Supply chain technology company Verte is growing by leaps and bounds, thanks in part to its partnership with warehouse robotics solutions provider Geek+. Atlanta-based Verte provides a unified commerce platform (UCP) that helps third-party logistics service providers (3PLs), brands, and retailers manage the product journey, from manufacturing to delivery. The company’s technology solutions are designed to help small and mid-sized companies manage their supply chains and get orders out the door and into customers’ hands quickly and efficiently.
That’s where Geek+ and its robotic goods-to-person (GTP) picking system come into play. In 2020, Verte began using Geek+'s autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) for picking at its Atlanta warehouse and fulfillment center. The goal was to speed throughput at the facility, which stores and fulfills orders for a handful of Verte’s e-commerce customers. The system replaced a largely manual picking process that was making it difficult to grow and keep up with demand.
Verte has quadrupled its throughput since implementing the Geek+ GTP robots and now has the momentum to focus on expanding its technology platform and growing its customer base.
SPEEDING THROUGHPUT
Verte’s UCP is powered by artificial intelligence and includes a range of technologies to help clients manage supply chains, including a warehouse management system (WMS), an order management system (OMS), a transportation management system (TMS), and an integration hub that allows customers to connect to any other system. Fulfillment is central to serving clients’ needs, especially those running e-commerce businesses with a wide variety of fast-moving items. Verte’s co-founder and chief product officer, Padhu Raman, says Geek+'s robotic GTP system has helped the company meet those demands and has the flexibiity to accommodate future growth. Founded in 2017, Verte spent two years developing its technology platform and has been adding customers and growing the business ever since.
“Geek+ provides a solution that enables us to pick easily because it has [a] throughput capability of almost 300 units per hour,” Raman explains. “It [also] enabled us to store different types of products in a flexible storage solution so [we] can support multiseller, multichannel fulfillment capability.”
Verte’s system includes 130 robots, 12 pick stations, and eight putaway stations. The company initially used 65 robots but quickly doubled that number to meet demand, Raman says. As for storage, the company began with 500 racks and then gradually increased that to nearly 3,000 racks today. The modularity of the system allows Verte to onboard customers quickly and increase volume through the facility.
“[The system] helped us when we were trying to ship 10,000 units; now we can ship four times that—40,000 units [per day],” Raman says. “From an e-commerce perspective, an omnichannel perspective … we need to have a scalable solution that is adaptive. We are able to use our technology with Geek+ to pick at a faster rate—and I’m able to service my customers well.”
And that bodes well for the future. Raman says Verte is focused on expanding its technology platform and adding more customers, with plans to triple the company’s revenue in 2023.
