What is “Goods to Robot” Picking?
From Person-to-Goods, to Goods-to-Person, to Goods-to-Robot™
For decades, beverage distributors followed the Person-to-Goods model. A warehouse worker walked the aisles, traveling from one “address” to another, pulling products and stacking them onto a pallet. It was labor-heavy, slow, and created “traffic jams” as multiple pickers crisscrossed the floor.
The first big leap forward was Goods-to-Person. Instead of people trekking to the product, the product came to them. This shift is most famously seen in Amazon’s acquisition of Kiva Systems in 2012. Kiva’s bright orange robots (autonomous mobile robots, or AMRs) moved racks of product to human workers at picking stations. Rather than walking miles each shift, pickers stood in place while product flowed to them. Conveyors have served a similar role for years—bringing cases down a line to a worker for palletization.
That’s Goods-to-Person: AMRs or conveyors moving the goods, people doing the picking.
Now the next leap is here: Goods-to-Robot™.
In this model, the AMRs still move goods, but instead of delivering to a human picker, they deliver to robots. Palletization is automated end-to-end. Robots don’t just move cases; they stack them too. And because these robots use AI, they act as pathfinders—constantly optimizing their routes instead of following fixed conveyor lines or relying on human navigation.
Why it matters:
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Person-to-Goods: Inefficient, labor-heavy, and slow.
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Goods-to-Person: Smarter—robots (Kiva-style AMRs, conveyors) move the goods, humans stay put.
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Goods-to-Robot™: Smarter still—robots move the goods to other robots. The human step is removed, AI optimizes the system, and palletization is fully automated.
This is the evolution of warehouse automation: from miles walked on the floor, to conveyors and Kiva robots, to AI-powered robots building pallets without human intervention.
FAQ
Q: What’s the difference between Person-to-Goods, Goods-to-Person, and Goods-to-Robot™?
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Person-to-Goods: A worker walks the warehouse, picking items from different addresses and building pallets along the way.
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Goods-to-Person: Robots (like Amazon’s Kiva AMRs) or conveyors bring products to human workers at a pick station. The goods move, the person builds the pallet.
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Goods-to-Robot™: Robots deliver products directly to other robots, which build pallets automatically. The human step is eliminated.
Q: How did Amazon’s Kiva robots change things?
A: Kiva introduced the Goods-to-Person model at scale. Instead of people walking miles across warehouses, AMRs carried shelves of products to stationary workers. It was faster, more efficient, and redefined how modern warehouses operate.
Q: How is Goods-to-Robot™ better than Goods-to-Person?
A: Goods-to-Robot keeps the AMR efficiency of Kiva but replaces human labor with robotic palletization. Robots act as pathfinders, using AI to optimize routes, reduce wasted travel, and fully automate fulfillment.
Q: What’s wrong with Person-to-Goods?
A: Person-to-Goods is slow, inefficient, and costly. Workers walk “Sunday drive” routes through the warehouse, burning time and energy. Goods-to-Person and Goods-to-Robot eliminate this inefficiency.
