Symbotic Inc (SYM) 2022 Q3 法說會逐字稿

Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Symbotic Third Quarter 2022 Earnings Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question-and-answer session. (Operator instructions).

美好的一天，感謝您的支持。歡迎參加 Symbotic 2022 年第三季度收益電話會議。此時，所有參與者都處於只聽模式。演講者演講結束後，將進行問答環節。 （操作員說明）。

Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded.

請注意，今天的會議正在錄製中。

I'd now like to turn the conference over to your speaker today, Jeff Evanson. Please go ahead.

我現在想把會議交給今天的發言人傑夫·埃文森。請繼續。

Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining Symbotic's Third Quarter Fiscal '22 financial update. I am Jeff Evanson, Vice President of Investor Relations and Corporate development at Symbotic.

大家下午好。感謝您關注 Symbotic '22 財年第三季度財務更新。我是傑夫·埃文森 (Jeff Evanson)，Symbotic 投資者關係和企業發展副總裁。

Our press release presentation and discussion today will include forward-looking statements based on assumptions that are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements, including as a result of the factors described in cautionary statements and risk factors in Symbotic's financial release and regulatory filings with the SEC, by which any forward-looking statements made during this call are qualified in their entirety.

我們今天的新聞稿演示和討論將包括基於假設的前瞻性陳述，這些假設受到風險和不確定性的影響，這些風險和不確定性可能導致實際結果與前瞻性陳述中預測的結果存在重大差異，包括由於以下因素造成的結果： Symbotic 向 SEC 提交的財務報告和監管文件中包含警告性聲明和風險因素，本次電話會議期間做出的任何前瞻性聲明均完全合格。

In addition, during this call, certain financial measures may be discussed that are not recognized under US Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, which the SEC refers to as non-GAAP measures. We believe these non-GAAP measures assist management in planning, forecasting and evaluating our business and financial performance including allocating resources.

此外，在本次電話會議中，可能會討論美國公認會計原則不認可的某些財務措施，美國證券交易委員會將其稱為非公認會計準則措施。我們相信這些非公認會計原則措施有助於管理層規劃、預測和評估我們的業務和財務業績，包括分配資源。

Reconciliations of these non-GAAP measures to their most comparable reported GAAP measures are included in our financial press release, which has been furnished to the SEC and is available in the Investor Relations section on our website and in our filings with the SEC. These non-GAAP measures may not comparable to measures used by other issuers.

這些非公認會計準則衡量指標與其最可比的公認會計準則衡量指標的對賬已包含在我們的財務新聞稿中，該新聞稿已提供給美國證券交易委員會，並可在我們網站的投資者關係部分以及我們向美國證券交易委員會提交的文件中查閱。這些非公認會計準則衡量標準可能無法與其他發行人使用的衡量標準相比較。

Today, we'll provide guidance on our fiscal yearend 2022 including revenue and adjusted EBITDA. We're not providing guidance for net loss today, which is the most comparable GAAP financial measure to adjusted EBITDA. We're not able to provide reconciliations of adjusted EBITDA to GAAP financial measure because certain items required for such reconciliations are outside of our control and cannot be reasonably predicted such as provision for stock-based compensation.

今天，我們將提供 2022 財年的指導，包括收入和調整後的 EBITDA。我們今天不提供淨虧損指導，這是與調整後 EBITDA 最具可比性的 GAAP 財務指標。我們無法提供調整後的 EBITDA 與 GAAP 財務指標的調節表，因為此類調節所需的某些項目超出了我們的控制範圍，並且無法合理預測，例如基於股票的薪酬撥備。

On today call, we'll be joined by Rick Cohen, Symbotic's Founder and Chairman; Michael Loparco, Symbotic's Chief Executive Officer and Tom Ernst, Symbotic's Chief Financial Officer. These executives will discuss our third quarter financial '22 results and followed by Q&A.

Symbotic 創始人兼董事長 Rick Cohen 將參加今天的電話會議。 Symbotic 首席執行官 Michael Loparco 和 Symbotic 首席財務官 Tom Ernst。這些高管將討論我們 22 年第三季度的財務業績，然後進行問答。

With that, I'll turn it over to Rick.

有了這個，我會把它交給里克。

Rick?

瑞克？

Thank you, Jeff.

謝謝你，傑夫。

Becoming a publicly-traded company is a tremendous validation of Symbotic's value and since becoming publicly listed, the market and our investors have shown they believe in our potential for growth and future success. Our public listing has been 15 years in the making and achieving this feat was not possible without every Symbotic employee working hard to help us develop the best solutions and be invaluable partners to our customers.

成為一家上市公司是對 Symbotic 價值的巨大驗證，自上市以來，市場和我們的投資者都表明他們相信我們的增長潛力和未來的成功。我們的公開上市已歷經 15 年，如果沒有每一位 Symbotic 員工的努力幫助我們開發最佳解決方案並成為客戶的寶貴合作夥伴，就不可能實現這一壯舉。

One of the biggest reasons I wanted to take us public, was to give our employees the opportunity to be owners of Symbotic and reward our team members who have worked so hard to help us succeed. Now, we are all invested together in our future success.

我想讓我們上市的最大原因之一是讓我們的員工有機會成為 Symbotic 的所有者，並獎勵那些為幫助我們成功而努力工作的團隊成員。現在，我們共同投資於未來的成功。

In addition, public company validation and liquid equity help us to attract the best talent among potential employees and supply chain partners. Hiring Michael Loparco as our CEO is one example of our improved ability to recruit top talent. Michael is an accomplished executive and his leadership is already helping transform Symbotic from a supply chain innovator into a company that can do many things really well all in parallel.

此外，上市公司驗證和流動股權有助於我們吸引潛在員工和供應鏈合作夥伴中的最優秀人才。聘請邁克爾·洛帕科 (Michael Loparco) 擔任我們的首席執行官是我們提高招聘頂尖人才能力的一個例子。 Michael 是一位卓有成就的高管，他的領導力已經幫助 Symbotic 從一家供應鏈創新者轉變為一家能夠同時出色地完成多項工作的公司。

While the innovation will continue, we are also evolving into a company that can rapidly scale system deployments in a mass production-oriented environment. Michael's deep experience at Jabil in developing a wide range of technology partnerships along with its expertise in manufacturing and supply chain management are rapidly helping us build our infrastructure to execute successfully at scale.

在不斷創新的同時，我們也正在發展成為一家能夠在面向大規模生產的環境中快速擴展系統部署的公司。邁克爾在捷普公司發展廣泛的技術合作夥伴關係方面擁有豐富的經驗，再加上他在製造和供應鏈管理方面的專業知識，正在迅速幫助我們建立基礎設施，以便大規模成功執行。

The entire team helped us achieve success with Wal-Mart and today we have an expanded commercial agreement to implement Symbotic's robotics and software automation platform in all 42 of Wal-Mart's US regional distribution centers over the coming years. The critical deal helps Symbotic to accelerate our becoming public.

