Kiva’s robot army helps run warehouses
Posted by Joe Cannon
The drive to enhance customer value with more efficient and effective distribution systems leads many warehouse and distribution center managers to various forms of automation. In our books we refer to this as the physical distribution concept. Kiva Systems has created a warehouse automation system that relies on robots and software, and yes some human beings, to achieve these objectives.
The video below provides a short (3:20) overview and demonstration of Kiva’s robots in action. Sorry about the :30 commercial up-front. An accompanying article “Robot workers take over warehouses,” (CNN Money, November 9, 2011) addresses Kiva’s roots and start-up challenges. The article might be more useful background material or it could be assigned if you emphasize entrepreneurship in your marketing instruction. The video is a good fit when you cover physical distribution.


The Bloomberg BusinessWeek cover story this week (“