Nexobot Podcast
Summary
: Dominic Lindsay is the CEO and founder of Nexo Bot, a company that makes automation accessible to warehouses and fulfillment centers of all sizes. Dominic has a background in the distribution and supply chain world, starting his career at Australia Post and working with Amr technology. Nexo Bot has created a solution that can source and sort small to medium volumes down to the pallet level on a table surface, making it suitable for smaller operations. This makes it a great option for warehouses with uneven floors or Nexo offers an innovative solution for warehouse automation using a unique robot-based sorting system. Unlike traditional methods, Nexo's system is made of locally sourced materials, making it easier and cheaper to install in remote areas. The system is designed for small to medium-sized facilities, and operates on a robotics as a service model, which allows customers to pay a smaller ongoing cost rather than a large upfront fee. The use of robots also offers benefits such as quicker installation time and easier troubleshooting. Nexo is Nexobot is a technology company that offers a cloud-based automated robotic solution for warehouse operations. It is designed to be quickly installed, with a typical timeline of one week for design and two weeks for installation. The software is also easy to use, with a simple web application that allows for uploading of a sort plan and integration with the customer's transport management system. The robots themselves are light and designed to be easily replaced or repaired if needed. There are no geographical barriers to implementing this solution, In this episode of the Warehouse Underground podcast, host Todd Youngblood talks with Dom Harding, the founder and CEO of Nexo Bot, a company that produces cost-effective sorting solutions for warehouses and distribution centers. Dom shares how his background in warehouse management led him to create Nexo Bot, and how the full-spectrum sorting solution works. He also discusses the benefits of the solution, including increased productivity, scalability, and cost-efficiency. Dom is currently exploring the possibility of expanding Nexo Bot
Transcription
Speaker 2
[00.00.00]
Hey, it's Ben from the Warehouse Underground podcast. Running out of space in your facility. It is one of the worst things that can happen. Completely slows down your OP, but the customer doesn't care. That's your problem, right? But it doesn't have to be. There is a solution out there that can be a shelter in the storm until it blows over, and that can come from warehouse on wheels. They deliver on demand storage trailers when you need them, that flex with your operation and with locations all across North America, there's a very good chance that they can help you to
Speaker 1
[00.00.32]
know long term leases for a new facility. No delays, no over Pam for space, you don't need no CapEx, just simple smart storage delivered right to your door. So don't let your dog and your aisles become jam packed with pallets wrecking your operation. No, let Wow be your side storage solution while you go back to focusing on main line operation. All right. Hey everyone, welcome to episode number 27 at the Warehouse Underground podcast. Real talk or warehouse D.C. and FC professionals of all levels around the globe. I'm been the host of the show, and joining me on the show today is Dominic Lindsay. Now he is the CEO and founder of Nexo Bot, making automation accessible to operations of all sizes. Now in fulfillment center world, distribution center World, there is a big giant piece of machinery that everyone is familiar with called disorder. If you work in this industry, you know that it is the bread and butter, at least for the outbound side of the operation. Quick summary it is a giant conveyor that spits packages down the chutes that they're supposed to go down to meet the carrier on the other end, whatever the carrier may be, or whatever the time slot may be that the packages are supposed to lead. But the thing is, is that this technology is great, very great. But it's almost always only seen in big time fulfillment centers, big time distribution centers. The small warehouses usually do the same task, but they almost always do it manually, either by an individual person or a team of people. But Dominic has created something very cool that I'm excited to learn more about and Nexo Bot, which may bring this type of solution to everyone and no longer just the big time fulfillment centers and distribution centers. So with that, I'll bring him on the stage right now. Dominic. Dom, my friend, thank you very much for coming on the Warehouse Underground podcast. How are you?
Speaker 2
[00.02.43]
Very good. Thanks for having me, Ben.
