts. So we were demonstrating that as well. And then we participated in the interoperability panel with our demo with mass robotics and in orbit. And so we did that as well.

Winn Hardin:
Well, thank goodness you guys are around. So there's a chance you might actually get a Christmas gift this year by the end of January, just the way things are going. And you never know. So is there anything coming down the pike from Locust? You've got a lot of innovation solutions right there. Is there anything that we should be looking for in 2023?

Patty Katsaros:
I think you're going to see us involved in just expanding, like I said, within within the four walls of the warehouse and then outside into industrial manufacturing type applications. But it really kind of opens up and partnering with other companies to just as you were saying, kind of work together and expand so you can really offer a total solution for customers from both small but also enterprise level companies. That's wonderful.

Winn Hardin:
Yeah, Thanks for taking some time today. I really appreciate you being on Manufacturing manager.

Patty Katsaros:
Yeah, thank you. This is wonderful. This is really.

Winn Hardin:
Fun. So if anybody's got any questions for Patty or for Locus robotics, please just give us a shout. Contact us over at Take you to be like, share the video here so that we can continue to spread the word that manufacturing matters. Thanks again. Thank you.

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