Re:A Day in the Life of a Kiva Robot (2011) [video]
by Animats on Sunday December 21, 2014 @02:42AM
(#8779227)
I don't think that's right. They only had about $100m in revenue when Amazon acquired them.
That's what's so striking about Kiva. They basically make one model of robot with minor variations. Kiva was about 500 employees when Amazon bought them. Yet that was enough to handle 20% of online fulfillment. Pets.com, Diapers.com, Abercrombie and Fitch, and many other major brands used Kiva robots.
Most of the other automation companies do vast amounts of custom engineering work. Every customer is different. For Kiva, every customer is the same, and the product line is simple. Kiva is the first company to achieve this in robotics. (Well, there's the Roomba, if you consider that a robot.)
That's what's so striking about Kiva. They basically make one model of robot with minor variations. Kiva was about 500 employees when Amazon bought them. Yet that was enough to handle 20% of online fulfillment. Pets.com, Diapers.com, Abercrombie and Fitch, and many other major brands used Kiva robots.
Most of the other automation companies do vast amounts of custom engineering work. Every customer is different. For Kiva, every customer is the same, and the product line is simple. Kiva is the first company to achieve this in robotics. (Well, there's the Roomba, if you consider that a robot.)