Geekplus now has 11 order fulfillment automation projects in the Benelux region of Europe, an area that is quickly becoming a focus of warehouse automation for the company. The company is focused on sharing the promise of flexible order fulfillment automation in an area of the world where cumbersome, costly fixed warehouse automation systems still dominate.
The Geekplus Benelux projects take advantage of the entire Goods-to-Person suite of solutions, proving that Geekplus truly is a one-stop shop for automation; the deployments include more than 700 Shelf-to-Person robots, 22 Tote-to-Person RoboShuttles, 208 moving robots and a handful of the Geekplus sorting robots. The company’s partnership with Lalesse supports these operations in the Benelux area. In fact, Geekplus has local partners throughout Europe.
Retailers, 3PLs and other warehouse users have embraced warehouse automation in the Benelux for many of the same reasons customers all over the globe are looking to order fulfillment robots: the inability to find warehouse workers, rising labor costs, a sluggish economy and booming e-commerce business.
Warehouse automation helps e-commerce retailers
According to UPS research in the region, “Managing consumer expectations for faster deliveries and affiliated recruitment are the two biggest e-commerce challenges.” More than 80 percent of Benelux customers that responded to the UPS survey have already invested in automation. Once companies make the initial investment, warehouse automation starts increasing profitability almost from day one. In its report, UPS found that an increase in profits is “directly attributable to automation.”
And this is not about replacing employees. Far from it, according to UPS.
“Whilst the majority of companies expect automation to replace some degree of warehouse staff, this does not necessarily equate to a reduction in headcount or payroll, as staff are likely to be re-deployed.”
Throughout Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxemburg, Geekplus works with the retailers MyJewellery and Hunkemoller as well as CEVA. A new large 3PL will be welcomed into the Geekplus community soon. The Geekplus team will be showing off the suite of Goods-to-Person solutions at the Deliver Europe trade show June 5 and 6 in Amsterdam.
Fixed warehouse automation limits growth
The majority of Geekplus' Benelux customers begin with the Shelf-to-Person offering in which mobile
robots transport shelves of goods to pickers. This provides greater efficiency and speed to the operation when compared to Person-to-Goods solutions, where robots accompany pickers down warehouse aisles. Another benefit is that Shelf-to-Person robots require no infrastructure investment, allowing customers to simply add more robots and moveable shelves as their business grows. This modular automation is a direct response to fixed and cubic solutions that have been the hallmark of European warehouse automation in recent years.
In Tote-to-Person, two robots work together: one that goes high to store totes, one that quickly delivers totes to picking stations. With that combination, the solution can maximize vertical warehouse storage without sacrificing fulfillment speed.
Order fulfillment robots improve sustainability
MyJewellery has been using the Tote-to-Person system since 2023, combining 22 RoboShuttle robots with more than 65 smaller picking robots. In addition to maximizing warehouse space by allowing for upper-level storage and vastly reducing the number of steps employees took during a workday, the organization was attracted to automation’s supply chain sustainability benefits.
"Our business is built on high quality products, but we can only keep that up if we continue to consider improvements for our planet, our people and our products," MyJewellery founder Sharon Hilgers said at the time. "Sustainable solutions like this one installed by our partner Geekplus, make it possible for us to deliver jewelry to our customers in a fast and efficient way whilst, at the same time, saving energy and making the warehouse a safer place to work.
Geekplus isn’t doing it alone. Encouraging warehouse automation in Benelux also extends to thought leadership – telling, and showing, customers how flexible, scalable order fulfillment automation can better prepare them for the retail and supply chain unknowns than the traditional fixed automation. That’s why Geekplus partners with organizations like the Benelux chapter of the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals to spread the word about Goods-to-Person solutions.
Geekplus is a one-stop shop for order fulfillment automation, enabling a range of reliable and innovative mobile robotics solutions fit to evolving order fulfillment needs. Learn more at the Deliver Europe trade show June 5 and 6 in Amsterdam. Geekplus is in booth D63.