Speaker 1
[00.02.45]
Good. Now, so you you're you're Australian and we talked a little bit before the show. You just you're in Boston now, so you just got off the incredible 16 hour flight that takes you to the US. So I appreciate you adjusting to the time, the time slots and the time zones and pick it up and doing the podcast with me. Thank you.
Speaker 2
[00.03.05]
No no problem.
Speaker 1
[00.03.08]
Yeah. So I talked a little bit about in the intro your new company Nexo Bot and what you've created, and we'll get into that in the show. But just can you tell the audience a little bit about you, and what is your background in the distribution and the supply chain world.
Speaker 2
[00.03.25]
Yes. So obviously very Australian centric. Never works in supply chain outside of Australia. But basically, I started my career. Straight out of university. At our national carrier, Australia Post, where I was very, very quickly dealing with very, very big sourcing machines. You know, some of our sorters over in Australia Post are designed to do 20,000 plus items per hour, so they're quite substantial in size. And there I started to see that, you know, what we really needed to do was to control more and more of the supply chain within the Australia Post network, and so had the opportunity to work with the team to spin up a fulfillment business unit. So when essentially from parcel sourcing to e-commerce fulfillment, all within Australia Post and while it Australia Post building of the fulfillment unit, I then had exposure to Amr technology. So that's the thing that you see at the Amazon warehouses, moving parcels on shelves and items on shelves from a storage area to a picker so they can fulfill e-commerce orders quicker and really just fell in love with the like, with robotics as a way to fulfill orders. And then, you know, obviously saw that sourcing was an area that really wasn't supporting that kind of technology.
Speaker 1
[00.04.41]
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, like. Like I mentioned, sorters are great. I mean, a great piece of tech, and everybody relies on them, but, um, they are big, big fast. And they're usually. And almost the ones that I've seen. They're heavy. Uh, conveyor belt site. Right. So, you know, the robot part of it is usually is usually very small. So what was your like? What was your overall inspiration? I mean, I know you launched Nexo bot and we'll get into it, but what what made you want to kind of start the company in this? What I think is a very unique and very frankly cool solution.
Speaker 2
[00.05.21]
Yeah. So it really just came down to continuously seeing more and more solutions in the goods person space. So helping people pick e-commerce orders, pick retail orders. And the technology there is getting really sophisticated, especially when you take a look at the shelves of person systems. But what was really lacking was the sourcing side. You know, I just kept on and you know, you mentioned that sourcing is typically a very, very big piece of technology. And what typically people end up doing is they go, if I can't put a sorter in, there's going to do, you know, direct to where I want it to go. So to this store, to this pallet, to this order, what people are typically doing is they're sorting to a lane that maybe serves eight orders or eight pallets or eight bags or things like that. And what that means is you've then got to then resort that freight into individual orders of pallets. So I really wanted to come up with a solution that could get small to medium volumes, right the way down to the pallet level in a single activity. Yeah,
Speaker 1
[00.06.28]
yeah. Very cool. And everything that you just described. Actually. Apps. Right. Like, I've seen that with my own eyes. I know that you have as well. And if it's not exactly how you laid out, it's it's some version of that that, that is close to that. So, um, but how does it how does it all work? I mean, can you talk to us about the functionality? I mean, I think everyone has a good idea of what a sorter is if they work in this industry, but not necessarily kind of what you've created with the robotics and all that. So how do the nuts and bolts of it work and how is it bring in the value to the to the end user, the people that that install it or go with it?
