Greg Ceuppens (Alax Automation): ‘With our cobot arm and AMR, we show that automation is possible, even in small-scale operations’

5 minutes reading time

At the Start2Scale-up Avenue, you can't look past Alax Automation's setup: a robotic arm that neatly transfers boxes from one pallet to another and an AMR that then moves and accurately sets the pallet down. But who is Alax Automation, the Log!Ville partner demonstrating this feat of innovation? Operations manager Greg Ceuppens explains it to us.

Can you briefly introduce Alax Automation?

Alax Automation is a Herentals-based company specialising in automation of logistics activities, with an emphasis on robotisation and cobotisation. When it was founded in 2002 by Patrick Verhoeven, it specialised in solutions for automatic filling, sealing and packaging of chemical and food products. It then expanded into the automation of the steps before and after that process, including robotic and cobot arms used as palletisers.

Two years ago, Alax was acquired by Italy's CLS iMation, a subsidiary of the also Italian Tesya group, expanding its product range into automated driving solutions. Evidently, CLS specialises in material handling and increasingly solutions such as AGVs and AMRs.

How come a large Italian group takes over a rather local player like Alax Automation?

At an international biscuit manufacturer in Herentals where we installed eight palletisers several years ago, CLS was implementing five AMRs. CLS had a chance to become ‘preferred supplier’ at that manufacturer, but they needed a local partner for support. That is one of Alax Automation's specialities. This led to a collaboration that culminated in a takeover bid, which Patrick Verhoeven accepted. By the by, he is still CTO at Alax. Another factor was that CLS wanted to scale up its sales in Northern Europe and Alax Automation could provide a basis for this.

So Alax's offering was expanded to include AGVs and AMRs, and CLS's to include robots and cobots. This therefore allows CLS to go much broader in intralogistics. Its motto is now: ‘intelligent solutions for logistics automation’.

Would you describe this as a win-win acquisition?

Definitely. There is still a lot of demand for manually operated handling equipment such as transpallets, forklifts and so on, but due to the fact that people in logistics are in short supply, this is a quietly deminishing scenario. People need to focus more on value-added activities and leave the repetitive work to automated vehicles and robots.

Do I understand correctly: Alax Automation builds the robots and cobots itself?

Exactly, we are essentially machine builders. We build 99% of our products in-house and for the operation of those robots and their communication with the WMS or ERP, we also develop the software ourselves.

CLS, on the other hand, offers solutions from different manufacturers. Thanks to the cooperation with CLS, Alax Automation can therefore increasingly present itself as a manufacturer and integrator of hardware and software.

We can now offer solutions as one. Say you are e.g. a producer of chemicals. We can fill cans with - for example - detergents, put a cap on them, put them in a box, palletise them and move the pallet by an AGV or AMR within the warehouse. Here, we combine our own robots and vehicles from CLS' programme.

That's what you are showing at Log!Ville?

Yes: we will show there a cobot from Alax that stacks boxes from one pallet onto another and an AMR from AGILOX, an Austrian manufacturer that included CLS in its product range. This combination sums up the essence.

There is no point in an employee lifting heavy 20-kg boxes and transferring them from a US-sized pallet to a Euro pallet. Let a cobot do that work and let the employee focus on checking the boxes for damage or other tasks. Subsequently let an AMR take those to the other side of the warehouse. There are more useful tasks than driving from A to B and from B to A with a forklift. So it's not about replacing people, but relieving them.

What we show actually also kind of encapsulates our story. We started out as a manufacturer of robots and cobots and gradually became an integrator of third-party machines. We are a team of about 15 people - 25 years old on average - and if we cannot make something, we integrate a third-party solution. So we are essentially engineers. At CLS, where they work with about 35 people, they are making the reverse move: they sell third-party machines but are now increasingly offering engineering as well.

Where are your biggest customers located?

Flanders represents 80% of our sales and Wallonia, the Netherlands, and northern France the rest. This is because we have grown organically. Although we had a healthy order book, we didn't even have a sales person until earlier this year. Now we are shifting up a gear and targeting a region of 300 km around Herentals. In addition, thanks to CLS, we can also market our products in southern Europe. The intention for Alax is to become the centre of competence for robots and cobots within CLS.

Since April, Alax Automation has been a partner of Log!Ville. What was your motivation?

We want to lower the threshold for automation. The solutions we show are applicable in an environment where people work as well. After all, the big difference between a robot and a cobot is that a cobot has safety features that prevent incidents involving a human being. An industrial robot does not have these and thus has to work inside a cage for safety. So for logistics and manufacturing companies, that aspect is threshold-reducing.

That said, challenges remain. A cobot or robotic arm can perfectly stack boxes of the same size on a pallet or even, with an advanced algorithm, of a few different sizes. However, boxes of a large number of different sizes and weights not yet. Automated ‘mixed palletising’ is pretty much the Holy Grail in our industry.

Even with AI, this remains a challenge. For example, a human forming a pallet with all sorts of different boxes will take away one or two boxes at a time and put them back later if it is more efficient. But in time that will become possible, I think.

But that's the future. At Log!Ville, you are showing what can already be done today.

Indeed. With our cobot arm and AMR, we show that today's solutions can already be applied, even in small-scale operations, and that they are safe solutions: the AMR can drive around inside the demo centre safely and autonomously while visitors are present.

What is your experience after some six months of presence at Log!Ville?

Every month we receive a report with the rating visitors give our solutions. With a score between 7 and 10 out of 10, they indicate that they consider them very interesting. It is a ‘trigger’ for them to move to automation - some have already contacted our sales - and for us it is a means of gaining brand awareness and letting the logistics world know that, even with small-scale operations, it can pay off to automate.