OTTO is 10% the cost of a FTE.
Proving the Case for Autonomous Mobile Robots
Jan 19, 2021
This is the third blog in our "The Business Case for AMRs" series. You can read the first blog here. We set out, in partnership with PULSE Integration (PULSE), to undertake what we believe is the worl...
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The Growing Digital Divide in Manufacturing
Jan 18, 2021
This is the second blog in our "The Business Case for AMRs" series. You can read the first blog here. There is a growing consensus that digitization is opening up a chasm in the manufacturing industry...
The Business Case for Autonomous Mobile Robots in Manufacturing
First deployment of OTTO AMRs at scale at an F500 company demonstrates clear benefits in productivity, cost savings, and robustness.Analysis reveals that a single AMR unit represents just 10% of the e...
Bringing Robotics and People Together in the Supply Chain
Aug 27, 2020
Tech experts and manufacturing leaders have upheld automation as the future of the industry for years. At the same time, for as long as robots have worked in factories, people have voiced concerns ove...
What Skills Are Needed to Be a Connected Worker?
Aug 20, 2020
Industrial analysts frequently debate what traits people need to shine in today's workforce. A person working on a production line needs manufacturing skills, plus communication capabilities, the will...
4 Signs Your Warehouse Environment Needs Mobile Robots
Jul 30, 2020
Mobile robots in warehouses help companies increase their output and meet customer demands, allowing the companies to maintain a competitive advantage. Specific characteristics make warehouse environm...
Business Resiliency: How We’re Enabling Our Customers and Partners Remotely
Jul 22, 2020
COVID-19 has impacted us all as we manage through our new normal. Now more than ever, we’re committed to helping manufacturers realize the immediate benefits of AMRs by adapting our services for remot...
Prioritising Health and Safety Around Workplace Automation
Jul 16, 2020
With 73% of companies expecting to have automation technologies adopted within the next 5 years, there is little question that the steady growth of AI-driven automation in the workplace is having a pr...
Canada Enlists Robots in the Fight Against COVID-19
Jul 06, 2020
On March 11th of this year, the World Health Organization confirmed that the COVID-19 outbreak had become a global pandemic. The world changed overnight as we grappled with the fear and uncertainties ...
What To Ask Your AMR Vendor About Scale Before You Buy
Jun 18, 2020
This is the third and final blog post in our series on scalability where our VP Product, Jay Judkowitz, shares valuable guidance on achieving scale with autonomous mobile robots (AMRs)....
Building a Scalable AMR Solution: Keep Traffic Flowing
Jun 11, 2020
This is the second blog post in our series on scalability where our VP Product, Jay Judkowitz, shares valuable guidance on achieving scale with autonomous mobile robots (AMRs)....
Building a Scalable AMR Solution: How OTTO Scales
Jun 04, 2020
This three-part blog series will focus on AMR scalability. Authored by our VP Product, Jay Judkowitz, the series will delve into how scale is achieved at OTTO Motors and the questions you should consi...
Core Value #1 - “Customer First”
Jun 01, 2020
Today marks an important milestone for the company we started in a cold basement with lime green carpets some 11 years ago. The world was a very different place back in late 2008 - The global financia...
Embracing the Digital Mindset: Top Takeaways From MHI’s 2020 Industry Report
May 14, 2020
The 2020 MHI Industry Report provides a wealth of data, analysis and recommendations for your company’s investment plans. Since all five of the top company challenges have remained the same since 2019...
3 Ways Autonomous Mobile Robots Can Improve Your Safety Culture
Apr 30, 2020
Workplace safety has been a prevalent concern for the manufacturing industry, one which has been heightened as a result of the COVID-19 crisis. With approximately half the American workforce still phy...
5 AI Technologies and Their Application in Materials Handling
Apr 22, 2020
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is expected to have a seismic impact on logistics, with estimates that the technology could add between $1.3 trillion and $2 trillion a year in value to the industry. Th...