整個團隊幫助我們在沃爾瑪取得了成功，今天我們達成了一份擴大的商業協議，將在未來幾年內在沃爾瑪美國所有 42 個區域配送中心實施 Symbotic 的機器人和軟件自動化平台。這筆關鍵交易有助於 Symbotic 加速上市。

Now we are just at the starting line of the marathon, in our relentless pursuit to innovate and lead, we know we can keep making transformational changes to the supply chain industry and further prove to our investors and customers that we will be successful in the long term. This is just the beginning of our journey.

現在我們才剛剛站在馬拉鬆的起跑線上，在我們對創新和領先的不懈追求中，我們知道我們可以不斷地對供應鏈行業進行變革，並進一步向我們的投資者和客戶證明我們將獲得長期的成功。學期。這只是我們旅程的開始。

Michael, can you share some thoughts now as to how we're transforming Symbotic, so we can more rapidly scale system deployments and deliver against our $11.3 billion backlog?

Michael，您現在能否分享一些關於我們如何轉型 Symbotic 的想法，以便我們能夠更快地擴展系統部署並交付 113 億美元的積壓訂單？

Thanks, Rick.

謝謝，瑞克。

I'm happy to. And thank you also for the kind words. It's a real privilege to be here.

我很高興。也感謝您的客氣話。能來到這裡真是一種榮幸。

Since joining Symbotic, my excitement about our team, our technology and the market opportunity has only been strengthened. Now we need to enhance our execution capabilities and hone the organization to move with even greater speed.

自從加入 Symbotic 以來，我對我們的團隊、我們的技術和市場機會的興奮有增無減。現在我們需要增強我們的執行能力，磨練組織以更快的速度前進。

To this end, we're investing aggressively in people, partnerships, and technology, to not just further innovate, but to efficiently and cost effectively scale our operations. Given the incredible opportunity to penetrate the market and truly become a category creator, we believe the investments in these areas will reward us with rapid revenue growth and improving margins in the years ahead.

為此，我們在人員、合作夥伴關係和技術方面積極投資，不僅是為了進一步創新，而且是為了高效且具有成本效益地擴大我們的運營規模。鑑於進入市場並真正成為品類創造者的絕佳機會，我們相信在這些領域的投資將為我們帶來未來幾年收入的快速增長和利潤率的提高。

As Rick alluded to, our transformation into a much larger company capable of doing many things well in parallel begins with people and I'd like to thank our maniacally dedicated, passionate and innovative team that has brought us to this point. This is a talented team who focuses on making braggingly happy customers, as we say, and what's been accomplished to date with now 13 additional systems in deployment and the attainment of an expanded backlog of more than $11 billion is nothing short of amazing.

正如里克所提到的，我們向一家能夠同時做好許多事情的更大公司的轉​​型始於人，我要感謝我們瘋狂敬業、充滿激情和創新的團隊，是他們讓我們走到了這一步。正如我們所說，這是一支才華橫溢的團隊，專注於讓客戶感到非常滿意，迄今為止，已經部署了 13 個額外系統，並且積壓訂單已超過 110 億美元，所取得的成就簡直令人驚嘆。

At this next stage of accelerated growth for the company, we are adding world-class capabilities for the team and creating an ecosystem of partnerships to help us build our bots faster and more reliably, to install sales, lifts and structures more efficiently, and ultimately ramp fully functioning systems at sites faster and more predictably. These third party partnerships are just beginning, but already enforcing disciplines in our operations and helping de-risk the business as we scale.

在公司加速發展的下一階段，我們正在為團隊增加世界一流的能力，並創建一個合作夥伴生態系統，以幫助我們更快、更可靠地構建機器人，更有效地安裝銷售、電梯和結構，並最終更快、更可預測地提升現場功能齊全的系統。這些第三方合作夥伴關係才剛剛開始，但已經在我們的運營中強化了紀律，並隨著我們的規模擴張幫助降低業務風險。

At the same time, we have a focus on continuous improvement and believe that it's easier to improve what you measure. So we are actively enhancing our metric-driven business processes and building on our data-driven culture. By identifying key management metrics and regularly measuring, reporting and evaluating critical data, we are building systemic feedback loops that quickly identify issues, drive investigations of root causes, and systematically solve problems.

同時，我們注重持續改進，並相信改進您的測量結果會更容易。因此，我們正在積極增強指標驅動的業務流程，並建立數據驅動的文化。通過確定關鍵管理指標並定期測量、報告和評估關鍵數據，我們正在構建系統反饋循環，以快速識別問題、推動根本原因調查並系統地解決問題。

Lastly, these new and enhanced partnerships across supply chain, manufacturing and complex construction project management services will allow us at Symbotic to focus on what we've always done best and that is to innovate. For example, we are refining and field testing the ninth release of our autonomous robot, which we call Symbot. This new release will allow increased transactions per hour and improve case handling.

最後，這些跨供應鏈、製造和復雜建築項目管理服務的新的和增強的合作夥伴關係將使我們 Symbotic 能夠專注於我們一直做得最好的事情，那就是創新。例如，我們正在完善和現場測試我們的自主機器人的第九個版本，我們將其稱為 Symbot。這個新版本將允許增加每小時的交易量並改善案件處理。

We're also deploying a full scale proof of concept breakpack system, designed to handle eaches or single items in addition to cases. At the same time, we continue to advance our AI enabled platform that benefits from roughly six terabytes of data flowing through each system daily and we're innovating with our partners on more modular Lego block-like installation techniques. All of these work stream innovations and R&D are designed to serve customers more quickly and efficiently and lead our company to faster revenue growth and profitability. I couldn't be more excited about our direction and what the team has already accomplished.

我們還部署了全面的概念驗證拆包系統，旨在處理除箱子外的每件或單個物品。與此同時，我們繼續推進我們的人工智能平台，該平台受益於每天流經每個系統的大約 6 TB 的數據，並且我們正在與合作夥伴一起在更加模塊化的樂高積木安裝技術上進行創新。所有這些工作流程創新和研發都是為了更快速、更高效地為客戶服務，並帶領我們公司實現更快的收入增長和盈利能力。我對我們的方向和團隊已經取得的成就感到非常興奮。

I'll now hand it over to Tom to talk about our investment initiatives and financial performance.

現在我將把它交給湯姆來談談我們的投資計劃和財務業績。

Tom?

湯姆？

Thank you, Michael.

謝謝你，邁克爾。

Our third quarter revenue grew 82% over the prior quarter. We are excited with this level of revenue growth, but our public listing and contracted revenue backlog, which more than doubled represent equally important developments. The cash raised through our business combination transaction and public listing and revenue visibility from increased backlog are allowing us to move confidently ahead with the transition to growth in scale that Michael just described.

我們第三季度的收入比上一季度增長了 82%。我們對這種收入增長水平感到興奮，但我們的公開上市和合同收入積壓（增加了一倍多）也代表了同樣重要的發展。通過我們的業務合併交易和公開上市籌集的現金以及積壓訂單增加帶來的收入可見性使我們能夠充滿信心地向邁克爾剛才描述的規模增長轉型。

We now have 13 system deployments currently in progress. This is on top of the six fully ramped and operational systems in the field. This rapid expansion to 13 systems was up from nine last quarter and four in the third quarter of 2021 and was the driver for our strong systems revenue growth of 89% quarter-over-quarter.