Speaker 2
[00.07.11]
Yeah. So usually when we think of a conveyor, the source freight is typically a straight line with diverts coming off it, or it's a loop if it's a very big operation. And what that means is that you, as you said in the intro, takes up a lot of footprints. It's fixed infrastructure. You can't remove it. So what I looked at instead was, how can we build a solution that runs on a table surface? That was pretty important because if you have a solution that runs on the floor, it doesn't really work in brownfield sites, because as we all know, you know, we've all been to a million warehouses where we've seen cracks on the floors, uneven surfaces, all those kinds of things. That's not what robots like. So what I had is a sort of first requirement is it has to run on a table surface. I also had a requirement that, as I said before, we need to get it sourcing down to the pallet, the van, the order level. So that we can then avoid that resourcing activity and then making it suitable for the smallest medium size operations. So what we essentially do is we build a large table structure. Well when I say large it's 3.6m by 1.5m tall. So it's and then it can be as long as you'd like it to be. And I'm sure that I hope everybody in the logistics world can convert that into feet and inches. Um, I certainly can't. Um, thank you mate. Maybe you could fill us with some, basically. Um, what that means is that we have this large table structure running through the warehouse, either along the side or through the center, and it's a completely modular system. The robots run on top, and then what they do is they drop the cartons or the items into a hole located on that table structure. And it does that using an unloading method that we've invented, where we essentially put a barrier above the robot that the item impacts, and then that holds the item in place, and then the item comes off the back of the robot and down the line down the hole. What it means is that unlike some of the other robotic solutions out there, we only use the forward momentum of the robot to unload the parcel. Instead of using the complexity of a flipper or a conveyor system, which has a lot of cost and a lot of weight to the hardware.
Speaker 1
[00.09.32]
Yeah. And there's some I actually look, there's some very cool videos that are out there on YouTube, computer generated. And I think some real ones too, that that show exactly what you're talking about. So I encourage the, the listeners to go check that out, because it is a very ingenious and very unique and almost, almost simple in how it operates. But it seems to be very effective. And like you mentioned traditionally with big sorters, they are a giant monument and the fulfillment center. And you're right, everything has to be the floor has to be super level, everything has to be in place for them to be installed. And once they're installed, that's it. The whole place has to kind of move and operate around them after that. But in a lot of places in warehouses that are maybe an older building, you don't you don't have all that. The floor might not be leveled. There's cracks in it. They may need to be modular. And so those are not good candidates, I don't think for, uh, for source for exactly the reason. Reason like you, like you mentioned. So it seems like what you're offering is much more, you know, much more greedy solution. Modular solution doesn't have all of these prerequisites that usually block this type of program for businesses of that, of that size. So I, I, I really like that
Speaker 2
[00.10.55]
now something else that so something else that we've put into the system as well is the table structure is completely made out of timber. It's not made out of steel. It's not welded. So what it's actually designed to the way I actually developed it was I worked with a local cabinet maker, and he actually helped me design a table structure that any kitchen cabinet maker could build. And the reason we did that was because it means that if we do go into more remote areas, we don't need to import the infrastructure from overseas. Instead, we can actually engage local trades. Who can build that for us using a local supply chain. Because the last thing I want to be doing is an automation vendor is, you know, sourcing materials in Los Angeles or another major city in transporting them into the middle of a country.
Speaker 1
[00.11.42]
Yeah. And that's great that you mentioned that because once. So I have worked at operations that knew nothing but using a sorter. And then I've gone from them to a family run company that they had never used it before in their life. Right. But then eventually one was installed. And it's a little bit like going from maps in your car to GPS, you know what I mean? Once you go to GPS, you go, oh, how did I live without this type thing? And people usually make that same transition when they start to use the sorter. If the sorter goes down or breaks, they think, oh, we can't we? Our operation is stopped. We can't. We can't work now. Well, you were running operations without it a year ago. They just got so used to it and relying on it. And so, uh, to be able to get out there and use local products to, to wherever you go is, uh, as a big, big time advantage. So let me ask you this. Like, who are your type customers? I mean, we kind of alluded to who I think you're going after, but who are they like? Well, how big, how small? Uh, where where are they usually located? Like, how do you how do you go after. Who's your who's your bread and butter, I guess I should say of the perfect type of, of, uh, of customer to, to use Nexo, but.