From Market Insights to Customer Experiences: Our Take On MODEX 2020
Apr 16, 2020
MODEX 2020 was certainly a different experience for attendees and exhibitors this year. On March 11th, while MODEX was in full swing, the World Health Organization announced that COVID-19 had become a...
Top 3 Takeaways From PLANT's 2020 Advanced Manufacturing Report
Mar 11, 2020
PLANT Magazine recently released its 2020 Advanced Manufacturing Report. While the report included many insightful statistics into the importance of investing in advanced manufacturing technologies, t...
OTTO Motors to Expand Into Japanese Markets With Its Mobile Robots
Mar 02, 2020
Originally posted in The Robot Report on February 12th, 2020....
The 3 Most Successful Ways to Automate Your Supply Chain
Feb 19, 2020
Supply chain automation uses technology to manage and streamline complex processes. Respondents to the 2019 MHI Annual Industry Report believe supply chain automation will upend the industry by adding...
4 Ways Automation Will Transform Skills Needed in the Workplace
Feb 13, 2020
Every major technological breakthrough in human history has pushed people to embrace new skills. Fears that new technology will make people obsolete and force them out of work are also nothing new; pe...
Improving Supply Chain Agility with Autonomous Material Handling
Feb 05, 2020
Exceptionally agile companies can process more materials and manufacture products faster than competitors. Companies benefit from quicker deliveries and better service as a result of being agile, beca...
3 Ways Demand-Driven Supply Chains Benefit From Autonomous Vehicles
Jan 30, 2020
A demand-driven supply chain is flexible enough to respond to real-time signals. It supports fluctuating customer needs, and enables seamless warehouse communication in order to adapt to those changin...
Choosing The Right Material Handling Technology: Why Sunview Patio Doors Automated with AMRs
Jan 22, 2020
Sunview Patio Doors (Sunview) quickly understood that manual material movement was limiting their efficiency, flexibility, and safety. Read more about the challenges that led Sunview to incorporate au...
The Cost of Doing Nothing is Dangerous: Why Sunview Patio Doors Changed From Manual Material Movement
Jan 08, 2020
With 40 years of experience, Sunview Patio Doors (Sunview) is a leader in their industry. Sunview has been successful at meeting customers’ increased demands for faster and better service, while provi...
Five Key Industry 4.0 Technologies
Jan 02, 2020
Originally posted via ARC Advisory Group. New Industry 4.0 technologies, spanning mobile computing to cloud computing, have undergone vast development in the last decade and are now ready to be used a...
iRobotics Industry Set for Seismic Change as Growth Shifts from Fixed Automation to Mobile Systems in Enterprise
Dec 23, 2019
Originally posted on Robotics Tomorrow on December 10th, 2019. ...
The Impact of Automation on the Logistics Labor Market
Dec 17, 2019
Unlike the trials of driverless cars such as Uber, Google and Tesla, adoption of autonomous vehicles in warehouses and factories has progressed past the prototype stage, as part of a rapid, global shi...
How Industry 4.0 Material Handling Technology Impacts Critical KPIs
Dec 12, 2019
Material handling in warehouses and factories is an inefficiency often forgotten about, or completely ignored, in the manufacturing industry. However, material handling is an essential variable cost t...
'Tis the Season of High Demand and Few Available Workers to Meet It
Dec 04, 2019
With the holiday season upon us, factories and warehouses are starting to feel the full effects of the increase in gift purchases and the decrease in available labor. From clothing to electronics to a...
How Becoming a Showcase Facility Will Benefit Your Bottom Line
Nov 26, 2019
Warehouse managers who invest in innovative Industry 4.0 technology, such as automation, increase efficiency, reduce costs related to human error and adequately meet client needs. Automation can also ...
What Is the Smart Factory and Its Impact on Manufacturing?
Nov 21, 2019
You don’t have to look too closely to see that technology is having a profound impact on how factories operate today. The application of technology is making the process of manufacturing ever increasi...
