Conquest Equipment, renowned for its reliability and customer service as a vendor of manual industrial cleaning equipment, has just announced its first exciting foray into the realm of robotic automated cleaning.
Conquest Equipment has long been the Australian leader when it comes to selling and renting out manual industrial cleaning equipment. With a network of personnel stretching across Australia, Conquest’s calling card is its service, reliability, and depth of expertise – regardless of where their clients are located.
But Conquest didn’t become a household name by resting on its laurels.
Ben Mathews, Sales Director at Conquest, says it is a ceaseless desire to improve its offering and service that has led to what is a new breakthrough announcement – Conquest’s first move into the automated cleaning equipment space.
“The past five years we’ve seen a real change in automated cleaning technology,” Ben says. “There’s been a lot of tests, some successes, and some failures in the automated cleaning space by a variety of companies. At Conquest, we weren’t about to jump the gun and offer automated cleaning machines until we were absolutely confident in them – because trustworthiness and reliability is what we’re about.”
“But, we’re happy to announce that we have formalised a partnership with one of the world’s leading robotics companies, Avidbots, based in Kitchener-Waterloo, Canada. With this partnership we are a Neo vendor in Australia focusing on the industrial sector.”
This arrangement will see Conquest sell, rent, and service Avidbots’ robot Neo exclusively in the Australian industrial cleaning sector. Being a dealer of the Neo, a fully autonomous robotic floor cleaner incorporating best-in-class AI and machine learning, is a real coup for Conquest as it makes its first move into the automation field.
From Avidbots’ perspective, they’re excited to expand their reach across Australia and leverage the depth, breadth, and sophistication of Conquest’s nation-wide network, personnel, and sales and service infrastructure.
“Neo powered by Avidbots Autonomy is the most intelligent obot on the market right now that delivers a consistent, efficient and measurable clean,” says Ben. “With its AI technology delivering realtime obstacle avoidance and dynamic path planning as it works, it sets itself apart from competitors in the marketplace – which are mostly predicated on a teach and repeat concept. It’s truly an autonomous robot in a way that others aren’t.”
The partnership made sense for both Conquest and Avidbots. A perfect meeting between new world-leading technology and a company well established with a reputation for excellence.
“On our side, the key reason for the partnership is that we will often go into a warehouse and the client will need a sweeping machine and a scrubber – so we offer those products or services as a joint package,” he says. “For Avidbots the partnership made sense because Conquest has existing relationships and a service network across Australia, and many industrial leaders that can benefit from an autonomous cleaning robot.”
“The Neo will be offered separately, for hire or purchase, or in packages alongside more traditional sweeping equipment. This means Conquest can offer the best and most comprehensive cleaning solutions in the industrial space.”
INNOVATIVE, YET RELIABLE
Ben says that in the cleaning space, as in so many others in supply chain and logistics, “automation is the future”.
For Conquest, it’s important to stay at the leading edge of technology – providing complete cleaning packages, but ensuring that anything it offers is tried, true, and reliable.
“We wanted to ensure we could offer a machine that was suited to the Australian industrial space – and suitable for our customers based on their feedback and our close observation over many years,” Ben says. “After exploring what autonomous solutions were available in the market, Neo was the clear winner. Built from the ground-up to be a robot that’s optimised for autonomous cleaning, it’s unmatched compared to other solutions currently available. Neo is now in its 8th generation and has been continuously improved based on customer feedback ensuring reliability remains at the core of the product offering.”
This latter point is crucial, Ben says, because there are lots of robotics startups that are superficially attractive but lack the support systems that have been carefully constructed alongside the Neo.
“Our good name is our capital, “We’re not going to risk selling a product that lets our customers down. With Avidbots, they have developed both the machine, software, and the support systems to deliver a first-rate cleaning robot that is ideally suited to our industrial cleaning market sector.”
INTELLIGENT SOLUTIONS
While Ben is excited about the Avidbots partnership and knowing that Conquest will continue to push the frontiers of automated cleaning solutions, he highlights that Conquest ill continue to find the ideal cleaning solution for each client.
“Automation is key to the future of cleaning, but that doesn’t mean it can or will be able to do everything – or will be appropriate for every customer,” he says.
Conquest’s Intelligent Solutions Program (ISP) is an eight-step guided process by Conquest floor cleaning specialists that ensures customers get the best cleaning solution for their individual business circumstances. ISP takes customers from initial on-site assessments – that assess the variables at play in each warehouse environment – all the way through to delivery of equipment and training of users.
“We take our customers on a journey to ensure they find the right cleaning process for their facility,” Ben says. “In some instances, an autonomous cleaning robot will be appropriate – in others, it may not. There are many factors to be considered to determine the best cleaning solution for each customer and their facility. To determine what solution is required to deliver the best clean in their facility we complete an objective assessment and then make a recommendation. We won’t recommend automation unless it’s right for the customer.” The bottom line for Conquest is the long-term bottom line of its customer.
“We help companies to assess their cleaning needs and expenditures with return-on-investment front of mind,” Ben says. “If you have a 30,000 sqm warehouse that can be cleaned sector by sector every week – and especially overnight when people are asleep – then that’s where robotic cleaning solutions will prove highly valuable.”
And while the Avidbots partnership is just beginning, we’re excited to see what the autonomous future holds as we work together to expand Neo’s footprint across Australia, building on the success Avidbots has already found here,” Ben says. “We’re on a journey with our trusted supply partners, offering solutions in keeping with our cost effectiveness, safety, and service. We won’t jump the gun on any solution that doesn’t pass our rigorous testing protocols, but we certainly do hope to offer a full suite of automated cleaning solutions in the future.”
Conquest is currently upskilling its workforce until it is fluent and practised in Neo by Avidbots – and looks forward to rolling out its first cleaning robots to customers.
“Give us a call. We’ll come out and do a site evaluation and make an objective, evidence-based recommendation. Maybe you’ll be one of those sites that will really benefit from an Avidbots Neo – but even if not, we’ll still provide you the best possible solution for your needs.”
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Article written by MHD, featured in MHD October 22 shared with permission.