Speaker 2
[00.13.03]
Um, I think, as we basically alluded to, people who traditionally would really ignore automation as a solution. You know, what we're looking at really is holding that 80 to 90% of operations where they look at automation and they go, oh, that's too hard. You know, we're looking for people who are doing less, you know, a few thousand items per day. That's really where we're comfortable. So we can go as low as, say, 7 to 800 items per day, which is, as we know, is really low volumes for most operations these days. But they do exist right the way through to somewhere in the region of 6 to 7000.
Speaker 1
[00.13.43]
Yeah. And I think that that's the the thing for listeners out there to think about is it's not necessarily the size of your facility or how much revenue you do. What we want to know is what your throughput. Right. Like how many sorts are required? How many boxes are you going to put through. So Dom, you use a, a service model. Uh, that is operator pay or you use you use a robotics as a service model for, for your pricing, which brief description means that the operators are paying an ongoing cost for sort versus a big CapEx
Speaker 2
[00.14.21]
upfront cost type thing.
Speaker 1
[00.14.23]
So. How did you arrive at that? As you as your strategy. And then what are the benefits for the operators out there for, for, for using that? Because I'm sure that they will almost always have a question for you at some point in the exploratory phase. Why is this the model and and how does that benefit me? So what say you on on that and the benefit of that for your your model.
Speaker 2
[00.14.48]
Yeah. So there's quite a few benefits. The first one is it makes a lot easier for the operators to say yes to the solution. You know, if you've got a business and you do some quick maths and you look at my pricing structure and you go, hey, you know, I'm going to save net $0.30 an item and that makes sense to you. And that's enough volume for you to justify the work required to install one of our solutions. Then the business case should be relatively easy to say yes to and to, you know, commence with the projects. The second one is a lot of the time, projects get stuck in the decision making loop of, you know, the warehouse operators think it's a great idea, but then as soon as they present it to the leadership within the business, the leadership in the business will often left them out of the room. All of a sudden, hey, I'm going to spend 2 million bucks on what you're doing on, you know, putting a castle sauce around, even if it makes the best commercial sense because businesses have priorities. Um, the other one as well, for me is it's about me taking a bet on my products. You know, I'm not asking people to believe in my solution. I believe enough in my solution to put the money down and to actually back it for installation.
Speaker 1
[00.15.58]
Yeah. And for you, you're right. Going to the chief operating officer, the CEO as the as the ops director and saying two, 3 million bucks for this order. Sounds cool. But, uh, in my experience, once that happens, if they do sign that, check the amount of pressure that falls on your QA after that to to deliver and and prove it's worth is is huge. Right. But it seems like with the solution that you offer, you can start to see the return on investment right away. You should be able to see the value of it right away. And then everybody like, feels good about that. And you don't have this giant pressure in this giant, uh, CapEx that you have to do now. I mean, if you're a business and you're absolutely flush with cash or whatever, but I don't know anybody out there that is just can quickly write a check for $3 million, unless it's the big time fulfillment centers and distribution centers that have hundreds around the country. And that's not really your customer like what we already established. So, uh, your customer doesn't it doesn't sound like it's going to be like, oh, yeah, 3 million. Huh? There you go. Let's let me know when I can come take a tour of it and, and, uh, and see it so.
Speaker 2
[00.17.13]
Well, it also is as well. So we are also talking to bigger players as well because bigger players have priorities like, you know, the Fedex and ups of the world. They can't always made every single operation in their entire network, you know, especially in remote and regional areas where they don't have the conveyor. You know, I still want to talk to those kind of people because they're the kind of people that, you know, they're not going to deliver, you know, millions of dollars worth of benefit per annum for every neck support system that they install. But if they put 20 or 30 in their shortcut.
