Singapore-based GreyOrange, a leader in warehouse robotics automation systems, is establishing a new US Headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia.

The headquarters, which is expected to be completed next year, will employ 50 new staff.

In the next three years, the facility plans to manufacture and deploy an additional 20,000 robots in the US.

GreyOrange has been recognized as one of the world's Top 50 Robotics Companies every year since 2016.

Its co-founders Samay Kohli and Akash Gupta have been acknowledged as top 35 global innovators by MIT Technology Review.

With the robotics segment of the materials handling equipment market expected to reach over $20 billion by 2024, the company is looking to the U.S. for its future growth.

GreyOrange is also opening a research and development (R&D) centre in Boston, Massachusetts, to further expand its technology development capability and propel innovation in robotics logistics. 

The company plans to build a team of more than 60 engineers for R&D in AI, human-machine interface (HMI), machine vision and data intelligence, adding to the current global team of 250 R&D engineers. GreyOrange selected Atlanta and Boston for their respective reputations for excellence in supply chain and emerging tech.

Supply chain innovation

To drive GreyOrange’s rapid growth in this market, GreyOrange recently hired Chris Barber to lead as Regional CEO, North America. Barber joins from Honeywell Intelligrated where he served as Vice President, Southern Operations. He was a key member of the senior management of Intelligrated, a leader in supply chain and warehouse automation solutions before its acquisition by Honeywell in 2016.

In his new role, Barber will oversee GreyOrange’s expansion starting with the U.S., bringing supply chain innovation and streamlined solutions powered by AI to e-commerce, retail and logistics customers.

“GreyOrange is the world’s largest supply chain robotics company and the global leader of robotics technology for operating flexible automated warehouses,” says CEO & co-founder Samay Kohli.

“With our expansion into the United States and Chris Barber as our Regional CEO, we will transform warehouse processes and efficiency and enhance employee engagement and retention, bringing it on par with tech jobs.

“Embracing robots, who work hand-in-hand with humans, enables our customers to boost overall productivity, minimise inventory waste, increase consumer choice and improve their company’s bottom line.”

Strong product offering

GreyOrange products include Butler, an autonomous robot that uses goods-to-person technology for inventory storage, replenishment and order picking.

Butler PickPal is an automated picking system that works with human employee to pick, process, consolidate and prepare orders. PickPal, launched earlier this year, can achieve 500-600 picks per hour while working alongside a human, GreyOrange says. It can handle more than 100,000 SKUs that weigh up to 4kg.

GreyOrange also offers two sortation systems, the Linear Sorter and Pick-Put-to-Light.

The Linear Sorter, a high-speed packaging robot that can recognise and tender thousands of retail SKUs.

In August, it was deployed in a new distribution centre in Maharashtra, India, where it now handles more than 8,000 different apparel products across 1,500 styles.

Supply chain management

GreyMatter is the company’s software platform that uses AI algorithms and machine learning to optimize path planning, maximize storage, streamline zoning, improve space utilization and accelerate order fulfillment.

GreyOrange is principally focused on supply chain management, where it sees an opportunity to reduce 10 to 15 percent of inventory in transit.

Less excess inventory means companies can run their supply chain more efficiently, the company points out.

It claims that one of its clients in Japan saw a 15 percent increase in warehouse storage efficiency and a four times increase in throughput, and that another in Latin America was able to fulfill 50 percent more orders while reducing costs. 

GreyOrange was founded in 2011 and has offices in Singapore, India, Japan, Germany, and the US.