我們目前正在進行 13 個系統部署。這是在現場六個完全啟動和運行的系統之上的。從上季度的 9 個系統和 2021 年第三季度的 4 個系統快速擴展到 13 個系統，推動我們的系統收入環比增長 89%。

These systems now in deployment range anywhere from the early build stage through various phases of testing and validation. System revenue and cost of goods sold are recognized on a percentage of completion basis during the deployment of systems and then upon formal customer acceptance, recurring revenue streams of software, parts and operations begin.

這些系統現在正在部署，範圍從早期構建階段到測試和驗證的各個階段。系統收入和銷售成本在系統部署期間按完成百分比確認，然後在客戶正式接受後，軟件、零件和運營的經常性收入流開始。

In addition to the rapid growth in the number of systems and deployment during the quarter, several projects progressed very strongly intra-quarter, accelerating revenue growth recognition in the period.

除了本季度系統數量和部署的快速增長之外，幾個項目在季度內進展非常強勁，加速了本季度收入增長的確認。

As Michael highlighted, we're moving with even greater speed and innovating more quickly as we scale. Accelerating the business this fast, admittedly came at a price. Operating expenses were higher in the quarter for two primary reasons. First, we're continuing our strategy of increase in investment to advance key innovation initiatives. Second, to support a shift in the rapid acceleration of system deployments and business transformation, we incurred incremental costs related to building both shorter term as well as permanent processes and infrastructure ramp partnerships and operations.

正如邁克爾強調的那樣，隨著規模的擴大，我們的發展速度更快，創新速度也更快。誠然，如此快速地加速業務發展是有代價的。本季度運營費用較高有兩個主要原因。首先，我們將繼續實施增加投資的戰略，以推進關鍵創新舉措。其次，為了支持系統部署和業務轉型快速加速的轉變，我們產生了與建立短期和永久流程以及基礎設施坡道合作夥伴關係和運營相關的增量成本。

While these investments have been prioritized, we are confident the operational improvements and financial benefits will follow. Notwithstanding the impact to cost of goods sold and operating expenses, Q3 gross margin improved sequentially quarter-over-quarter by more than 40 basis points.

雖然這些投資已被優先考慮，但我們相信運營改進和財務效益將會隨之而來。儘管銷售成本和運營費用受到影響，第三季度毛利率環比提高了 40 個基點以上。

The net result in adjusted EBITDA was a loss of $22 million during the quarter. This was a 15 percentage point reduction in our adjusted EBITDA loss, which represented an improvement to a loss of 12% from a loss of 27% in the previous quarter. We were able to deliver strong operating leverage despite the investment spending for our transition to a larger and faster growing organization.

本季度調整後 EBITDA 淨虧損 2200 萬美元。我們調整後的 EBITDA 損失減少了 15 個百分點，比上一季度 27% 的損失減少了 12%。儘管為轉型為規模更大、發展更快的組織而進行了投資支出，但我們仍能夠提供強大的運營槓桿。

We grew inventory by $55 million during the quarter to a balance of $127 million. We continue to building inventory in support of growing deployment capacity and rapid delivery. This positions us for future growth, reduces the risk of supply chain disruptions and positions us for increased flexibility to meet growing customer demand.

本季度我們的庫存增加了 5500 萬美元，餘額達到 1.27 億美元。我們繼續建立庫存，以支持不斷增長的部署能力和快速交付。這為我們未來的增長奠定了基礎，降低了供應鏈中斷的風險，並提高了我們的靈活性，以滿足不斷增長的客戶需求。

In going public, we raised $385 million. After retiring all preferred at the end of the quarter, we had $412 million in cash and equivalence and no debt. We are very well capitalized to confidently continue strong deployment revenue growth and reach sustainable cash flow positive operations while continuing to invest aggressively in new innovations and future opportunities.

通過上市，我們籌集了 3.85 億美元。在本季度末全部優先退休後，我們擁有 4.12 億美元的現金和等價物，並且沒有債務。我們資本充足，有信心繼續強勁的部署收入增長並實現可持續的現金流正運營，同時繼續積極投資新的創新和未來機會。

Now we would like to provide our first guidance as a public company. In our fiscal year ended 2022, we expect revenue of $490 million to $510 million. This implies expected revenue of $141 million to $161 million in the fourth quarter. For the fiscal year ended 2022, we expect an adjusted EBITDA loss of between $90 million and $94 million. This implies an adjusted EBITDA loss of between $21 million and $25 million in the fourth quarter.

現在我們想提供作為上市公司的第一份指導。在截至 2022 財年，我們預計收入為 4.9 億至 5.1 億美元。這意味著第四季度的預期收入為 1.41 億美元至 1.61 億美元。對於 2022 年終了的財年，我們預計調整後的 EBITDA 損失將在 9000 萬美元至 9400 萬美元之間。這意味著第四季度調整後的 EBITDA 損失在 2100 萬美元至 2500 萬美元之間。

In summary, we're energized about our progress in helping revolutionize the supply chain. As part of this journey, we are prepared to continue to innovate rapidly and scale our business against our over $11 billion revenue backlog and we're excited to work with our amazing customers and you, our public shareholders as we move forward, building this great company.

總之，我們對幫助供應鏈變革所取得的進展感到充滿活力。作為這一旅程的一部分，我們準備繼續快速創新，根據我們超過 110 億美元的積壓收入擴大我們的業務，我們很高興與我們出色的客戶和您，我們的公眾股東一起前進，建設這個偉大的公司公司。

We now welcome your questions.

我們現在歡迎您提出問題。

Operator, will you please open the Q&A?

接線員，請打開問答好嗎？

Thank you. (Operator instructions).

謝謝。 （操作員說明）。

Our first question comes from Matt Summerville with DA Davidson. Your line is open.

我們的第一個問題來自馬特·薩默維爾和地方檢察官戴維森。您的線路已開通。

Thanks. A couple questions. First, I was wondering, Tom, if you could put a little finer point on some of the pluses and minuses that impacted gross margin in the quarter in particular, I'd be curious as to how dilutive, the input cost dynamic may have been on margin in the quarter and then I have a follow up.

謝謝。有幾個問題。首先，我想知道，湯姆，您是否可以更詳細地說明影響本季度毛利率的一些優點和缺點，我很好奇投入成本動態的稀釋程度如何本季度的保證金，然後我會進行跟進。

Sure Matt. Thank you for the question and good evening.

當然，馬特。謝謝你的提問，晚上好。

So for gross margins, Matt, if you see our system gross margin has reported in the financial statements were 20% for the quarter. This is -- we had about a 200 basis point impact from our services gross margins and as you know, our services gross margins are all associated with prior generation prototypes.

