From Goods-to-Person to Goods-to-Robot™
The Old Way: Person-to-Goods
For decades, warehouse operations followed a simple but inefficient model: Person-to-Goods. Workers walked the aisles, traveling to each “address” in the warehouse to pick products and stack them on a pallet. This method was slow, labor-intensive, and prone to errors. Each picker might walk miles in a single shift, creating congestion on the floor and limiting overall throughput.
The First Leap: Goods-to-Person
The first real revolution came with Goods-to-Person. Instead of people trekking to the product, the product was brought to the people. Conveyors and automated systems carried cases to a central picking station where workers palletized orders.
The concept was pushed even further by Kiva Systems, acquired by Amazon in 2012. Kiva’s bright orange autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) carried shelving units directly to stationary pickers. Rather than walking the floor, workers stayed in place while the product came to them. This cut down on wasted travel, boosted efficiency, and redefined warehouse operations worldwide.
Goods-to-Person solved one major problem: travel time. But it still relied on human labor at the final step.
The Next Evolution: Goods-to-Robot™
Now, Block One introduces the next leap forward: Goods-to-Robot™.
In this model, AMRs still move goods—but instead of delivering them to human workers, they deliver them to robots. Robotic arms automatically palletize the cases. Every step is optimized through AI, with robots acting as pathfinders to find the most efficient routes across the warehouse floor.
Where Person-to-Goods was slow and labor-heavy, and Goods-to-Person eliminated wasted travel but kept people in the loop, Goods-to-Robot™ removes the human bottleneck entirely.
Inside the Block One Pallet Factory™
The Block One Pallet Factory™ brings Goods-to-Robot™ to life by combining four modular automation systems:
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RoboArm (P2P Picking) – High-speed robotic arms that palletize cases at 350+ cases per hour.
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Comb Farm (B SKU Buffer) – Keeps secondary SKUs close to palletizing robots to reduce retrieval time.
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Autonomous Case Handling Robots (ACR) – AMRs that store, retrieve, and deliver long-tail SKUs directly to RoboArms.
When deployed together, these modules form the Pallet Factory™: a fully automated system where goods move seamlessly from storage to pallet—without a single manual touch.
Benefits of Goods-to-Robot™ in the Block One Pallet Factory™
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Eliminates Labor Bottlenecks
No need for human palletizers. Robots handle both retrieval and palletizing, creating a lights-out operation. -
AI-Optimized Efficiency
Robots act as pathfinders, taking the fastest routes through the warehouse. No wasted miles, no “Sunday drive” inefficiency. -
Reduced Congestion
Instead of dozens of workers crossing paths with forklifts, AMRs and robotic arms coordinate movement digitally, cutting down on warehouse traffic. -
Scalable & Modular
Start with RoboArm palletizing and add modules over time. Grow into a fully autonomous Pallet Factory at your own pace. -
Faster Throughput
Robots don’t fatigue, don’t take breaks, and can sustain higher case rates around the clock. -
Future-Proof
Just as Kiva robots reshaped Goods-to-Person, Goods-to-Robot™ future-proofs your operation by removing labor dependency entirely.
Conclusion
The warehouse has evolved:
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From Person-to-Goods, where people walked to product…
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To Goods-to-Person, where conveyors and Kiva AMRs brought product to people…
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To Goods-to-Robot™, where robots bring goods to robots inside the Block One Pallet Factory™.
This is the end of wasted travel, the end of labor bottlenecks, and the beginning of true end-to-end warehouse automation.