Speaker 1
[00.17.45]
Yeah. Yeah. That. That's a that's a good point too. That's a good point too. It could be a big well-known operation, but they have a a satellite branch or a small site because you mentioned Fedex and UPS. And I've been in some Fedex and UPS facilities that were huge and fast, and I've been in somewhere that were very rural and very small. So I think that's a very, very important point there too. So let me ask you this question. Um, you know, sorters, when people think of sorters, they think fast. Tons of conveyor belt rollers everywhere, feet that push boxes across the side. So you don't really have any of that. So I didn't see any rollers or in the, in the solution that you provide. So what have you seen to be the benefits of the of the robots as the method of, of transporting the product vice, you know, traditional rollers that you see in big giant conveyors and sorters. So the first one is obviously cost and time to install. You know, when we show up on site, we're typically on site for a week or two in order to install a commissioner system. That's um, because we can pre-assembled components offsite the robots. When they're ready to be installed, they just go get dropped right into the operation. There's no need to, you know, code the PLCs or write custom software. That's all done in advance. And so when we get onsite, we just put the system in and get it to work as quickly as possible. Because, you know, with that robotics as a service model, if I have the system sat there for three months without generating any volume. Well guess what, I'm not being paid either. So I'm heavily incentivized to get that thing up and running as quickly as I can. And the other big benefit to is the
Speaker 2
[00.19.29]
ability to troubleshoot and fix problems. When you take a look at a conveyor system, if you have one roller that's out of thousands of rollers, that's that entire loop gone until you can fix that one roller with a robotic base system, you can go in. You can take that one robot off the system. You can replace it. You can return it to the navigation. You can reset it without interrupting the rest. Yeah, that's a really key point too, and I didn't really think about that. You're right. It conveyors have I mean the sorters usually have some type of hospital lane or uh, holding pattern that, that they go into. But if any piece of the machinery breaks, there's no, there's, there's not really like an emergency lane like how there is on interstate or anything like that. It it's broken, like you said, until it's fixed and, and a lot of them are moving very fast. It may not seem like a big deal if a piece of machinery is broken for 30 minutes or 20 minutes or 15 minutes, but with the throughput that's happening in these places, that's a that's a pretty big backlog. So I think you're right. Like being able to just remove the triage, the one broken piece and hey, the system is is running again just like that. Because, uh, because I took it off the line is very fast. And, um, what did did I did. Did you say exactly what the installation time was? Because I, I've been through a sorter project before, and it was like it was months. It was months to get this thing up, and it required design and everything. And we had a.
Speaker 1
[00.21.02]
Change everything and change our whole operation around it to account for that. So did I. Did I? Did I hear you right? In your in your case of ventilation. Because that's just way faster than what I think most people would expect. Are you?
Speaker 2
[00.21.18]
Yeah. So recently I was, um, driving up through regional Australia. I don't know anybody, I don't know. Well, everybody knows Australia, but it's very, very big and very, very empty. Um, I was actually I actually drove a total of 13 hours over the course of two days into essentially the middle of the desert. Um, met with a potential customer, spend 2 or 3 hours designing the source for their operation, and a week later we had a signed service agreement. So not only is it really quick to install, but because we've built everything to be to come out of sort of prefabricated modules, we can just pull the modules together depending on the customer requirements, to design an entire sourcing system. So we can literally go from first meetings to sign contracts in a week, 90 days to build the robots, and then another two weeks for the physical installation.