因此，就毛利率而言，馬特，如果您看到我們的系統在財務報表中報告的本季度毛利率為 20%。我們的服務毛利率對我們產生了大約 200 個基點的影響，正如您所知，我們的服務毛利率都與上一代原型相關。

So those are software streams, parts and operations streams associated with those businesses and as you also know, those businesses were really targeted for the experience and generally were not expected to be profitable and in general expected to be at negative margin. So overall services revenue accounted for about a 200 basis point deflection in the period.

因此，這些是與這些業務相關的軟件流、零件和運營流，而且您也知道，這些業務實際上是針對體驗的，通常預計不會盈利，並且通常預計會出現負利潤。因此，在此期間，整體服務收入出現了約 200 個基點的偏差。

Also, as we look forward today, we have 13 systems in deployment, various stages. These services revenue for those system deployments start upon the next phase. They start upon customer acceptance and you know, that's, at which point we transitioned. So we don't have any in period service revenue from the recurring.

此外，正如我們今天所展望的，我們有 13 個系統處於不同階段的部署中。這些系統部署的服務收入將從下一階段開始。他們從客戶接受開始，你知道，那就是我們轉變的時候。因此，我們沒有任何定期服務收入。

Working with a 20% system revenue, two things really drove the business in the quarter; two things happened, or we would've been much closer to a 30% gross margin in the quarter. First, as you also know, we pass through steel index costs to our customers and the input costs for us in the in-period revenue lags as you would expect as those -- as the steel had been ordered over the previous months. So we have somewhat of a lag basis there. That was a material impact.

系統收入佔 20%，有兩件事真正推動了本季度的業務發展：發生了兩件事，否則我們本季度的毛利率就會更接近 30%。首先，正如您所知，我們將鋼鐵指數成本傳遞給客戶，並將期間收入滯後的投入成本傳遞給我們，正如您所期望的那樣——因為鋼鐵是在前幾個月訂購的。所以我們在那裡有一定的滯後基礎。這是一個實質性的影響。

The second impact is a function of us really putting the foot on the gas and growing faster. So as we're growing faster, we're putting more cost in to fuel that growth and prepare. So, a bit of that's just inefficient go fast and a bit of it's just the function of our early scale. So those two things would have us a much closer to 30% gross margin in the period versus 20% as reported. Does that answer the question, Matt?

第二個影響是我們真正加大力度並加快增長的結果。因此，隨著我們增長速度加快，我們會投入更多成本來推動增長並做好準備。所以，其中一部分只是效率低下、速度快，還有一部分只是我們早期規模的功能。因此，這兩件事將使我們在此期間的毛利率更接近 30%，而報告中的毛利率為 20%。這能回答問題嗎，馬特？

Yes. Thank you. I appreciate that. And then maybe one for Michael.

是的。謝謝。我很感激。然後也許是邁克爾的一個。

Can you talk about, as you've gone from four ago to nine prior, quarter 13, this quarter, either people, process, technology, but can you maybe point to some of the specific things that have enabled you to start, ramping up that deployment curve, if you will in what's actually, that's happened pretty quickly for you guys. So congrats on that, but I'd be curious as to what specifics you can point to is maybe success factors here in linear term for Symbotic? Thank you.

您能否談談，正如您從 4 年前到 9 年前，第 13 季度，本季度一樣，人員、流程、技術，但您能否指出一些使您能夠開始、提升的具體事物？如果你願意的話，部署曲線對你們來說很快就發生了。所以恭喜你，但我很好奇你能指出哪些細節可能是 Symbotic 的線性項中的成功因素？謝謝。

Sure. Yes. Thanks, Matt. Thanks for the question. Yes, it's been an amazing quarter, right with the expanded backlog, of course, and putting four additional systems into deployment to bring us to total of 13. We did step on the gas pedal a bit and as part of this, I mentioned in my prepared remarks that we're investing in people and infrastructure to scale to meet this $11 billion backlog. And it's really kind of an approach that's three pronged the people and our processes, so really creating a culture of operational excellence.

當然。是的。謝謝，馬特。謝謝你的提問。是的，這是一個令人驚嘆的季度，當然，隨著積壓的擴大，並且部署了四個額外的系統，使我們的系統總數達到13 個。我們確實踩了一點油門，作為其中的一部分，我在我準備好的發言是，我們正在對人員和基礎設施進行投資，以擴大規模，以滿足這 110 億美元的積壓。這確實是一種從人員和流程三方面著手的方法，因此真正創造了卓越運營的文化。

I think you can't scale chaos, right? So we're bringing folks on board to augment the team with leaders who have scaled before. We're putting in place and enhancing things like our change management systems, so that we can be flexible and adaptable as we ramp new products and incorporate technology improvements and cost reduction opportunities.

我認為你無法擴大混亂，對嗎？因此，我們正在招募人員加入，用以前規模擴大過的領導者來擴充團隊。我們正在落實並增強變革管理系統等內容，以便我們在推出新產品、納入技術改進和降低成本機會時能夠保持靈活性和適應性。

We're enhancing our quality management system, Matt, so that our product is predictable and defect free regardless of the source, whether that's internal or for one of our partners. And we're putting in place and enhancing our business management systems really for standardization of workflow.

我們正在加強我們的質量管理體系，馬特，以便我們的產品是可預測的並且沒有缺陷，無論來源如何，無論是內部的還是我們的合作夥伴之一。我們正在建立並增強我們的業務管理系統，真正實現工作流程的標準化。

So, we're leveraging our tier one partners for the integral system components and we're working with them on technologies designed really for speed and velocity of installation. So the intent of course, is to compress the schedule and leverage our partners for innovation and for cost reduction. So lots of heavy lifting ahead, Matt, but, I'm confident we're taking the right steps to build the foundation and the infrastructure for scale.

因此，我們正在利用我們的一級合作夥伴來提供集成系統組件，並與他們合作開發真正針對安裝速度和速度而設計的技術。因此，我們的目的當然是壓縮時間表並利用我們的合作夥伴進行創新和降低成本。馬特，前面還有很多繁重的工作，但是我相信我們正在採取正確的步驟來建立規模的基礎和基礎設施。

Great. Appreciate the color. Thank you guys.

偉大的。欣賞顏色。感謝你們。

Yes.

是的。

We have a question from Piyush Awasthi [ph] with Citi. Your line is open.

我們有 Piyush Awasthi [ph] 向花旗提出的問題。您的線路已開通。

Hey guys, good evening.

嘿伙計們，晚上好。

Good evening.

晚上好。

So few of our companies have reported that warehouse automation spend is somehow shifting right. Now, you guys are sitting with a very strong backlog, but has the conversations with your new clients changed over the last few months? There's mounting concern of a recession coming through. Has, anything changed over the last few months?

我們很少有公司報告倉庫自動化支出正在以某種方式向右轉變。現在，你們的積壓訂單非常多，但是過去幾個月與新客戶的對話是否發生了變化？人們越來越擔心經濟衰退即將到來。過去幾個月有什麼變化嗎？

Well, I think, the answer to that question Piyush begins with our order backlog, right of $11 billion, right. I think customers have voted with their wallets. So I think we're pretty excited about the opportunity and I think the technology is really being embraced. So yes, we've got advanced technology that really brings benefits of speed, accuracy and efficiency to warehouse operations.

