Hit Promotional Products leverages robotic workcells

As the largest promotional products manufacturer in the United States, Hit Promotional Products is nationally recognized for its value and customer service. To continue its reputation, while offering a range of products, Hit decided to embark on a multi-year initiative to reimagine its business processes end-to-end.

In particular, Hit wanted to implement “lights out” robotic solutions to package its products. Facing both rapid growth and marketplace disruption, Hit identified goals to increase its productivity and reduce its operational costs. Upon identifying these objectives, the manufacturer selected a strategic partner—a robotics hardware and software developer.

Hit’s team members, along with its technology partners, worked with the developer to co-create custom robotic workcells, which provide a robotic solution that decreases order fulfillment time. The robots-as-a-service (RaaS) offer a value structure to support the company’s operational goals. Instead of traditional capital equipment expenses, or capex, RaaS provides a monthly service platform as an alternative financing option—without the monetary burden of a large equipment expense at the initial phase of integration.

Hit was able to deploy the personalized robots within 60 days, and continues to package tens of thousands of items daily at peak operation. During the first two months of operation, more than 200,000 products were packaged using the new robotic workcells; to date, over a million items have been packaged.

Hit continually introduces more than 500 new items per year and has been a member of the promotional products industry for more than 50 years. By investing in robotics automation, it has remained competitively positioned, and it is also growing exponentially. And, as a result, it continues to achieve its key goals: offering nationally recognized customer service, competitive pricing and an array of products.

RIOS Intelligent Machines
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