Speaker 1
[00.22.10]
Yeah. That's fast. I mean, in this industry is notorious for being impatient. It's just the nature of the beast, I think, and how it operates with speed. And get it there and make it so if you if you if you're telling this these people to be patient, maybe that's not the best crowd. So I think you're I think you're on to something on there. Uh, on that point with, uh, with speed of build. I think that that's really cool. So let me ask you a little bit about the software, though. Like what's going on on the inside because without getting too in the weeds, me can you just tell us about what you know, how does the software work? How do we if I use it, how easy is it to program to set up the the lanes, the down sheet lanes for the sort and all those type things? What's the how how much of a lift is it for the operators to to to use it. And then what's the programming look like on it inside on your end? Yeah. So we've built everything as a cloud application so we don't host anything locally, which means that it all is all stored on our AWS service, which means that we don't have to put on site service either. So all we need to put on site is a small little black, um, box, which is essentially like a, um, communications hub between the different robots. And that's it. So all you do on the web application is you upload a CSV file with your, um, sort plan that you want to load into. You then integrate it to your transport management system, which if they're using an API and they've got some fairly standard endpoints, it's relatively easy to do. And then we drop the robots in and then they start running around. Um, the way that the robots actually work is they are essentially a line following robot. And you'll see this on our website if you check it out, which means that we have a very, very simple navigation system. Yeah, a lot of
Speaker 2
[00.24.01]
other robotic systems use a grid of QR codes, which is something we probably all seen a lot of videos and photos of which are great, but what that means is that you need to have what's called orchestration server on sites, which is able to handle the navigation for the individual robots. What my robots do is they drive up to an intersection. They check if anybody else is using that intersection that has a higher priority, and then they go, if it's not, not in use otherwise. So I got you that. I got alongside with the mesh network instead of using service. Yeah,
Speaker 1
[00.24.35]
that's very cool too, because. So you don't have to have, uh, local on support, you know, it or anything like that. You just, you just you just reach out to, to Nexo bot for the support. So let me ask this question, though. What about operational contingencies? I mean, I know we briefly talked about, hey, if the if the robot breaks, we simply take it, remove it, and the whole system continues to operate. But what about maintenance of the of the robots and, you know, uh, wait, you know, do you have any like, weight restrictions and those type of things? Because if you've been around ops long enough and I and I know that you have you know, that contingencies happen. I mean, they're they're nature of the beast and things type happen. So how does the system handle, uh, you know, troubleshooting or things like that.
Speaker 2
[00.25.21]
Yeah. So as far as like day to day troubleshooting is concerned, as I said, most of it is operator managed. So you can put robots back into the navigation layer and you can remove them. And if a robot does, you know, need a full repair, what we do is when we deploy on our system because we use that robotics as a service model. I just keep some spare robots at each customer site that can then be switched in for damaged units. And the robots are designed specifically to be light enough so they can be put into a castle and then shipped back to us for repairs and repairs and reintroduction into the fleets.
Speaker 1
[00.25.57]
I got You. So it's a little bit like Netflix, right? Like, you just hold on to this. Hold on to this and then send me the other one while you watch this one. Uh, type thing and, uh, and you just do the change out. Uh, I like that the original Netflix, I should say
Speaker 2
[00.26.10]
Dom with, uh,
Speaker 1
[00.26.12]
is in the in the mail. Not not here. Like, how, uh, how Netflix is now. So now let me ask this question, because if I the this solution sounds very appealing to me, by the way, because when I look back at some time I spent at a family owned company, I just think that this would have been an absolute perfect solution. We just didn't have it back then and we didn't know about it back then, but, um, I, I wish that I would have had it back then. I've had a couple of people on my podcast where I say that about their services, but in terms of the pre-work, um, so what what what happens in the facilities before you get there? Like, what does it look like, taste like, smell like, feel like for them to get ready. Like, how big of a lift is it for them? What type of data do you need before you show up on site to install? What do you expect out of your customers to to do for you?
Speaker 2
[00.27.06]
Yeah. So scoping and design phase is really just about putting together a business case. Customer. So what kind of data we would typically need from that is what's the current labor looking like that we're going to be modifying as a result of the system? What's the throughput that they're doing whilst they're hours of operations. Let's just make sure this makes sense commercially for both parties. And then after that it's simply, um, integration and clearing the floor space for us to come in. And if the integration is simple enough, it shouldn't be a particularly challenging process to do that.