好吧，我認為，Piyush 這個問題的答案始於我們的訂單積壓，即 110 億美元，對吧。我認為顧客是用錢包投票的。因此，我認為我們對這個機會感到非常興奮，並且我認為這項技術正在真正被接受。所以，是的，我們擁有先進的技術，能夠真正為倉庫運營帶來速度、準確性和效率的優勢。

And, remember Piyush, the solution, it really radically transforms how goods and merchandise flow through a warehouse or distribution center to stores. But, unlike other automation companies, our solution doesn't just automate or mechanize human operator activities or tasks, but it's instead really redesigned and rethought how to optimize the entire warehouse operation.

而且，請記住 Piyush 這個解決方案，它確實從根本上改變了貨​​物和商品通過倉庫或配送中心流向商店的方式。但是，與其他自動化公司不同，我們的解決方案不僅使人類操作員活動或任務自動化或機械化，而且真正重新設計並重新思考如何優化整個倉庫運營。

So, yes, I think we've seen increased interest for sure and I think folks are recognizing that our solution helps make the warehouse really a strategic asset in the overall supply chain. Tom, I don't know if you have anything you wanted to add.

所以，是的，我認為我們肯定已經看到了人們的興趣增加，而且我認為人們認識到我們的解決方案有助於使倉庫真正成為整個供應鏈中的戰略資產。湯姆，我不知道你是否還有什麼要補充的。

Yes. Piyush, I know we've been watching comments out in the marketplace. We've seen some of the retailers make comments about over investing in fulfillment e-commerce and you know, certainly we watch that and I think as you know the bulk of our backlog really sits pointed at making much more efficient in transforming the backbone of commerce upstream from the fulfillment center.

是的。 Piyush，我知道我們一直在關注市場上的評論。我們已經看到一些零售商對履行電子商務的過度投資發表評論，你知道，我們當然會關注這一點，我認為正如你所知，我們的大部分積壓確實是為了更有效地轉變電子商務的支柱。履行中心上游的商務。

So, there, our customers and prospects are still feeling the extreme pain of labor shortages and broken supply chains that just can't handle the demand and the changing demand on them. So I think that's something that we're just not hearing a lot about in terms of what some of the other presses happening with retailers.

因此，我們的客戶和潛在客戶仍然感受到勞動力短缺和供應鏈斷裂的極度痛苦，這些痛苦無法滿足他們的需求和不斷變化的需求。所以我認為，就其他一些媒體與零售商發生的事情而言，我們只是沒有聽到很多關於這一點的事情。

Got it. Helpful. And my follow up question is like, given the higher investment that you're making and their commodity prices are, can you provide a little bit of color, when do you expect your EBITDA to break even?

知道了。有幫助。我的後續問題是，考慮到您正在進行的投資較高以及商品價格，您能否提供一些信息，您預計 EBITDA 何時能實現盈虧平衡？

Yes. So, right now we're providing a clear guidance and outlook for the fiscal Q4. One thing that we can say is our traction with these 13 systems and deployment thus far and our customers vote of confidence along with this IPU really gives us clear line of sight to being a bigger company and so we do -- we are excited about stepping up the investment a bit.

是的。因此，現在我們正在為第四財季提供明確的指導和展望。我們可以說的一件事是，到目前為止，我們對這13 個系統和部署的關注，以及我們的客戶對這個IPU 的信任投票，確實讓我們對成為一家更大的公司有了清晰的認識，所以我們做到了——我們對邁出這一步感到興奮投資增加一點。

It's a little early to give you a target on when we expect to break even. I suspect that as we report our fiscal Q4, we might have a little bit more to say about the look into next year. But, we feel very good about the leverage in the model and our progress and traction and the ability to drive leverage in the model.

現在給您設定我們預計何時實現收支平衡的目標還為時過早。我懷疑，當我們報告第四季度財報時，我們可能會對明年的展望有更多的看法。但是，我們對模型中的槓桿作用以及我們的進展、牽引力以及推動模型中槓桿作用的能力感到非常滿意。

Perhaps one more comment that can be helpful for you, as we think about the spend in the quarter, the stepped up spend, some of it is clearly intended to be permanent as we invest for being a much bigger scale company. Other the spend was clearly shorter term in nature. Some of it very short term in nature as we're really putting the foot down on the gas and growing here over 350% in the fiscal third quarter. So some of that growth just comes in a little bit of efficient.

也許還有一條評論對您有幫助，當我們考慮本季度的支出時，增加的支出，其中一些顯然是永久性的，因為我們投資成為一家規模更大的公司。其他支出顯然是短期的。其中一些本質上是非常短期的，因為我們確實加大了力度，並在第三財季實現了 350% 以上的增長。因此，其中一些增長只是有一點點效率。

So big picture, we do see our OpEx cresting at the levels that we're printing here in the Q3 and implicit in our Q4 guidance. And that might help you think a little bit about our leverage as we could move forward.

從大局來看，我們確實看到我們的運營支出達到了我們在第三季度打印的水平以及第四季度指導中隱含的水平。這可能會幫助您思考一下我們在前進過程中的影響力。

Very helpful. Thank you, guys.

很有幫助。感謝你們。

Thank you, Piyush.

謝謝你，皮尤什。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Our next question comes from Mark Delaney with Goldman Sachs. Your line is open.

我們的下一個問題來自高盛的馬克·德萊尼。您的線路已開通。

Yes. Thanks very much for taking the questions. Congratulations on the go public transaction and Michael congrats on the new role. My first question is for Michael and you spoke to not being able to scale chaos and all the work you and the broader team are doing on people, processes and supply chain.

是的。非常感謝您提出問題。祝賀上市交易，祝賀邁克爾擔任新角色。我的第一個問題是問邁克爾的，你談到了無法規模化混亂以及你和更廣泛的團隊在人員、流程和供應鏈方面所做的所有工作。

I'm looking to better understand where you think the company stands on that and, is there going to be some period of time working on all those things before you can take the next step function higher and growth or do you think you can make more steady progress and continue to grow relatively consistently in terms of the shipments the company can do?

我希望更好地了解您認為公司在這方面的立場，以及在您可以採取下一步功能更高和增長之前是否需要一段時間來處理所有這些事情，或者您認為您可以賺更多錢公司在出貨量方面能穩步進步並繼續保持相對穩定的增長嗎？

Yes. Hey Mark. Thanks for the question. Yes, I think what's really interesting to note is I spent a lot of time with Rick and the executive management team and even the board before taking this role and really aligned, I think, on the market and the opportunity in the strategy.

是的。嘿馬克。謝謝你的提問。是的，我認為真正有趣的是，在擔任這一職位之前，我花了很多時間與Rick 和執行管理團隊甚至董事會在一起，我認為，我認為，我對市場和戰略中的機會真正保持一致。

So, we do have a dual strategy when you look at how we're scaling. We are optimizing our existing internal manufacturing and bringing on tier one suppliers really to ensure that we're adequately capacitized, Mark, to deliver the systems on schedule and to scale. So I think this dual strategy is completely bought in by everybody in the organization. We're in the early stages of bringing on these tier one partners, for bots, for cells, for lifts, for structure, etcetera and there's been a lot of good collaboration to date.

