Pio

Warehousing reimagined

The rise of ecommerce, coupled with customer expectations around fast delivery, mean the supply chain and fulfilment process of any online business needs to be rapid and seamless. Warehouses, specifically, are a crucial touch point in that system, and automation means a larger, more accurate flow of goods. Pio’s parent company, AutoStore, made its name by pioneering a unique cube-based robotic warehouse system and has been serving larger industries (primarily in retail, food storage, logistics and healthcare) for the past two decades.

The scale at which they’re working, however, and the large financial investment and long lead-in times required to install their systems, mean that smaller companies are in a difficult position when attempting a similar logistical leap. Instead, the manual process of sorting and packing orders eats up a large chunk of employee hours and warehouse storage space, leaving them at an ongoing disadvantage. Together with Pio, we saw the opportunity to bridge that gap and were enlisted early on as an innovation partner, working at both the strategic level and building out the system itself.

Levelling the playing field

Pio is an automated warehouse system that’s specially designed for small- and medium-sized businesses with a significant ecommerce component. It works by condensing products into a tightly packed grid of bins that saves on space and time by delegating the sorting, storing and retrieving of goods to its custom robots, which travel the grid and quickly deliver orders to an employee, ready for packing. Shipping labels are automatically printed through the easy-to-use app, which also maintains a full inventory of stock.

The process creates a highly optimised system for employees to work from, while also helping businesses save on rent by reducing the amount of space lost to aisles and shelving.

Building Pio from the ground up

Starting in 2020, the main thrust of our work was to take the existing technological and organisational framework of AutoStore and successfully transform that into its own stand-alone product, tapping into a whole new market at the same time. Since then, we’ve researched, designed, built and communicated the Pio product range, while also helping Pio to expand its own internal team and create a scalable organisation with integrated hardware, sales and service support.

The BB process: developing new user flows

When building Pio we had access to AutoStore’s existing warehouse automation technology, but given the specifics of large industrial warehouses, we had to adapt this material to the needs of small to medium businesses. An important addition was the programming of four key process flows for the Pio robots—store, pick, search and configure—which cover all the main actions required of the robots and allow users to manage warehouse activity from a single place, the Pio app.

Creating an easy-to-use accessible system

We built the Pio warehouse management system from scratch—a progressive web app that’s designed to be highly intuitive, so that it only takes around 10 minutes to onboard new employees. The app is the main interface between the store’s ecommerce platform, shipping provider and the Pio grid itself, automatically processing online orders and assigning robots to retrieve them, facilitating easy printing of shipping labels, maintaining a detailed inventory of all stock, offering relevant stats on how well the system is performing and troubleshooting any potential errors. Thanks to the integration API we developed, it works seamlessly with major platforms like Shopify, Webshipper and ShipStation.

We wanted to make Pio an accessible plug-and-play system that, for smaller companies, lowers the barrier for entry and takes only a few minutes to set up.

Designing the digital landscape

For the Pio website, we designed and built a system keeping simplicity and inclusivity at the forefront of our design principles. To keep it relevant and appealing to a wide variety of businesses, we combined an open and proactive narrative with a clean identity. The new website has a modular design made for an intuitive user experience fully adapted for the site to grow. Art direction, copywriting and specially commissioned illustrations and CG visuals were essential in bringing it all to life. Developing efficient features like a savings calculator and the Pio builder add to the dynamic experience.

The aim of Pio is to democratise warehouse automation technology by putting SMEs on a more level footing with larger competitors. By configuring a smaller, more flexible warehouse system and a pricing model that fits within their budget, it lowers costs, reduces installation processes to a minimum and ultimately focuses work back on the business itself. Pio is easy to expand as a business grows, reduces strain on warehouse employees and makes use of all existing space, so there’s no need to relocate. The end result is an automation system adapted from world-leading technology, accompanied by digital tools and a strong organisational structure.

While the pilot phase has focused on ecommerce retailers, BB continues to work as an innovation partner, with the potential of expanding Pio’s reach in future.

Tech Stacks

• Python, FastAPI, Psql, Redis, Redis Stream, gRPC, Kubernetes, Azure (backend)
• Rust, WebSocket, JSON-RPC (stub)
• TypeScript, Next.js, React, React-three-fiber, XState, Zustand, React Query, SCSS (frontend)
• Sanity (CMS)

Credits

• R/GA (brand identity)
• Shestakovych Studio (CG)
• Martina Paukova (illustrations)
• Moxey.no (live-action film)