How the 4 Main Sources of Waste Are Costing Factories Time and Resources
Nov 14, 2019
Waste reduction is an ongoing priority in many warehouses because companies understand the direct connection between eliminating waste and increasing efficiencies in the warehouse. The four main sour...
Warehouse Automation Market to Hit $27B by 2025
Nov 07, 2019
Originally posted by Robotics Business Review on September 12th, 2019. ...
North American Robot Shipments Grow Beyond Auto Industry, RIA Says
Oct 31, 2019
Originally posted on Robotics Business Review on February 28th, 2019. ...
Robots Will Be Working in 50,000 Warehouses by 2025, Report Says
Oct 24, 2019
Originally posted by Robotics Business Review on March 26th, 2019....
Key Takeaways From Top Performing Industry 4.0 eBook
Oct 17, 2019
Automation has transformed the way factories and warehouses work, making it cheaper and faster to produce a wide variety of products. However, material handling remains an inefficiency in manufacturin...
Robot Mimicry or Mastery? The End of Bench Manufacturing Is Near
Oct 08, 2019
Originally posted by IndustryWeek on April 30th, 2019. Written by Ken Pulverman, CMO of Parsable....
OTTO Motors Discusses Safety of Self-Driving Vehicles Around Workers
Oct 02, 2019
OTTO Motors CTO Ryan Gariepy had the opportunity to present “8 Steps to Safer Autonomous Vehicles” at ROSCon JP on Wednesday, September 25th, 2019. Ryan had a blast discussing Industry 4.0 in front of...
Top 3 Takeaways From MHI's Annual Industry Report
Sep 25, 2019
The 2019 Material Handling Institute (MHI) Annual Industry Report contains a wealth of data on how companies are adopting new supply chain technologies. Here are the top three takeaways you need to kn...
How Autonomous Robots Benefit the Supply Chain
Sep 19, 2019
Manufacturers often struggle to find ways to improve their supply chain. Labour displacement, hiring challenges, and an increased need for safety all negatively impact productivity. However, investmen...
Hiring Qualified Workers Remains Industry’s Top Challenge
Sep 09, 2019
Ahead of other worthy contenders like customer demand for lower prices, faster response times, competitive pressure, and forecasting, manufacturers named “hiring qualified workers” as their top challe...
Move Fast and (Don't) Break Things: Commercializing Robotics at the Speed of Venture Capital
Aug 28, 2019
Clearpath, the parent company of OTTO Motors, had a blast attending 2019 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) in Montreal, Canada from May 20-24, 2019. Our CTO, Ryan Gariepy...
Understanding Industry 4.0
Jun 20, 2018
You’ve heard it in the context of thought leadership, in conversations about advanced manufacturing, and from tech giants who are propelling innovation, but what exactly is Industry 4.0? To quote our ...
Does Automation Lead to Job Loss?
Jun 06, 2018
There is no denying that technology and automation are changing the way we work. With advancements in robotics, artificial intelligence (AI), and autonomous mobile robots comes fear that many traditio...
6 Lean Manufacturing Principles
May 30, 2018
Most manufacturing companies will waste a large amount of resources in a single year -- sometimes as much as 90%. Following lean manufacturing principles, which originated from the Toyota Production S...
5 Supply Chain and Logistics Trends for 2018
May 25, 2018
This year is shaping up to be a transformative one for the supply chain logistics industry. Digital technology and other supply chain technology trends are enabling big changes for how companies sourc...
How Manufacturers Can Use Data to Improve Predictive Maintenance
May 09, 2018
When manufacturing production stops for an unplanned event, such as equipment failure, it accumulates down time. Maintaining equipment and machinery while keeping costs down is a constant challenge fo...
How Autonomous Mobile Robots Contribute to a Culture of Safety
Apr 12, 2018
"Our goal is to meet human levels of performance and far exceed human levels of safety." - Ryan Gariepy, CTO and Co-founder, OTTO Motors...
MODEX 2018: Get Maximum Business Impact with OTTO Motors
Mar 29, 2018
Many of this year’s MODEX attendees will go to the show to see what technology is coming and how innovation can help the future of their business. But for those attendees that visit the OTTO Motors bo...
