Follett Higher Education Group Taps Kiva Systems to Automate eCommerce Fulfillment Center.

Kiva Systems, a developer of game-changing mobile-robotic solutions that automate order fulfillment and warehouse operations, announced that Follett Higher Education Group (FHEG) will implement a Kiva system to meet the challenges of a rapidly changing textbook market and to accelerate its eCommerce growth. The company will use Kiva to store and process orders for the largest pre-owned textbook inventory in the nation.

Follett will be consolidating both its wholesale used book and direct-to-consumer warehouses in a single Kiva-enabled distribution and fulfillment center, to better serve customers and meet the demands of continued growth. By streamlining its inbound and outbound operations to one facility, Follett expands its existing wholesale business and its book-rental capacity.

Like many Internet retailers, Follett faces challenging seasonal swings, making speed a paramount operational factor to processing inbound and outbound volume.

"Being in the academic market, we have two significant seasonal peaks each year," said Fred Weber, senior vice president of distribution and wholesale services, FHEG. "In the past, we haven't been able to turn around the books we buy in December fast enough to meet January's demand. Kiva will increase our efficiency and productivity to reduce our backlog by 200 percent. This, combined with the flexibility to increase capacity as our business grows, made Kiva the clear and best choice for our business."

Kiva uses fleets of mobile-robotic drive units that bring inventory on mobile shelves directly to workers, enabling productivity that is two to four times higher than other automated systems. In fact, the Kiva solution is so flexible, it is the first form of automation to rent capacity for difficult peak-to-mean challenges. This allows retailers to bring in additional robotic drive units during peak season, and then scale back down quickly and easily without any disruption to on-going operations.

"Internet retailers with high peak-to-mean volumes face significant fulfillment challenges and Follett is certainly no exception with two peak seasons less than four months apart," said Mick Mountz, CEO and founder of Kiva Systems. "Follett is changing the game with college textbook rentals and its unique requirements were a perfect match for the speed and flexibility of the Kiva solution. I'm delighted our two innovative organizations have signed up for this graduate-level course in Internet fulfillment."

Kiva Systems will be demonstrating its innovative approach to fulfillment automation at the Internet Retailer Conference and Exhibit 2011 tradeshow, from June 14-17 in San Diego, Calif. About Follett Higher Education Group Follett Higher Education Group of Oak Brook, Illinois, is the leading provider of bookstore services and the foremost supplier of used books in North America. Follett services five million students and over 400,000 faculty members through more than 900 stores. Follett also services more than 1,600 independent campus stores with its wholesale services, and has the most visited ecommerce collegiate website, efollett.com, that provides services and products through a network of more than 900 campus stores. About Follett Corporation Follett Corporation is a $2.7 billion, privately-held company that provides products, services and solutions to the educational marketplace. Follett Corporation was founded in 1873, and today is headquartered in River Grove, Illinois. About Kiva Systems Kiva Systems, Inc. offers game-changing automation solutions for distribution centers that help companies simplify operations and reduce costs while increasing strategic flexibility. Using hundreds of autonomous mobile robots and sophisticated control software, the Kiva Mobile-robotic Fulfillment System enables extremely fast cycle times with reduced labor requirements, from receiving to order picking to shipping-all without conveyor. The result is a building that is quick and low-cost to set up, inexpensive to operate, and easy to change. For more information about Kiva Systems and its solutions, please visit www.kivasystems.com.

Keywords: Higher Education, Kiva Systems, Public Education, Software.

This article was prepared by Computer Weekly News editors from staff and other reports. Copyright 2011, Computer Weekly News via VerticalNews.com.