因此，當你看看我們如何擴展時，我們確實有雙重策略。我們正在優化現有的內部製造，並引入一級供應商，以確保我們有足夠的能力，馬克，按時按比例交付系統。所以我認為這種雙重策略完全被組織中的每個人所接受。我們正處於引入這些一級合作夥伴的早期階段，涉及機器人、細胞、電梯、結構等，迄今為止已經進行了很多良好的合作。

So, we've got things like a full supplier Summit Day taking place in a couple of weeks down at one of our sites and it's a multi-day collaboration to orchestrate how we're going to continue to work together, how we're going to innovate, how we're going to compress the schedule, how we're going to introduce interesting installation and constructive techniques so that we really can get to a position where our system is very modular and becomes a plug and play at the site.

因此，我們將在幾週後在我們的一個站點舉辦完整的供應商峰會日之類的活動，這是一次為期多天的合作，旨在協調我們將如何繼續合作，我們如何將進行創新，我們將如何壓縮時間表，我們將如何引入有趣的安裝和施工技術，以便我們真正能夠達到我們的系統非常模塊化並在現場即插即用的位置。

So we're in the early stages of this Mark, but I think, we are confident with the steps that we're taking and the strategies that we're undertaking with the right partners. And we expect to get a multiplier effect as we bring on multiple tier one suppliers in each of these categories.

因此，我們正處於這一目標的早期階段，但我認為，我們對我們正在採取的步驟以及我們與合適的合作夥伴一起採取的戰略充滿信心。當我們在每個類別中引入多個一級供應商時，我們預計會獲得乘數效應。

That's helpful. Thank you. And my second question was on the longer term financial targets and since the initial investor presentation was provided in December, 2021, the company has materially grown as backlog now over $11 billion, as you mentioned. Maybe when that long-term target was given, the company was already expecting to grow its backlog, but more recently you've made significant progress to get the backlog to over $11 billion. So, so the question is have those longer term targets such as the 2025 model, have they changed at all? Even directionally thank you.

這很有幫助。謝謝。我的第二個問題是關於長期財務目標，自從 2021 年 12 月提供初始投資者介紹以來，正如您提到的，該公司已大幅增長，積壓訂單現已超過 110 億美元。也許在製定長期目標時，公司已經預計其積壓訂單會增加，但最近您已經取得了重大進展，積壓訂單已超過 110 億美元。那麼，問題是 2025 年模型等長期目標是否發生了變化？甚至定向感謝。

Yes. Thanks Mark. And so, the way we think about it since as 2022 has rolled on, there's really been three things that have happened and you're right. Backlog is one of those really backlog was that more than doubling in the backlog to $11.3 from $5.2 billion, followed the great progress we've had in deployments, whereas Mike mentioned in his prepared remarks at the end of the third quarter, we now have 13 system in various stages of deployment, from early build to late and validation testing.

是的。謝謝馬克。因此，自 2022 年以來，我們的思考方式是，確實發生了三件事，你是對的。積壓是真正積壓的問題之一，隨著我們在部署方面取得巨大進展，積壓從52 億美元增加了一倍多，達到11.3 美元，而邁克在第三季度末準備好的講話中提到，我們現在有13 系統處於部署的各個階段，從早期構建到後期和驗證測試。

That success and traction along with our customer's vote of confidence along with the third piece of the puzzle, which is the completion of our public listing and the strong balance sheet means we're just in that confident posture to invest a little bit more aggressively.

這種成功和吸引力，加上我們客戶的信任投票，以及第三個難題，即我們公開上市的完成和強勁的資產負債表，意味著我們正處於更加積極地投資的自信姿態。

So we're not taking the opportunity tonight to provide a five-year outlook on an Nano state. We might step back sometime in the future and talk a little bit more about the strategic long term model, but what's developed since '22 has rolled out is we see the opportunity to think of ourselves as a much bigger company, I think, in the framing you saw in that merger model and that confidence to invest in the appropriate level is what we've taken the opportunity to do.

因此，我們今晚不會藉此機會提供納米州的五年展望。我們可能會在未來的某個時候退後一步，更多地討論戰略長期模型，但自 22 推出以來，我們看到了將自己視為一家更大的公司的機會，我認為，在您在合併模型中看到的框架以及對適當水平進行投資的信心是我們抓住機會所做的。

Thank you.

謝謝。

One moment. The next question comes from Mike Latimore with Northland Capital Markets. Your line is open.

一會兒。下一個問題來自 Northland Capital Markets 的 Mike Latimore。您的線路已開通。

Great. Thanks. Congrats on the very strong growth here. I guess Tom, I believe the contracts require a certain level of, I guess, commitment each year can vary by more than 10%, I guess. Just clarify that, in fact, the case, and then also are the results we're seeing, sort of well above that 10% variation or how should we think about that?

偉大的。謝謝。祝賀這裡的強勁增長。我猜湯姆，我相信合同需要一定程度的承諾，我猜每年的變化可能超過 10%。只需澄清一下，事實上，情況以及我們看到的結果都遠高於 10% 的變化，或者我們應該如何考慮這一點？

Yes, thanks for the question, Mike, and hope you're well. So you you're right, that we do have very favorable terms in our contracts with our customers that restrict their ability to change within short durations and as well, even over long timeframes make restrict the ability to make significant modifications.

是的，謝謝你的提問，邁克，希望你一切都好。所以你是對的，我們在與客戶的合同中確實有非常優惠的條款，這些條款限制了他們在短時間內進行更改的能力，甚至在很長的時間內也限制了進行重大修改的能力。

At the same times, our customers are clamoring for us to move as fast as possible. So, that's obviously at a mutual choice to move faster. But that visibility in having kind of that lock commitment of not only an $11.3 billion backlog, but a clear visible roadmap about where we're deploying and when gives us the ability to plan the rapid growth we plan for.

與此同時，我們的客戶強烈要求我們盡快採取行動。因此，這顯然是加快行動的共同選擇。但是，這種鎖定承諾的可見性不僅包括 113 億美元的積壓訂單，而且還有關於我們在何處以及何時進行部署的清晰可見的路線圖，使我們能夠規劃我們計劃的快速增長。

And then you talked about acceleration inter quarter here, I guess it sounds like that was more symbolic motivated as opposed to, or as opposed to like customers specifically asking for things. Is that the way to think about it?

然後你在這裡談到了季度間的加速，我想這聽起來更像是像徵性的動機，而不是像客戶專門要求的東西。是這樣思考的嗎？

Yes, really there are a couple in the fiscal third quarter. One was just strong execution on deployments in flight. So, I think as you know, Mike, we recognize revenue on a percentage of completion basis from the early start of building these deployments through what we recognize revenue on a percentage of completion basis from the early start of building these deployments through what typically we expect to be about an 18 month process to that moment of acceptance and that moment of acceptance is when all of the system revenue has been recognized and we begin charging for recurring revenues looking forward.