Removing Roadblocks of Machine to Machine Communication in Manufacturing
Mar 08, 2018
A big part of maximizing the value of industrial automation, and full realization of the benefits of Industry 4.0, is the flow of data and information. This has applications in a lot of environments, ...
OTTO Motors Joins Walter Isaacs on Onstage at SXSW 2018
Feb 28, 2018
On March 10th, 2018, OTTO Motors CEO and co-founder, Matthew Rendall, will join Walter Isaacson on stage as part of a special taping for the podcast Trailblazers. This will mark the second year in a r...
How Industrial Autonomous Mobile Robots Use Sensors for Localization and Mapping
Feb 14, 2018
Any investment you make in your operations comes with an expectation that it is going to start providing value back into your business as soon as possible. Reliability and accuracy are crucial to runn...
Autonomous Technology is Transforming Medical Device Manufacturing
Feb 07, 2018
Autonomous technology enables improved and more efficient production in increasingly complex and competitive industries, such as medical device manufacturing. ...
Technology and Material Handling Equipment
Feb 01, 2018
How efficiently materials move through a manufacturing or warehouse facility will affect the cost of production as much as any other part of the supply chain. Given its importance, companies have foun...
Autonomous Mobile Robots as an Asset in the Warehouse
Jan 18, 2018
Automation has changed the landscape of the modern warehouse. It’s technology that can be used to improve operations by increasing efficiency, speed, reliability, and accuracy. High on the list of aut...
Lean Material Handling: The Role of AMRs in a Lean Environment
Jan 11, 2018
The manufacturing industry has been moving towards a lights- out approach, that is factories and warehouses operating with as little human intervention as possible. This has led the industry to adopt ...
Increasing Material Flow Efficiency in Your Supply Chain
Dec 20, 2017
Modern supply chains are fast, with most company’s success dependent on their ability to efficiently move parts from around the world to manufacturing facilities. Products move from a raw material sta...
The Move to a Connected Factory
Dec 07, 2017
Many of today’s customers want customized products, which does not always make for a cost-efficient manufacturing process. Automation technology allows businesses to meet customers’ demands by integr...
Material Handling Process Best Practices
Nov 30, 2017
The foundation of warehouse efficiency is set by the material handling process. Inefficiencies in the handling of goods result in decreased performance throughout the warehouse operations, which in tu...
The Importance of Measuring Warehouse KPIs and Metrics
Nov 23, 2017
Measuring warehouse KPIs is one of the most critical components of managing a warehouse, and setting benchmarks for production, quality, safety, or service goals is essential. Whether a process is man...
Improving Materials Handling and Warehouse ROI Through Automation
Nov 16, 2017
Every warehouse is concerned with operating costs, and automation is one way to reduce expenses and increase efficiency. Automated warehouse operations can lead to increased productivity, better mater...
The Plant Manager's Guide to Industry 4.0
Nov 02, 2017
On October 26, 2017, managers from across North America joined us for a live webinar on the opportunities and challenges of Industry 4.0 for plant managers in manufacturing. The following is an introd...
How Industrial Robotics Create a More Productive Work Environment for Employees
Oct 25, 2017
Industrial robots have been used by manufacturers for decades. But, the ways and the complexity of tasks they can perform within that environment has increased dramatically in recent years. One way in...
OTTO Answers Questions on Industry 4.0
Oct 18, 2017
Cisco Canada recently sat down with industry leaders to ask some of the most common questions about Industry 4.0. The questions come from Canadian manufacturers, many of whom are still skeptical of th...
Using Kanban and Inventory Management to Increase Production Efficiency
Oct 12, 2017
Kanban is a lean manufacturing system that controls the rate of production by storing and using materials only when they are required. This means each step of the production process keeps on hand only...
Autonomous Technology for Your Manufacturing Facility
Oct 05, 2017
On September 27, 2017, leading manufacturers from across North America joined us for a live webinar on the current state of material handling, the challenges associated with it, and how self-driving t...
