MHD COVER STORY
COHESIO GROUP (KÖRBER) LAUNCHES NEW SORTING AMR SOLUTION MHD sits down with Nishan Wijemanne, CEO at Cohesio Group (Körber) to find out how the technology solutions provider is ready to transform warehousing and logistics operations with an increased AMR portfolio.
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ohesio Group (Körber) keeps a keen eye on all developments around technology, automation and innovation. According to Nishan Wijemanne, CEO at the company, he has been looking for opportunities to broaden Cohesio Group’s portfolio for a while. “We work very closely with our
For Locus Robotics, this partnership gives the AMR provider access to a new market.
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clients and therefore understand that there is a very eager interest in automation. This interest has been exasperated by the huge uptake in e-commerce we have seen since COVID-19. We want to make sure we offer our customers diversity and versatility in our AMR solutions and so have made the decision to significantly broaden our offering in this space,” Nishan says. The past few months have been busy for Cohesio Group. After being acquired by Körber in September last year, the company announced in April this year that it would join 11 other sister companies and become Körber Supply Chain, as part of a global rebrand. This is a strategic move that Nishan says will help accelerate Cohesio Group through its next phases of growth. Cohesio’s ethos is to continue to create and deliver tailored supply chain solutions so that its customers can transform their warehouse operations to meet increased demand and service level expectations. This philosophy is what drives Nishan to continue to look for new products and opportunities that will help Cohesio’s customers continue to keep up in the challenging world of e-commerce.
A NEW SORTING AMR SOLUTION The first product that Nishan is proud to add to Cohesio’s AMR portfolio, is the new Körber AutoSort Mobile solution. The Körber AutoSort Mobile is a sorting robot solution. It offers an alternative to traditional sortation systems in that it does not require a fixed track. The solution uses free-moving, independent robots that help businesses reduce their heavy reliance and investment in fixed automation. Instead, the Körber AutoSort Mobile AMRs offer greater scalability at a comparatively economical investment and thus a much quick return on investment. Nishan says this will be a true gamechanger for the ANZ supply chain and logistics industry. He describes the solution as fairly simple, in that it utilises AMRs that allow dynamic sortation, taking the shortest and most direct path. “This kind of flexibility offers significant efficiency and productivity gains over a traditional cross belt or shoe sorter. As this solution can also be operated on a table-top, this form of picking or sortation offers increased flexibility during peak periods,” he says. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, most retailers have seen a surge in e-commerce orders. Nishan says