是的，第三財季確實有一些。一是對飛行部署的強有力執行。因此，我認為邁克，您知道，我們從構建這些部署的早期開始就按照完成百分比確認收入，通過我們通常從構建這些部署的早期開始就按完成百分比確認收入。預計到接受的時刻大約需要18 個月的過程，而接受的時刻是當所有系統收入都已得到確認並且我們開始對未來的經常性收入收取費用時。

So what we saw during the fiscal third quarter was strong execution. In that a number of these systems really kind of hit some chunky cycles in terms of key progress gates. A second factor was with this perfect first wave of the systems we're deploying here, there was a stacking of some of those key progress rates as well that provided a bit of a concentration of some of that deployment revenue relative to both the fiscal second and fourth quarter.

因此，我們在第三財季看到的是強勁的執行力。其中許多系統在關鍵進度門方面確實遇到了一些大周期。第二個因素是，我們在這裡部署的第一波完美系統中，一些關鍵進展率也堆積起來，這使得部分部署收入相對於第二財年有所集中。和第四季度。

So I think you can see that in our sequential growth momentum really accelerated in the fiscal third quarter. Our fiscal fourth quarter implies that we might even be down sequentially despite being up over 250% year-on-year in the fiscal fourth quarter on an apples-to-apples basis.

因此，我認為您可以看到，我們的連續增長勢頭在第三財季確實加速了。我們的第四財季意味著，儘管第四財季同比增長超過 250%，但我們的業績甚至可能會環比下降。

Yes, yes. Okay. Great. Thanks a lot.

是的是的。好的。偉大的。多謝。

Thank you, Mike.

謝謝你，邁克。

Our next question comes from Nicole DeBlase with Deutsche Bank. Your line is open.

我們的下一個問題來自德意志銀行的 Nicole DeBlase。您的線路已開通。

Yes. Thanks. Good evening. Good afternoon, everyone.

是的。謝謝。晚上好。大家下午好。

Hi. So just maybe piggybacking on the answer to that last question about the fourth quarter, the implied Q-on-Q stepped on in revenue, I suspect that that's kind of a seasonal thing. Is that true or are you, do you think that there's some conservatism baked into the outlook? Just we'd love to get some color on why you guys are expecting revenue to step down sequentially?

你好。因此，也許借助有關第四季度的最後一個問題的答案，即隱含的季度收入增長，我懷疑這是季節性的事情。這是真的嗎？您認為前景中存在一些保守主義嗎？我們只是想了解一下為什麼你們預計收入會依次下降？

Yes. Thanks for the question Nicole.

是的。謝謝妮可的提問。

No, we do not have a seasonality in the business. It really is much more of the impact of in this first wave of systems. We had a number of those systems that really hit key moments in the deployment where they have a stronger revenue recognition on a progress basis. Along with these first systems had a stacking that had a bit of a revenue concentration to Q3. So we did expect that and it's playing out that way.

不，我們的業務沒有季節性。這實際上更多的是第一波系統的影響。我們有許多這樣的系統，它們在部署過程中確實達到了關鍵時刻，它們在進展的基礎上獲得了更強的收入確認。除了這些第一批系統之外，還有一些收入集中在第三季度的堆疊。所以我們確實預料到了這一點，而且事情也確實如此。

Our momentum as we look at Q4 relative to where we expected to be to start the year or even just a quarter and a half ago is significantly picked up such that as you look at the second half here and our expectations for the second half in total is up about $65 million from where we perhaps expected it to start the year. So significant pickup and momentum in both not driven at all by seasonality.

當我們看到第四季度時，相對於我們年初甚至一個半季度前的預期，我們的勢頭顯著增強，因此，當您在這裡查看下半年以及我們對下半年的總體預期時，我們的勢頭顯著增強比我們年初的預期增加了約 6500 萬美元。兩者的顯著回升和勢頭根本不是由季節性推動的。

Okay.

好的。

One more thought there that might help you as well. I think as we move past these first wave of deployments, and as we're beginning to deploy more systems on a quarterly basis, we expect that some of that quarter on quarter lumpiness that you're seeing here in Q2, Q3 and Q4 to begin to diminish and be much smoother.

還有一種想法也可能對你有幫助。我認為，隨著我們度過第一波部署浪潮，並且隨著我們開始按季度部署更多系統，我們預計您在第二季度、第三季度和第四季度看到的季度環比波動會有所增加。開始減少並且變得更加平滑。

Got it. That's really helpful. Thanks.

知道了。這真的很有幫助。謝謝。

And just on the inventory step up, this is not uncommon. I think every single company we cover has seen inventory step up as a function of what's happened with the supply chain, but I guess, are you guys kind of thinking it makes more sense to run with higher levels of inventory that you've seen in the past kind of similar to your view on maybe running with higher levels of OpEx as well?

就庫存而言，這種情況並不少見。我認為我們涵蓋的每一家公司都看到庫存隨著供應鏈發生的情況而增加，但我想，你們是否認為以你們所看到的更高水平的庫存來運行更有意義？過去的觀點與您對可能以更高水平的運營支出運行的看法相似嗎？

Yes. Thanks for the question, Nicole. Michael mentioned in his prepared remarks our initiatives are really building a world class manufacturing supply chain. So a part of that inventory step up is significant. Part of it is all designed around that. And a second part though, as well is we are being -- we're investing a little bit extra in what's clearly a more challenging supply chain environment to de-risk the supply chain, give ourselves some greater visibility. Mike, you want to make any comments on how we're building that?

是的。謝謝你的提問，妮可。邁克爾在他準備好的講話中提到，我們的舉措實際上是在建設世界一流的製造供應鏈。因此，庫存增加的一部分意義重大。它的一部分都是圍繞這個設計的。第二部分是，我們正在——我們正在明顯更具挑戰性的供應鏈環境中進行一些額外投資，以降低供應鏈的風險，讓我們自己有更大的知名度。邁克，您想對我們如何構建它發表任何評論嗎？

Sure. Tom, yes. Nicole, maybe I'll just add a little color of that, the shift is really moving from focusing on systems in a serial fashion to really doing multiple things in parallel. And I think as Rick mentioned in his comments really migrate into a mass production oriented environment and as part of that, we are employing really a build to forecast or a build to capacity model.

當然。湯姆，是的。妮可，也許我只是添加一點顏色，這種轉變確實是從專注於串行方式的系統轉向真正並行地做多個事情。我認為，正如里克在他的評論中提到的那樣，確實遷移到了以大規模生產為導向的環境，作為其中的一部分，我們正在採用真正的預測構建或容量構建模型。

So will result in some increased inventory, which is very intentional and again, our entire relationship, I think with suppliers has changed recently for the better. I think we're seen as a very desirable company to work with. We're -- if I just think about it, we're playing in a pretty hot market of robotics and software enabled automation, and these are desirable sectors and growth areas for suppliers.

