Kiva founders, inventors join Logistics Hall of Fame
The founders of Kiva Systems who invented the Mobile Robotic Fulfillment System – Mick Mountz, Dr. Peter Wurman, and Prof. Dr. Raffaello D'Andrea – will be inducted into the Logistics Hall of Fame at a gala reception on December 5 at the Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport in Berlin.
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| The inventors of the Mobile Robotic Fulfillment System are new members of the Logistics Hall of Fame (from left to right): Dr. Peter Wurman, Mick Mountz and Prof. Dr. Raffaello D'Andrea. AMRs of Kiva Systems and mini shelves in a warehouse. Photos: Kiva Systems/Logistics Hall of Fame |
With their developments for the company Kiva Systems, founded in the USA in 2003, the trio has enabled numerous e-commerce companies to deliver goods efficiently and error-free on the same day.
Logistics employees no longer walk along shelves looking for orders; instead, autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) move a shelf with inventory to the picking stations.
"Mountz, Wurman and D'Andrea can claim to have made the goods-to-person picking concept the global standard for many e-commerce and omnichannel processes," said Anita Wuermser, executive jury chairwoman of the Logistics Hall of Fame. "For many companies, Mobile Robotic Fulfillment Systems are the technological basis for same-day delivery as we know it today," says , emphasizing the decision of the expert jury, which includes 70 well-known personalities from business, science, politics and the media in 13 nations."
The demise of e-commerce provider Webvan in the USA in 2001 was also the birth of the idea of the Mobile Robotic Fulfillment System. Mountz attributed the decline of his former employer to inflexible intralogistics systems and high order fulfillment costs. This inspired the American to develop a method for picking, packing and shipping orders that could deliver any item to any logistics employee at any time.
To realize his idea, Mountz sought the help of AI and software expert Peter Wurman and robotics and AI pioneer Raffaello D'Andrea and, together with his two colleagues, founded Distrobot in 2003. It became Kiva Systems in 2005. Mountz became the CEO, while Wurman and D’Andrea the co-CTOs. Together they developed the Kiva mobile fulfillment system (US patent number 8,649,899).
At the heart of the system are mobile transport robots that ensure the continuous movement of stock on small shelves between the storage areas and picking stations. In traditional logistics centers, people used to walk up to 15 kilometers a day to search for products on shelves. With the Mobile Robotic Fulfillment System, stocks are consolidated in the middle of the warehouse instead. The workers are located at picking stations around the perimeter.
Once an order has been received, the mobile transport robots are activated to retrieve the right mini-shelf and bring it to an employee who places the ordered products in a shipping carton. The principle can be scaled up quickly and cheaply, and the return on investment is usually less than two years. Long walking distances and transportations by forklift trucks, where there is always a risk of accidents, are now a thing of the past in many retail warehouses.
The secret of the Kiva Systems lies in its cost-effective equipment and powerful algorithms, both on the robots and on servers. The robots navigate safely around the distribution center by first fusing various sensors, such as camera images and inertial sensors, to determine the position of the robot in the warehouse, and then executing missions orchestrated through wireless communications to ensure that no collisions could occur. The software algorithms in the cloud ensure the system optimizes the use of the worker’s and robot’s time.
With 275 employees, Kiva Systems was a fully vertically integrated company, producing all hardware and software, including two different robot models. One could carry loads of up to 450 kilograms, the other loads of up to 1,400 kilograms - both wore the company's characteristic orange color. By 2012, dozens of companies were among the customers, including Walgreens, Staples and Gap. The largest customer, however, became Amazon, which acquired the company in March 2012 for 775 million US dollars. In August 2015, the company changed its name from Kiva Systems LLC to Amazon Robotics LLC. By 2024, the company is approaching 800.000 mobile robots deployed in warehouses of the e- commerce giant worldwide.
The system developed by Mountz, Wurman, and D’Andrea found favor in the intralogistics sector and was copied and further developed many times over the last ten years. Similar systems have now become available from other suppliers worldwide. Today, Mountz is a board member at the MIT Corporation, The Engine Accelerator and Verity. Wurman is executive director at Sony AI. D'Andrea is the founder, chair, and CEO of Verity, and is a professor at ETH Zurich.
The successful So far, 44 logistics experts, including the founders of Kiva Systems, have made it into the Logistics Hall of Fame.
Background Logistics Hall of Fame: The Logistics Hall of Fame honors international personalities who have made an outstanding contribution to the further development of logistics and supply chain management. The goal of the Logistics Hall of Fame is to serve as a global platform for documenting
the milestones of logistics and honoring its movers and shakers, thus underscoring the importance of logistics for business and society. The Logistics Hall of Fame also presents the Logistics Leader of the Year Award to current pacesetters in logistics. The donor is STILL GmbH. In addition, the Logistics Hall of Fame recognizes innovative logistics projects by humanitarian organizations with the Lynn C. Fritz Medal for Excellence in Humanitarian Logistics. The sponsor is the Fritz Institute. The non-profit initiative is supported by politics, associations, media, business and science. Dr. Volker Wissing, Federal Minister for Digital and Transport, is the patron.
Supporters: 24/7 ASSISTANCE, AEB, Baumann Paletten, BLG LOGISTICS, Bundesministerium für Digitales und Verkehr (BMDV), Bundesverband für Eigenlogistik & Verlader (BWVL), Bundesverband Güterkraftverkehr Logistik und Entsorgung (BGL), Bundesverband Materialwirtschaft, Einkauf und Logistik (BME), Bundesverband Paket und Expresslogistik (BPEX), Bundesverband Spedition und Logistik (DSLV), Bundesvereinigung Logistik (BVL), Coyote Logistics, Deutsches Verkehrsforum (DVF), Duisburger Hafen (duisport), EPAL, European Logistics Association (ELA), Exotec, Fritz Institute (Stifter), GARBE Industrial Real Estate, Gebrüder Weiss, Goldbeck, Häfen und Güterverkehr Köln (HGK), HIAB, impact media projects, International Federation of Freight Forwarders Associations (FIATA), International Road Transport Union (IRU), KRONE, Lebensmittel Zeitung, LIP Invest, LOGISTIK-Kurier, LTG - Landauer Transportgesellschaft Doll, materialfluss, METRO LOGISTICS, pfenning-Gruppe, PSI Logistics, RIO – The Logistics Flow, Schnellecke Logistics, SCHUNCK GROUP, Seifert Logistics Group, SETLOG, SSI Schäfer, STILL (Stifter), TGW Logistics Group, trans aktuell, Verband der Automobilindustrie (VDA), WILTSCHE Fördersysteme, Winner Spedition, WISAG
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