Locus Robotics and Kimball Midwest Win Supply Chain Award for Robotics Deployment — LOCUS ROBOTICS CORP.

Event summary

Locus Robotics and Kimball Midwest won the 2026 Supply Chain Excellence Award for Best Use of Robotics on September 15, 2026.
Kimball Midwest deployed 100+ Locus autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) across three distribution centers, achieving a 45% increase in picking productivity and 100% improvement in putaway productivity.
The implementation reduced onboarding time from two weeks to minutes or hours and eliminated reliance on temporary labor and overtime.
Kimball Midwest expanded the robotics program from one site to three in 14 months, supporting double-digit growth and a path toward $1 billion in annual revenue.

The big picture

This award highlights the growing adoption of warehouse automation in the logistics sector, particularly among companies aiming to balance capacity expansion with service reliability. Locus Robotics’ success with Kimball Midwest underscores the strategic value of flexible automation solutions in an industry facing persistent labor challenges and fluctuating demand. The deployment’s rapid ROI and productivity gains suggest a scalable model that could attract more enterprise customers.

What we're watching

Scalability: Whether Locus Robotics can sustain this pace of expansion and productivity gains across more customer sites.
Competitive Dynamics: How this award and successful deployment will position Locus Robotics against other warehouse automation providers.
Operational Flexibility: The extent to which other companies can replicate Kimball Midwest’s success in reallocating labor and adapting to changing demand.