3 ms·
This sounds familiar, reminds me of when Amazon acquired Kiva, they too had rivals as customers. Amazon decided to slowly stop supporting existing customers, a
by swalsh 10y ago
This sounds familiar, reminds me of when Amazon acquired Kiva, they too had rivals as customers. Amazon decided to slowly stop supporting existing customers, and focus only on its internal operations.
I think the lesson here, for something as crucial as automation, you're taking a risk when purchasing robots from vendors.
- Animats 10y agoThat was a shock to the material-handling industry. Vendors have gone out of business before, but usually someone acquires the assets and services the existing machinery. That didn't happen with Kiva. Existing Kiva customers were no longer able to buy more Kiva robots. It's not even clear they can get replacement parts. "Amazon Robotics ... encouraged prospective users of Kiva technology to let Amazon Robotics and Amazon Services provide fulfillment within Amazon warehouses using Amazon robots." [1] https://www.therobotreport.com/news/filling-the-void-left-by-kiva-systems-acquisition-by-amazon https://www.therobotreport.com/news/filling-the-void-left-by...