On this episode, I was joined by the Senior Vice President of Sales at Vecna Robotics, Jeff Huerta. Vecna has been on the show a few times and I even got the chance to do a site visit with them in Massachusetts. Definitely enjoy the solutions that they are putting out and also the work they do to keep the robotics world collaborative so I was happy to hear that they recently launched a new product called the Silverback. Jeff and I discuss the Silverback, why this was next in line for them, and how they have handled the pandemic.

Key Takeaways

• From previous episodes, you may be familiar with the Vecna product line but in this episode, we discuss their new offering which is the Silverback. This is a counter-balanced forklift that now adds lifting capability and double stacking ability to Vecna’s fleet. As Jeff describes, this solution really came from a need for customers to go a step further by the request to be able to lift pallets up higher and also be able to double stack pallets for creating better space utilization. As for the name, it comes from the Silver Back gorilla having the strongest strength to weight ratio.

• Jeff discusses how the pandemic has been and one of the bigger triggers of the increase in demand for robots has been the labor shortage. This is something that I have seen firsthand as well. With the pandemic, not only have individuals been weary to work due to potential exposure, but it has also been difficult to get warehouse labor due to the increase in e-commerce demand that some of the big players in the space are experiencing which causes them to suck up most of the labor in the area. To combat this, many companies have been turning to robots to fill in on some more repetitious jobs like moving pallets from place to place which Vecna’s solutions can help replace.
• The other interesting thing about our discussion is the tidbit that Jeff drops about how the Silver Back is giving Vecna a taste of getting elevated. I prod Jeff a bit about whether or not this is a hint into the next things to come from Vecna. Unfortunately, he cannot confirm but it certainly does seem that Vecna may be reaching new heights in the future which would be the likely evolution. Will we see an automated reach truck from Vecna? I guess we will find out!

Listen to the episode below and let us know what you think of the Silver Back.