Kindred and Hy-Tek partner to expand retail and ecommerce order fulfillment capabilities

Kindred and Hy-Tek Integrated Systems will partner to integrate Kindred’s SORT robotic systems with Hy-Tek’s material handling solutions to automate retail and e-commerce order fulfillment operations fully. The partnership will expand Hy-Tek’s apparel customers’ distribution center and warehouse automation capabilities, accelerating polybag pick and place processes to meet increasing consumer demand.

Hy-Tek’s ECOMPLETE e-commerce solution helps retailers improve existing e-commerce platforms or enter into e-commerce for the first time. Hy-Tek also provides integrated conveyor systems, welded construction conveyor installation, engineered storage systems, receiving and shipping systems, robotic palletizing cells and complete turnkey solutions.

“In this rapidly growing e-commerce fulfillment environment, Hy-Tek turned to Kindred and its SORT robotic system to solve challenges that our customers were facing,” said Donnie Johnson, President, Hy-Tek Integrated Systems. “Kindred offered an affordable yet flexible solution to efficiently and effectively improve their e-commerce fulfillment operations. We are very excited to be able to add this as a solution to our service offerings.”

To meet the continued peaks in online orders since the COVID-19 outbreak, Kindred’s Robotics as a Service (RaaS) model changes how robots are deployed. Hy-Tek’s retail and e-commerce customers pay for the SORT robots’ service, such as the number of items the robots pick, rather than making a major capital investment. Retailers can use the RaaS model to minimize large one-time capital investments.

“Investing in robotic automation benefits both Hy-Tek and global retailers alike,” said Marin Tchakarov, CEO of Kindred. “By partnering with Hy-Tek to expand both parties’ order fulfillment capabilities, we further our contribution to the workforce of the future with unmatched, field-proven technology.”

Kindred SORT pick and place robots utilize CORE with AutoGrasp, a robotics artificial intelligence platform that identifies items to pick, place and sort them into complete end-customer orders. Kindred’s CORE with AutoGrasp combines AI-powered machine vision, grasping and manipulation algorithms that handle a range of merchandise, including deformable items such as polybags.