In 2017, Amazon started operation of a logistic hub of 64k square meters, that uses massive quantity of robots to work with workers to fulfill every order that greatly reduces time, space and costs.

Those robots are working in a vast area behind a huge black grid, resembling oversized vacuum cleaners, called as the “Automated Guided Vehicles”, slot underneath the tall and upright shelves with loads of goods, pass each other on straight tracks and then turn with a neat twist and precise accuracy, just like dancing.

Each shelve can weigh up to 340 kilos of commodities, are lined up by designation. The robots move them to the manual picking and stowing stations on the other side of the grid. The finished shelves then are moved back inside. All looks hustle and buzzle but in beautifully geometric choreography.

Those picked commodities are placed on conveyor belts to the packing stations for the end clients. Imagine, how many steps and minutes of a traditional working flow: Nowadays, it sometimes only takes minutes, where before, hours were necessary.

As of today, Amazon employs more than half a million people around the world, not counting subcontractors and seasonal workers, while 100,000 robots are on duty inside its warehouses worldwide. Modern warehouses maximize storage capacity with unprecedented density, providing better choices for customers in much shorter time.

Amazon uses the “random storage philosophy” to control the whole storage system. The product is separated from the customer order, according to the broadest possible mathematical distribution in the pods, the system can process summarized customer orders in the shortest time. It has the same strategy as in non-robotized warehouses, but in much faster pace. With worker’s scanning of goods and shelves, computer always knows where the objects is located. Chaotic or random storage is a bit like organized confusion, but order is brought to the chaos by the unique barcode associated with each product that enters the warehouse. It’s an organic shelving system without permanent areas or sections; the product’s characteristics and attributes are irrelevant, leading to efficiency gains of 30 to 50% in picking.

The robots are like marching army of ants, constantly change their goals based on orders at hands. But the robots do not build themselves and cannot replace human’s skills of dexterity, adaptiveness and common sense. Humans design, make, deploy and support robots, and most importantly, interact with them.

September 2016, the National Bank of Rwanda (Banque Nationale du Rwanda, BNR) launched a request for proposal for the design, supply, and installation of a complete automatic vault management system. The goal was to improve their current cash center using state-of-the-art technology to manage the actual space restraints, improve current processes, and increase security throughout the cash center. G+D Currency Technology developed and submitted a comprehensive proposal with extensive documentation, and was then asked to participate in the tender for the "Design, Supply, and Installation of an Automated Vault System“ for the BNR – and won. The contract was signed in June 2017.

The BNR already uses BPS M7 banknote processing systems, NP20 packaging systems and BDS offline destruction systems in their cash centers. With special addition of this cutting-edge vault system, a complete G+D solution chain is formed, to bring tangible efficient to cash management of a central bank.

This solution optimizes the existing vaults by maximizing the capacities and minimizing the building modifications. Security of cash in vault is increased and the cash logistics inside the central bank, as well as an optimization of the cash logistics between headquarters and five branches are re-designed. The central bank’s return on investment can come in the shortest time period. When the project is in operation, the BNR will be able to store 160 million banknotes on a footprint of 350 sqm.

G+D Currency Technology offered the Software systems Compass VMS and Compass Logistic. The technology was developed and customized to match customer specifications for the best match to the whole vault system.