Speaker 1
[00.27.40]
Yeah. And, uh, does, uh. Does it? Is it the same thing? Like if. Like if I have this in my facility A or my facility one. And then I want to expand in facility two somewhere else in the United States or somewhere else in Australia. Does it have to be done again? Do I have to go through that same same type thing, or do you just need to quickly see how that facility is laid out? Yeah, there's no problems. There's no geographical barriers in the way. And I can rinse, repeat and have it up even faster in sight. Number two or site number three than I put it up in site number one. Like what is the expansion? Like, once we
Speaker 2
[00.28.22]
grow, I wish it was that simple. But as we always know, the best the the best laid plans in logistics, right? Um, every facility is unique and different, but I'm hoping that thanks to the modular nature and the simplicity of the integration, we should be able to go from site to site relatively quickly. But of course, every single operation has its quirks. You know, I've never been into a warehouse, and I'm sure you've never been never. I've never been to a warehouse and have not gone well. That just doesn't make sense. But then you kind of think about it and you kind of realize, you know, why the why the operator was doing that, and there's usually a good reason for it. Yeah. I worked in a warehouse one time, and there was a, uh, in the middle in the exact middle of the, of the facility was, uh, was an office like a office setting. And so the whole warehouse sort of like, diverted around the office. And I remember thinking, well, who would build this here? Like, why would anyone build an office in here? So I think it just depends on the age and when the building was built and.
Speaker 1
[00.29.25]
They're built to be throughput centers now distribution centers. But I think once upon a time they were just built to be warehouses and and store stuff. They didn't really think about that. So
Speaker 2
[00.29.34]
yeah. Um, because, um, you know, random racks, random pallet staging areas. Yeah. But there's, there's, there's usually always a reason for most things.
Speaker 1
[00.29.46]
Yeah. And now if somebody's okay, so if my, if I, if I spec my operation with you for a certain throughput, I want to achieve a, you know, a thousand, a thousand per hour or a thousand per day or, or whatever. Um, and then if I want to increase the throughput, is that just as simple as adding more robots or does it does it you need to. Do you need to change possibly change the the size of of the table that they operate on to it. Could it be just the robots or does it always need to be? Uh, both. If I if I'm getting faster.
Speaker 2
[00.30.20]
Yeah. Look, I think we need. Uh, so hopefully it'll be just the robots, but there's obviously find that that that that is the capacity of the table as well. You know, we've designed the robot specifically to go quite slow. So we're all about putting lots of slow robots in because that's better aligned to, um, you know, modern safety standards as well, because, you know it's all well and good. Saying, hey, my robot goes, uh, you know, um, and again, apologies for the, um, the talking heads here. You know, it goes to 0.7m. You know, my robot goes at three meters per second, but then in order to go three meters per second, you have to put barriers up. You have to put additional sensors on the robots. Instead, what we do, we run our robots nice and slow, which makes them significantly safer for operators as well. So there is obviously a point at which we're not the right solution for you. But I don't think that's the majority of operations. Yeah, and it probably helps. I think, too, with the just the efficiency of the operation. You probably get less downtime there too, because extreme speed type robotics tend to be, in my experience, more prone to to errors and faults and slip ups and breaks. And, you know, I think when you are, when you walk into and I and I've mentioned I've had some robotics people on the podcast before and I've mentioned this, that now when you walk into a facility, if you're doing a, let's say you're doing a customer tour, hey, the customer wants to come in, they want to see the product or they want to see how we operate. When you have a machine and a system like what you're talking about, it's just it's just mesmerizing for people to watch. One. I mean it's it's great for, for tours. Obviously all the operational benefits that we just, we just mentioned are there. But
Speaker 1
[00.32.03]
just, just confidence building uh, and presentation um, display of what people give to to their customers. I think it's always a big win for that too. And especially something that is more cost effective for them to do, you know, so I think it is a really good thing. So so you who you mentioned that mostly you are in Australia right now, but you are are you trying to grow the solution in the United States? Because I think there I think there's a market for it. Right? I think there's a lot of facilities out there that could really benefit this benefit from this. So what's your strategy there. You know get from Australia the US.
