News

March 9, 2021: ILM and French Startup will sign Next-Generation Picking System Partner Agreement at the End of this March

IHI Material Handling Systems (Koto-ku, Tokyo; President: Shunji Kasa; hereinafter "ILM") has signed a partnership agreement with EXOTEC Solutions SAS (hereinafter "EXOTEC"), a France-based company, to develop, manufacture, and sell Skypod, a three-dimensional traveling robotic picking system in Japan and neighboring countries.

Skypod is a "Goods to Person" picking system that dramatically improves the efficiency of picking operations at distribution sites, as it differs from the conventional method in which the picker goes to the storage location to pick the items to be picked, and the items are brought to the picker's hand by countless robots that run back and forth, left and right, up and down between the racks in the warehouse.

Starting with the conclusion of this sales partnership agreement, we will provide total logistics solutions, including Skypod in our lineup, to meet the needs of logistics centers in various industries, including the online shopping industry, which is expected to grow comprehensively in the future because of alleviating labor shortages and improving efficiency and automation of operations.

【EXOTEC】

EXOTEC is an industrial equipment manufacturer based in Croix, France, recognized for its outstanding innovative technologies and solutions, especially the Skypod, which has been selected as one of the 120 most promising startups in France for 2020.