Five Year Agreement sets Business for Guided Vehicles into Motion

New Castle, Delaware, June 10, 2009 Sky-Trax Inc. (Sky-Trax) and Kollmorgen – A Danaher Motion Company, announced today a five year partnership that provides Kollmorgen with the exclusive rights to distribute navigation and localization products from Sky-Trax.  Distribution of the Sky-Trax products will be under the Kollmorgen brand.

“The agreement with Kollmorgen provides an unprecedented opportunity for our two companies to challenge each other to achieve the next generation of navigation and guidance products for the materials handling world,” said Larry Mahan, President and COO of Sky-Trax.  “Now, as partners we will work together toward the shared goal of introducing new technologies and designing higher performance products for a new class of guided vehicles.”

The strategic alliance between the two companies includes further development in the area of guided vehicles, while expanding their capabilities for materials handling applications. As the demand for Guided Vehicles is expected to increase as distribution centers continue to seek process improvement and optimization; Sky-Trax/Kollmorgen products will be marketed to both traditional forklift truck and automated vehicle operations.  The goal is to enable manned and driverless vehicles to work safely and cooperatively together in today’s warehouse and factory environments.  

“By partnering with Sky-Trax we extend our NDC Suite – the global standard for driverless vehicle controls – with an alternative solution for navigation in warehouse aisles and open floor high stacking of goods”, said Mattias Byström, General Manager, AGV Systems at Kollmorgen.

Each company describes the relationship as a win-win and believes the market is now ready for the new technology and products they will develop together. From this partnership, Kollmorgen, the leader in AGV controls technology, will look to increase its sales and Sky-Trax, the pioneer of Optical Real-Time Location Systems for tracking all indoor assets and inventory, will continue to develop new and innovative warehouse optimization solutions with the collaboration of its new partner. New technologies created thru the partnership will be sold by both companies and made available worldwide upon their release.

About Kollmorgen

The Kollmorgen AGV Systems business unit is an automation technology partner primarily for driverless applications such as Automatic Guided Vehicle Systems (AGVS) and the recently launched Pick-n-Go^® solution. Kollmorgen is the market share and technology leader of controls for AGVs globally. The solutions are provided via channel partners offering system integration and automated truck/vehicle supply and services. The AGV systems group, located in Gothenburg Sweden, is part of Kollmorgen a global company providing the broadest range of motion control technologies in the industry. 

About Sky-Trax Inc.

Sky-Trax is the inventor and commercial provider of Optical Real-Time Location Systems for tracking goods, vehicles and guiding autonomous vehicles in any size facility. Sky-Trax revolutionary location tracking and automatic data collection systems are designed for indoor industrial vehicles; primarily in warehouses. Applications employing Sky-Trax Optical RTLS are economical and practical to deploy, allowing warehouse professionals to substantially increase safety and improve warehouse efficiency. The results are fewer safety incidents, much lower operating costs, improved inventory accuracy, and greater throughput. For more information, please visit www.Sky-Trax.com.

###

Kollmorgen Contact:

Henrik Eriksson

Business Unit ManagerPick-n-Go^®, AGV Systems

Danaher Motion Särö AB

429 80 Särö.

Sweden

Tel: +46 31 938066

Henrik.Eriksson@danahermotion.com  

Sky-Trax, Inc. Contact:

Sarah Brisbin 

Vice President, Marketing

Sky-Trax, Inc

98 Quigley Blvd.

New Castle, DE 19720

302-395-9540

Sarah.Brisbin@sky-trax.com

RALEIGH, NC, June 10, 2009 — When it comes to handling returned product, companies do not measure their returns process with the same rigor they use for outbound distribution. In fact, nearly 40% of companies do not track reverse logistics metrics at all, according to the Supply Chain Consortium’s recent survey of top retail and manufacturing-related companies.

With the economy appearing to be on the upswing, Bruce Tompkins, Executive Director of the Supply Chain Consortium and author of the Distribution Center Operations Report, believes that now is the time to prepare for increased sales volumes, market and channel expansion, and subsequently, increased returns.

“So little attention has been paid to returns for so long that this area is like a huge bucket of missed opportunities just waiting to be tapped,” says Tompkins. “Creating a sound customer service process for returns is essential to keeping today’s customers satisfied and loyal. Not only do companies need to worry about customer satisfaction at the front end of the sales process, they also need to take care of the customer at the back end with a solid returns process.”

The new report lists the six top reasons for returning product, which represent nearly 75% of all reasons for returns. Interestingly, only the sixth reason is clearly an error made by the company. They are:

1. Customer ordered incorrect product or size

2. Customer decided product not needed or wanted

3. Customer returned with no reason given

4. Product did not fit description on website or in catalog

5. Product did not fit customer’s expectations

6. Company shipped incorrect product or size

Tompkins adds, “In the end, from the customer’s viewpoint, it really doesn’t matter who caused the product return. The customer wants to return the product with as few difficulties as possible, and the company wants to retain their customer and keep costs down. Returns are inevitable, so why not use metrics to monitor and improve reverse logistics activities? Developing and implementing a solid returns process can save organizations a lot of headaches, reduce costs and maintain a satisfied customer base.”

For initiatives used to improve returns programs, the Consortium has several interesting findings, which include discontinuing products with high return rates, improving packaging, expanding product descriptions on web sites, and tighter constraints on accepting returns. (See figure for how participants ranked the returns program initiatives.)

The Supply Chain Consortium is the premier source for supply chain benchmarking and best practices knowledge. With 280 participating retail, manufacturing and wholesale/distribution companies, the Consortium sponsors a comprehensive repository of 17,000-plus benchmarks complemented by search capabilities, online analysis tools, topic forums and peer networking for supply chain executives and practitioners. The Consortium is led by the needs of its membership and an Advisory Board that includes executives from Campbell Soup Company, Hallmark Cards, Hewlett Packard, Ingram Micro, Kraft Foods, Miller-Coors, The Coca-Cola Company, Target, and True Value Hardware. To learn more about how your company can become a member of the Supply Chain Consortium, contact John Foley, 919-855-5461 or visit www.supplychainconsortium.com.

CONTACT: Keri McManus, 919-855-5516

kmcmanus@tompkinsinc.com