Keith Moore, CEO of AutoScheduler.AI, an innovative Warehouse Management System (WMS) accelerator, discusses with Joe Rule on a Bold Visions podcast, current warehouse trends, and Keith’s entrepreneurial journey. Joe interviews people who work with disruptive technology and how they use the power of storytelling to turn vision into reality.
“Logistics technology has gotten extremely popular since COVID,” says Keith Moore, CEO of AutoScheduler.AI. “It has moved from a cost center to a boardroom conversation.”
A summary of the podcast discussion follows:
There is much automation out there, and executives must discern which is best for their business. Robotics are being deployed everywhere, but not to replace people. Instead, companies can’t hire the people they need to do a specific job, so robots are helping fill the gap.
Many legacy systems exist in companies, especially for mission-critical operations like the supply chain. Nobody’s willing to put the legacy system on hold for six months to install a new solution. Most companies may try to do this, but it’s like trying to change your tire while driving down the freeway. It is more valuable to be complementary to the existing systems.
Replacing systems lengthens the sales cycle. The best way to sell a supply chain solution is “in addition to.” People replace their systems once every 5 – 10 years; some don’t even upgrade their software.
When starting a company, it is hard to get your share of voice, but if you work with an industry analyst group, people will listen to them. Ensure you understand where companies get their information from and ensure the information is messaged appropriately through these sources. When these sources start writing about you, you become a trusted voice, and you can start building trust with everybody.
Hire an industry-specific, outside PR firm. These agencies understand your industry, know the analysts and editors, and work closely to get your company in the stories that target your audience and make you a thought leader.
New sales are great, but supporting current customers is better. AutoScheduler’s business mentality is to lose a sale to ensure an existing customer is supported and successful.
Invest in partnerships to help your business grow.
Based on how the warehousing landscape runs, every unique site has its own WMS. So, if a company has 250 sites, each site will have its own WMS with five to ten people per shift, ensuring the system is running and doing what it should. AutoScheduler’s objective is to centralize the planning and optimization of all the different sites in one location, with a team of 5 to 10 people managing all 250 sites.
Keith’s entrepreneurial journey started while he was in college when he would buy a $5 pizza and sell it for $1/slice. He always knew he wanted to work for a startup, so he got a degree in Engineering. While working at National Instruments, he created a company in fantasy soccer. The company was growing but was shut down by the Attorney General for gambling. He then worked for Spark Cognition as a product manager, focusing on data analytics and machine learning.
Then his dad, Tom Moore, CEO and Founder of ProvisionAi, told him about a tool he built while consulting for P&G. Tom said, “We’ve built this tool called AutoScheduler. Does it have any value? Is it something that could be used elsewhere?” So, Keith obtained the technology and decided to launch AutoScheduler.AI.
AutoScheduler, a warehouse resource optimization platform, manages all the work coming in and out of the warehouse to streamline operations and improve efficiencies. It answers questions like, “What work must I do? How many people do we have to do it? How much space do you have? What inventory do you already have? What are the time-critical components, meaning what do I need to ship outbound to a Walmart now? AutoScheduler acts as the brain of the operation, which says, “Here’s exactly how you need to distribute all of your people at every point in time and exactly what they need to work on.”
Keith uses a “Keith Moore Bar Test” to measure awareness. When he first started the company, if he went into a bar and people asked him where he worked, no one would know of AutoScheduler. Today, he can walk into a bar, and people will have heard of AutoScheduler.