Material Handling in the Packaging Industry
Sep 26, 2017
As a manufacturer in the packaging industry, you are forced to deal with an unprecedented level of product varieties and package complexities, along with overall manufacturing challenges such as labou...
Being on Time, Every Time: On-Time Delivery & Customer Satisfaction
Sep 21, 2017
Meeting customer’s expectations and delivery requirements has to be a priority for every business. In fact, 4 of the top 6 company challenges outlined in the 2020 MHI Annual Industry Report relate to ...
The Heijunka System for Better Materials Management
Sep 14, 2017
When one part of the production process is delayed, it can cause a ripple effect throughout a manufacturing facility. A prime example of how this type of disruption can occur is when the function of m...
How to Build a Value Stream Map
Aug 31, 2017
Value Stream Mapping (VSM) is a planning activity used to determine opportunities for a leaner workflow. The value stream is a set of all actions necessary to bring the product to the customer. It ana...
5 Trends in Lean Manufacturing
Aug 29, 2017
[Original post on newcastlesys.com] While it’s important for lean consultants to stay on top of current trends in lean manufacturing, it is difficult to keep up with advances in technology and new op...
7 Advantages of One-Piece Flow in Manufacturing
Aug 24, 2017
One of the most fundamental elements of creating a lean environment is operating with one-piece-flow. To think of processing one unit at a time can send a shudder through an organisation if this isn’t...
Inefficient Material Handling Leads to Supply Chain Problems
Aug 17, 2017
Every manufacturer is challenged by how to best handle the materials that go into their production. Even an automated production system can have areas of inefficiency which affect many other parts of ...
Introduction to Lean in a Job Shop Manufacturing Environment
Aug 10, 2017
Many companies find lean manufacturing is an effective method to cut costs and operate more efficiently. One area that has not embraced lean fully is the job shop environment, largely because of the d...
Industry 4.0 Fuels Lights-Out Manufacturing [Webinar Recap]
Aug 03, 2017
What is Industry 4.0 and how does it fuel lights-out manufacturing? Is lights-out really possible today or does it remain a far-reaching goal? In our webinar Industrial Robots for Lights-Out Manufactu...
Automated Material Handling is the Secret to One Piece Flow for Lean Production
Jul 27, 2017
Whether you’re running a mid-sized enterprise or a multinational conglomerate, a lean manufacturing system can be integrated in manufacturing and assembly cells that drive a variety of advantages with...
Industry 4.0 Readiness: The Connected Factory is Coming
Jul 26, 2017
In the midst of global change and innovation, there are indications that manufacturing has not kept up. It needs to. With Fortune 500 companies disappearing there is unprecedented threat, but also opp...
How to Set Up a Lean Factory That Works
Jul 25, 2017
[Original post on Industry Week] Lean manufacturers have a leg up on speeding products to market, reducing costs and keeping customers happy. In this overview, I’ll share how to engineer, set up and m...
Forklift Free Manufacturing: Is It For You?
Jul 20, 2017
Fork-free manufacturing is a fast growing ideology that removes fork trucks from the material handling equation. Favouring the use of carts and dollies to move materials to the line, fork-free also op...
Webinar: Industrial Robots for Lights-Out Manufacturing
Jul 13, 2017
Working toward their vision of lights-out manufacturing, automotive parts manufacturer HIROTEC AMERICA jumped at the opportunity to use mobile industrial robots in their facility. But why now? Because...
3 Best Practices to Achieve Lean in Workcell Design
Jul 06, 2017
Traditional machine and fabrication shops divide their floor into multiple departments that group similar equipment or processes, and then move materials in and out once the process is complete. For e...
Lights-Out Manufacturing with Mobile Manipulation: HIROTEC Case Study
Jun 29, 2017
How do you improve throughput and productivity in an environment that is already operating lean? HIROTEC AMERICA asked the same question after spending three decades focused on the K2 philosophy of wo...
