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Lee Chan, CEO of Floatic / Optimize picking with logistics robot solution 'Floware'

Optimize picking with the logistics robotics solution 'Floware'

Increase productivity and accuracy with picking robots versus manual labor

2024/06

CEO of logistics robotics solutions company Floatic, Chan Lee, has been recognized as one of Forbes' 30 Under 30 Leaders in Asia.

Forbes annually recognizes 30 notable leaders under the age of 30 in 10 fields, including art, marketing, technology, finance, and healthcare, and Lee was the only Korean robotics company to be named in the Industry, Manufacturing & Energy category.

Lee, who majored in mechanical engineering at KAIST and gained robotics engineering experience at NAVER Labs and Woowa Brothers before founding Floatic, was selected as one of Forbes Korea's “30 Under 30 Leaders” last year.

Floatic provides Floware, an autonomous robot solution that supports picking operations in logistics centers. With minimal equipment and investment costs, it can be connected to the center and operated in about six weeks, improving productivity by up to 3.5 times compared to existing manual labor.

“Most logistics centers still rely on labor-intensive manual work, and our goal is to make them more reliable and predictable,” said Lee Chan, CEO of Floatic. ”We will continue to create easy and efficient robotic solutions for optimal logistics environments.”

Since its founding in 2021, Floatic has raised Pre-A funding from major investors such as Naver, Kakao, and Hyundai Motor, and is currently collaborating with leading Korean logistics partners such as POSCO DX and Logisall.

Q. How did you first become interested in logistics robots?

I was interested in robots and gained a lot of experience in robotics at companies such as NAVER LABS and Woowa Brothers. During this process, I realized that the most effective industry to introduce robots is logistics. This is because the logistics industry still relies heavily on manual labor, so there is a lot of room for efficiency and productivity improvements when applying robots.

In addition, in order to effectively introduce robots to logistics sites, it is important to clearly define the tasks of robots and support them to perform them while respecting the know-how of existing logistics centers, but at the time of the startup, it was difficult to find a company specializing in logistics robots in Korea.

Therefore, we thought that we should not only make robots suitable for logistics through Floatic, but also help them to be instrumentalized and utilized at the right time and place. We expect that this will lower the physical and psychological barriers to introducing logistics robots at logistics sites.

Q. Why are you focusing on picking robots among logistics robots?

We chose picking because it is the part of the logistics process that requires the most workers.

An important task in a warehouse is the shipping process, including picking, which is the most pressurized part of logistics because once an order is placed, the goods must be shipped out and delivered to the customer regardless of the situation.

On the other hand, it can be said that building a strategy for picking well is the core of logistics work. Therefore, we thought of starting Floatic with autonomous picking robots from the beginning.

However, picking is a task that is performed at the logistics site, and the type of work varies depending on the industry and property, so in order to understand this properly, we worked in the field and gained insights from experts before starting Floatic.

I also worked part-time at Coupang warehouse, a representative logistics site in Korea, but I realized that even at Coupang, which has invested a lot in logistics systems, picking is not easy. To solve this problem, picking is often carried out by investing a lot of manpower, but it is not always easy to meet the required number of workers in a warehouse that suffers from a chronic labor shortage.

Therefore, it is imperative to improve manual labor in picking. With its picking robots, Floatic aims to bridge the gap between automation and manual labor and create a foundation for increased picking efficiency.

Q. Please introduce Floware, your autonomous logistics robot solution.

Floware is a robot solution that efficiently supports the picking process, which takes up the most time in a warehouse. By providing an integrated system for planning, execution, and control of picking tasks based on picking robots, from software to hardware, customers can choose Floware without having to contact different companies to introduce picking robots.

Floware consists of Floatic Engine, a platform that integrates with the customer's system to plan and manage order tasks in the most productive way, and Flody, an autonomous robot that actually performs picking tasks alongside humans.

The Floatic Engine is the core of the flowware, optimizing tasks for the warehouse operating environment and enabling optimal robot workflow through multi-robot control. It also enables real-time task management and data visibility.

In particular, by modularizing the algorithm in detail according to the logistics environment, it is designed to efficiently pick according to product attributes and respond flexibly and quickly to various situations that may occur during the picking process.

The picking robot, Flody, was designed and built in-house by Floatic. From the beginning, we realized that we needed not only engineers who focused on the robot's functionality, but also designers who represented the perspective of the workers who use the robot.

As a result, we recently introduced a new design for the commercialization model, taking into account the feedback from the PoCs we have been conducting and where workers reach. Compared to the existing model, the difference is that customized hardware is provided that allows customers to select the number, location, and type of robot shelves, such as 1-3 tiers, depending on their needs. In addition, features such as a barcode scanner for the inspection process and a level indicator to guide the location of the picked items can be selected as options according to the customer's needs, allowing for flexibility in responding to various work methods and warehouse environments. In addition, a picking guide that displays the product to be picked with a laser so that the operator can visually confirm the product to be picked has been added to prevent picking another

Q. GTPs are increasingly in demand at logistics sites, while picking robots are still in their infancy, what is the difference between them?

Picking robots and GTP are complementary picking equipment, and they are used in different fields and have different customers.

GTPs are more efficient at handling products that are ordered infrequently but require a large amount of inventory, so they are ideal for products that are stored densely and require fewer pickers. Picking robots, on the other hand, are best suited for high-frequency orders that need to be picked quickly while still providing access to the product. As you can see, picking robots and GTPs have distinct roles, which means they have different areas of efficiency.

While GTPs have been introduced to logistics sites in many cases and have been able to show the number of goods processed per hour, picking robots are still in the early stages of the market, so there is a lack of experience and low awareness among customers. However, as interest in picking robots is growing and demand is forming, we expect the market to gradually grow as customers share their experiences with picking robots. Floatic will help customers increase their experience and awareness of picking robots.

Q. Please introduce the PoC cases you have been working on, such as Lotte Global Logistics MFC.

The Lotte Global Logistics Goyang Smart MFC is about 450 square meters and handles daily necessities and fulfills orders from individual customers. In particular, we aimed to establish a process where one worker operates the center with two picking robots. The PoC results showed that productivity improved by 2.5 times after the introduction of picking robots.

Company C, a 3PL that handles cosmetics, introduced picking robots to solve the problem of overcrowded picking zones with an area of 2,400 square meters and too many workers. In response to the problem of bottlenecks caused by high-frequency items in the picking zone, the company improved driving congestion by rearranging high-frequency items, and productivity doubled by replacing a large number of manual carts with picking robots.

We have conducted various other PoCs and received good feedback on the results and process. Floatic has also been able to continue to improve its floware based on feedback from the logistics site during the PoC, which is a win-win situation.

Q. You have been participating in exhibitions such as Modex and Automate held in the U.S. What is your strategy for entering the U.S. market?

The U.S. market is a mature picking robot market, and Locus Robotics is a representative company. As the market is large, there is a lot of demand for picking robots, but unlike GTP, which is highly competitive, there are not many picking robot companies yet. Therefore, there is a high need for new picking robot companies in the United States.

As Floatic has been recognized for its capabilities in the demanding Korean market, it believes that it has a chance to win in the U.S. market, and has been participating in exhibitions such as Modex and Automate to continuously promote its floware.

Over the past year or two, we've been visiting exhibitions, and more and more people in the industry are recognizing us, and we've had meaningful discussions. In the U.S., we are planning to proceed steadily and steadily without having a sense of urgency to achieve results immediately, and we are currently aiming to enter the market with a good partner.