Gnarlywood Group, a provider of complete backend merchandising fulfillment solutions for entertainment brands, announced today that it has selected inVia Logic warehouse execution system (WES) software to modernize its Carlsbad, CA warehouse. This is one of the first customers for inVia Robotics to leverage only their WES software to help improve the throughput and efficiency of the warehouse.

inVia Robotics is known within the warehouse automation industry as one of the first robot companies to champion robots-as-a-service (RaaS) for their goods-to-person solution. The software being deployed by Gnarlywood Group will bring immediate picking and replenishment productivity gains that will later be increased with the addition of inVia Picker autonomous mobile robots. The AI-based algorithms of the inVia solution can help improve the work of both human pickers and robots.

Founded in 2012, Gnarlywood delivers fulfillment services for bands, celebrities and other entertainment brands. The company has carved out a niche of setting up fulfillment services optimized specifically for the types of merchandise, AKA “merch”, for the fans of bands and other performers. This type of merch includes: hats, t-shirts, posters, memorabilia, CD’s etc. The company has seen unprecedented growth in demand and needed to find a way to improve the throughput of their existing warehouse space.

“We needed a technology partner that could deliver immediate productivity gains, as well as a path to full warehouse automation in parallel with our plans for business growth. inVia provides a unique solution that includes the most advanced warehouse technology and the ability for us to integrate it over time with maximum benefit and minimal disruption,” said Dayton Hicks, founder and chief executive officer at Gnarlywood. “We have big expansion plans and want a partner that can ensure we’re always benefitting from the most advanced technology. We knew we found that with inVia.”

The system will identify the ideal slotting of inventory at all times, direct pickers to follow the most efficient pick paths, and coordinate the movement of all goods, people and equipment to ensure continuous order flow. All of these improvements are part of inVia’s software-only implementation, which delivers 2-3x increases in productivity over manual processes.

inVia designed its technology so it can be brought into a warehouse’s operations at a pace that’s right for each individual business. AI-powered software is easily integrated into legacy systems with a proprietary translation tool, inVia Connect. The same intelligence used to direct robots to pick with machine precision can first be applied to an existing workforce to help people operate at peak productivity. 

Gnarlywood has chosen to bring the benefits of inVia Logic to its team to immediately ramp up and keep pace with growth. They will later augment that labor with inVia Picker robots as they expand capacity with new mobile fulfillment centers that are ideal sites for mobile robots. This system enables scale and flexibility as e-commerce demand patterns shift over time.

“inVia’s scalable system will dramatically improve Gnarlywood’s order fulfillment productivity and accuracy, enabling their business to keep up with growing customer demand,” said Lior Elazary, co-founder and chief executive officer of inVia Robotics. “The flexible nature of inVia’s system allows for quick implementation and the ability to adapt as business needs change. We’re excited to become a partner to Gnarlywood as their business scales.”