In Search of Supply Chain Visibility: Transparency via The Cloud
Jun 27, 2017
[Original post on Industry Week] Responding to market volatility or uncertainty is a top pain point for most manufacturing supply chain executives, and the source of the problem is that most can’t ans...
Manufacturing Work Cell Design: How to Optimize Layout and Minimize Transit Time
Jun 15, 2017
You may have found success with integrating cellular manufacturing into your operation as it brings equipment, people and process into a single location for higher productivity. But you are most likel...
The New Lean: What it Means for Manufacturing
Jun 08, 2017
Written by Diane Huang Lean manufacturing, the buzz words that have been echoing from the walls of management meetings to industrial factory floors. Everyone is striving to perfect a process that is l...
Job Shop Manufacturing: Manual Material Transport Could Cost You $1M/year
Jun 01, 2017
Automation in a job shop can be used to take on low-value tasks so employees can stick to the high-value jobs - we’ve heard this before. Although this statement holds genuine truth, what’s not blatant...
North American Robotics Orders Jump 32% in First Quarter
May 30, 2017
Original post on DC Velocity. The North American robotics market jumped 32 percent in order volume for the first quarter, as industrial and retail giants such as General Motors Co. and Amazon.com Inc....
Clean Power Plan: How Public Policy Affects Manufacturing
May 25, 2017
Part 3 of our series on How Policy Affects Manufacturers explores changes to the Clean Power Plan. Announced in August 2015 by President Obama and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the plan f...
Right-to-Work: How Policy Affects Manufacturers
May 18, 2017
As part of our series, "How Policy Affects Manufacturers," we're discussing changes and impacts of right-to-work laws - it’s shaping up to be an active year in the U.S., with more individual states jo...
How the Industrial IoT Drives Productivity in Factories
May 04, 2017
Technologies that offer connectivity and utilize the IoT (Internet of Things) are able to collect and report a tremendous amount of data. As factory operators are continuously looking to solve for adv...
The Future of Facilities Management: 4 Technologies Changing How We Work
May 02, 2017
Original post by Control Solutions Inc. Automation has long been a focus for facilities managers, whether that has meant the installation of dynamic thermostats in offices or working with full buildi...
Wage Increases: How Policy Affects Manufacturers
Apr 27, 2017
Labor is a variable, complex expense within the manufacturing sector that holds a great deal of influence on how an organization operates. Even incremental changes in minimum manufacturing wages can s...
Lean Manufacturing with Flexible Automation: GE Case Study
Apr 19, 2017
At GE Healthcare’s 280,000 square foot Repair Operations Center in Milwaukee, a fleet of OTTO autonomous mobile robots are used to deliver parts to workstation cells to handle over 2,000 repairs of me...
5 Reasons to Use Material Handling Automation
Apr 13, 2017
The concept of the last mile, and companies who are focused on making those deliveries, seem to get all the attention these days – largely thanks to Amazon and the talk about drone deliveries for the ...
Can Millennials Solve the Manufacturing Labor Shortage?
Apr 06, 2017
The Manufacturing Labor Shortage...
Automotive Manufacturing Keeps Up with Future Demand
Apr 04, 2017
Original post by David Stain at Zebra Technologies. The future of automotive manufacturing in the UK automotive is set to increase by a third, to two million vehicles a year by 20201. And as the IoT ...
Reshoring to America: Why Companies are Moving from Offshore Manufacturing to Reshoring
Mar 30, 2017
In the past four years, there has been a 250% increase in North American manufacturers reshoring their operations to American soil. A change in the industry to this degree has not occurred since the o...
Trump Fuels Onshoring Movement in Manufacturing
Mar 23, 2017
There is significant change happening in the manufacturing industry. The new U.S. president, Trump, is already acting on his campaign promise of promoting onshoring – bringing manufacturing jobs back ...
AGVs Alternative: Autonomous Material Transport
Mar 16, 2017
There are several types of industrial robotics that have changed how manufacturers and warehouses operate. But, all technologies are not all the same and many are improving. A prime example is the mat...
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