In her role as CMO of Locus Robotics, Karen brings over twenty years of experience developing innovative, creative, and effective marketing programs for a wide range of technology companies, from start‐ups to Fortune 1000 public companies. Karen’s outstanding analytical and technical abilities deliver insight and innovative programs that consistently deliver positive marketing ROI. She also serves as Locus’s dynamic and articulate corporate spokesperson before the press, analysts, customers, partners, and investors.
Locus Robotics’ revolutionary, the multi-bot solution incorporates powerful and intelligent autonomous mobile robots that operate collaboratively with human workers to dramatically improve piece-handling productivity 2 – 3x, with less labor compared to traditional piece handling systems. This award-winning solution helps retailers, 3PLs, and specialty warehouses efficiently meet and exceed the increasingly complex and demanding requirements of fulfillment environments, easily integrating into existing warehouse infrastructures without disrupting workflows, instantly transforming productivity without transforming the warehouse. For more information, visit www.locusrobotics.com.
Listen to the full discussion here:
- Listen on Stitcher
Connect with the Guest:
Karen Leavitt: LinkedIn
Some of the highlights from the podcast:
- [05:00] How Locus Robotics robots increase productivity
- [12:50] Scaling up – After the initial deployment, any robot that’s added will just automatically join the rest of the robot team.
- [15:45] Driving down employee walking time by about 80%.
- [24:29] The immediate need for the robots is to handle a high volume, the ultimate gift is the business intelligence from the data.
- [32:50] “If you like our robots, you’ll love our humans.”
- [38:30] Advice for a successful career
Show notes:
- [01:35] Tell us a bit about yourself and what are the milestones in your career so far?
- [03:23] What can you tell us about the trends globally and in the North American market?
- [05:01] Our robots can help double or triple the productivity of the workers and really accelerate the productivity coming out of different warehouses.
- [07:28] You mentioned fulfillment and productivity, if you were to maybe prioritize the biggest three elements or the biggest three problems that Locus Robotics is trying to solve, how would you put them in order?
- [09:15] What we saw with COVID was not just the shortage of labor, but also the requirement for social distancing.
- [11:51] You don’t want to have to build the capacity for just your peak seasons, because then you’ll be overcapitalized during your slow seasons. But if you build it for your average season, then when you hit your peak season, you won’t have enough capacity. So that ability to scale up and down. That’s what drove our thinking.
- [12:49] When it comes to increasing the number one day and maybe in two days reducing it, how does that work?
- [13:10] Our solution design team works with our customers frequently and we plan out the capacity requirements for each quarter.
- [15:39] How is Locus different from the other players?
- [19:57] We designed our solution to keep the workers separated, because that drives higher productivity. It just also so happens that that also drives greater health safety at a time of a pandemic.
- [20:42] You were mentioning fulfillment, improving fulfilling productivity two times or even three times, flexible configuration, and a few other interesting elements. Is there a case study we could maybe delve into?
- [24:11] Another interesting thing that happens when you add the automation to the mix, is you don’t have to change the processes from what you’ve already done. But over time, you generally will want to.
- [30:35] What are the next milestones you look forward to for the company?
- [31:35] More important than just the numbers is we’re really trying to make a difference in the industry, we’re really trying to transform the warehouse fulfillment industry and bring it into the digital age.
- [32:50] My CEO likes to say, if you like our robots, you’ll love our humans.
- [34:45] What is the type of culture that you’re trying to nurture in Locus?
- [36:44] We really try and integrate all of these team-building activities just as a natural part of our fabric. We don’t try to force things, we really just try and weave together people’s personal life and work-life as they wish.
- [38:29] What’s the best piece of advice for a successful career that you received or you could give to somebody?
- [38:46] Get out of your comfort zone and really understand what you’re trying to achieve. When you look at any business, really ask yourself, what does success look like for the business as well as for me in that business?
- [40:17] For us, we’re really committed to the digital transformation of the warehouse. And that means today, robots. We are a robotics company but we’re always open-minded to new technologies that may come along.
About the Host:
The host, Andrei Palamariu is the founder of Supplify where he and his team works on building a platform to connect the supply chain tech ecosystem. His most interesting discussions with the clients are focused on implementing the best technology, digital transformation, company growth and expansion, turnarounds, and product and business development.
Alcott Global connects and upgrades the supply chain ecosystem by finding the right talent through executive search, developing talent through learning solutions, and meeting supply chain technology needs through a comprehensive crunch base marketplace.
The supply chain executive search has been our focus since the very beginning, offering recruitment services for top-tier supply chain roles at every level of the end-to-end supply chain: plan, source / procure, make, and deliver. Our consultants have years of experience in placing top talent, in North America, LATAM, Europe, the Middle East & Africa, and APAC, and besides speed, one of our biggest strengths is our network within the supply chain industry, and we capitalize on it to find the best solutions.
Through the years, we have grown as an organization and our offerings with it. One of our initiatives, the learning solutions- training and supply chain academy, is focused on transforming leadership- self-leadership, executive presence, influence capital, and business acumen. Through Supplify, we aim to match corporations with the top technology companies to solve their supply chain and logistics challenges with a focus on innovation and digital transformation.
We are in constant touch with the leaders in supply chain, inviting them to inspire the supply chain professionals in thought-provoking podcast episodes and events, and showcasing what is possible at the yearly Leaders in Supply Chain Awards.
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