Speaker 2
[00.32.44]
So we're not quite ready to go live in the US yet. This is my you know, first exploration of the US market. This visit that I'm doing at the moment. But what I am looking for is for people who are interesting the foundation customers, you know, if you have an interest in what we're doing listening to this today and you think, hey, maybe I'll give it a crack, this, that's an Australian say, I'm sorry about that. But basically, um,
Speaker 1
[00.33.08]
yeah, we'll
Speaker 2
[00.33.09]
we'll, um, we'll, you know, we'll give it a go. And, um, if you if you think that could be you, please reach out to me. You know, I'm here for another three weeks, and I'd love to come and visit some warehouses.
Speaker 1
[00.33.22]
Yeah, absolutely. And I'll say like in Australia. So I did some research on I want some awards. Right. So I know you won an award down there and the Australian government is, is proud of you and really helping you up. And so I mean you're making good headway. I mean this seems like a very good a good solution. And I can tell you from experience, the moment that I saw it, that I saw the video of how it was operating and I saw the demographic, the type of customer that you're going after. I thought, this is a great solution right there. There are businesses out there that could jump onto this, and it would be fantastic for them, and they could get the operational benefits that a sorter provides at much, much, much less the cost. And something that is, is the size and shape customized for their facility that they run. I really I really do believe that. I think I think there's people out there that will be interested in this, and I, I hope that I hope that you find them and I hope that you have great success in Australia. But selfishly, I hope you come to the US. Um, right. I hope you start building this in the US because I think it's really good and I hope people reach out to you if they're listening.
Speaker 2
[00.34.32]
Yeah. So look, one of the reasons why that's happened in Australia is, you know, I was part of a program run by a robotics hub in Australia called, um, um, hub. And when I was there, one of the priorities for the Australian government is actually to identify robotics technologies that can be the first piece of automation for a lot of small, medium sized businesses because, you know, we we're no longer getting, um, the same productivity boost that we used to get as a result of making processes better. What we need to do in order to improve productivity, we actually need to turn to automation more and more.
Speaker 1
[00.35.11]
Yeah, yeah, I agree with you, I think. I think that's key for the future, but certainly at the level that you're at. So where can people find out more about you? Um, if they want to find out more about you or Nexo bot. What where where do they
Speaker 2
[00.35.26]
go? Yeah. Pretty simple. Unfortunately, it's still WW Nexo bot combo, so remember you. But if you google Nexo bot, you'll probably find us at the top of Google. And in there there's a book and meeting link. For the next three weeks, I've set my calendar to US times, so feel free to book a meeting with me, our Microsoft Teams. We'll have a quick chat, and if we think that there's some sort of alignment, I'd be happy to head out to any warehouses.
Speaker 1
[00.35.54]
Awesome. Awesome, Dom. Well, so I will, I will, I will put those links on my website where where the where the video plays on the warehouse underground comm. And, uh, good luck to you, my friend. Thank you very much again for coming on the show. And best of luck, your trip in Boston and safe travels back to to Australia. And when you fly
Speaker 2
[00.36.12]
back having. Awesome.
Speaker 1
[00.36.16]
All right, take care man. All right guys that concludes this show today. Thank you again for Dom and Nexo Bot for coming on to talk about that stuff. I wish I could show the video that they have on on YouTube that shows how how his product works. So please go check that out. Uh, search for Nexo bot like like I did on YouTube. Very cool video, very good, very good product. Uh, going to serve a lot of needs. I think, uh, out there in the industry, as the warehouse underground goes. Please sign up for the community. If you've not done so. We've got 216 members in the community. We have networking in there, message boards, and we have more live shows. We just did a live show a couple of weeks ago and more coming down the pipe. You need to be a member of the community in order to take part in the live show, so please do that. Check out the Tiger Team, which is another show that I do with my co-host Jordan, which is about life in warehouses and distribution centers, but with a wit, humor and sarcasm slant to it. If you work out there in the industry, you will know right away what we are referencing and talking about in that show. If you listen to that. So please take a look or listen to the Tiger team and look for episode six next week. We're gonna try to get that out next week if we can, but no promises as this podcast goes. Thank you guys again. I will see you next week for episode number 28. Thank you. God bless.