因此，這將導致庫存增加，這是非常有意的，我認為我們與供應商的整個關係最近已經變得更好了。我認為我們被視為一家非常理想的合作公司。如果我仔細想想，我們正在一個非常熱門的機器人和軟件自動化市場中競爭，這些都是供應商理想的行業和增長領域。

Of course, because of our outlook, Nicole and the demand profile we have, we can give long forecasts and that's really attractive to suppliers who can level load their factories to support us and get high efficiencies in the process. And then I guess also, if you just look at the fact of our IPO a few weeks ago, it just simply gives us more market credibility, better financial transparency for suppliers, and the cash, right. We raised $385 million of cash. So this allows us to go out and secure long lead time items in bulk with confidence and build up inventory as we expect our new model to result in compressed overall lead times and installation times of systems.

當然，由於我們的前景、Nicole 和我們所掌握的需求概況，我們可以給出長期預測，這對供應商非常有吸引力，他們可以平衡工廠負載以支持我們並在此過程中獲得高效率。然後我想，如果你看看我們幾週前首次公開募股的事實，它只是給我們帶來了更多的市場信譽，為供應商提供了更好的財務透明度，還有現金，對吧。我們籌集了 3.85 億美元現金。因此，這使我們能夠滿懷信心地走出去，批量獲得長交貨時間的物品，並建立庫存，因為我們預計我們的新模型將壓縮系統的整體交貨時間和安裝時間。

Yes. Maybe I'll have one more point to that Mike. Mentioning the cash side of it, so Nicole, as I know, you know, well we also benefit from a very significant cost float and you can see that represented in our strong deferred revenue on the balance sheet. One of the other benefits we're getting, you can start to see this move in our payables, as you start to look at the metrics around our accounts payables is we are able to start to get much better payable terms as well to help fund this strategy. So those are both trends you should expect to see continue.

是的。也許我還要向邁克提出一點。提到現金方面，妮可，據我所知，我們也受益於非常顯著的成本浮動，您可以在我們資產負債表上強勁的遞延收入中看到這一點。我們獲得的其他好處之一是，當您開始查看我們應付賬款的指標時，您可以開始在我們的應付賬款中看到這一變化，我們能夠開始獲得更好的應付條款以及幫助融資這個策略。因此，這兩種趨勢應該會持續下去。

Got it. Thanks, guys. I will pass it on.

知道了。多謝你們。我會把它傳遞下去。

Welcome.

歡迎。

We have a question from Derek Soderberg with Cantor. Your line is open.

我們有德里克·索德伯格向康托提出的問題。您的線路已開通。

Hey, guys, thanks for taking my questions and my congrats as well on the strong quarter. Tom, I want to dig in a bit more on systems gross margin. You had a slight uptick in margins, quarter-over-quarter. Is 20% gross margin in systems, sort of a good place to think about, that bucket over the next few quarters. Can you talk about maybe what takes that up from here? Where should we expect systems gross margin over the next few quarters? Can you provide some more detail on that?

嘿，伙計們，感謝您提出我的問題，並祝賀本季度的強勁表現。湯姆，我想深入了解一下系統毛利率。與上一季度相比，您的利潤率略有上升。系統的毛利率是否為 20%，這是一個值得思考的好地方，即未來幾個季度的毛利率。您能談談從這裡開始的可能是什麼嗎？我們預計未來幾個季度的系統毛利率會是多少？您能否提供更多細節？

Yes. Derek, let to talk a little bit more. I think I said earlier that there were two primary factors that had our system gross margin of 20% being different from something much closer to 30%. So the first I had mentioned was steel index. Our input costs due lag, but we have been watching the steel index settle down and do a much more normalized range.

是的。德里克，讓我們再多說一點。我想我之前說過，有兩個主要因素導致我們的系統毛利率為 20%，與更接近 30% 的毛利率不同。所以我首先提到的是鋼鐵指數。我們的投入成本由於滯後，但我們一直在觀察鋼鐵指數穩定下來並在一個更加正常化的範圍內。

Can't predict for you, what's going to happen in that steel index, Derek. We saw it settling down a few months ago only to spike back up to 1300. So, while we can't predict the future, I think the future's market would indicate that it is expected to continue settling down. So we do have a natural leg in our model as we're purchasing steel-based input goods. Sometimes weeks, sometimes many months in advance. So that natural leg does apply. But if the steel market does what we expect, we should benefit from that on a reported gross margin basis.

德里克，無法為您預測鋼鐵指數會發生什麼。我們看到它在幾個月前穩定下來，然後又飆升至 1300。因此，雖然我們無法預測未來，但我認為未來的市場將表明它預計將繼續穩定下來。因此，當我們購買基於鋼鐵的投入品時，我們的模型確實有一個自然的腿。有時提前幾週，有時提前幾個月。所以自然腿確實適用。但如果鋼鐵市場的表現符合我們的預期，我們應該會從報告的毛利率基礎上受益。

I know, you know as well that this is just a flow through effect for us. So, that those steel prices are passed on to our customers as flow through cost. So that, regardless of what happens to steel, we're getting the same visibility to gross profit dollars. But it does impact the gross margin percent.

我知道，你也知道，這對我們來說只是一種流動效應。因此，這些鋼材價格將作為流動成本轉嫁給我們的客戶。因此，無論鋼鐵發生什麼情況，我們都能獲得相同的毛利潤可見度。但這確實影響了毛利率。

The other side of the equation here at our early scale and our rapid growth, as we're making each micro decision. We've been bias in our decisions on go fast, get the experience system deployments are going well rather than really optimizing each process for efficiency.

等式的另一邊是我們的早期規模和快速增長，因為我們正在做出每一個微觀決策。我們的決策一直偏向於快速行動、獲得系統部署進展順利的經驗，而不是真正優化每個流程以提高效率。

So we see lots of opportunity for getting in and getting more efficient as we get more at bats with each of these systems. In addition, we've just been -- we've been putting investment dollars and spend at kind of that scale to get bigger.

因此，隨著我們使用這些系統中的每一個系統獲得更多的擊球數，我們看到了很多進入並提高效率的機會。此外，我們一直在投入資金並以一定規模支出以擴大規模。

So those, I would think you should think systemically about diminishing over time. I don't want to put a timeframe on that, and it's too early for us to talk about next year, but as a general trend, you should expect to see that we get more efficient, not less.

所以，我認為你應該系統地考慮隨著時間的推移而減少。我不想為此設定一個時間表，而且現在談論明年還為時過早，但作為總體趨勢，您應該期望看到我們的效率更高，而不是更低。

Okay. That's helpful. And then as my follow up, Tom. Just curious how we should think about the software and support revenue ramped. You've got, I think six or so wide production modules right now. But I guess I'm wondering when we're going to see that software fee piece ramp up. Is it the case that it's going to take the new modules being accepted, coming online to really see that start to grow pretty consistently? How should we think about that bucket ramping? Thanks.

好的。這很有幫助。然後作為我的後續行動，湯姆。只是好奇我們應該如何看待軟件和支持收入的增長。我認為你現在有大約六個寬的生產模塊。但我想我想知道我們什麼時候會看到軟件費用增加。是否會在新模塊被接受、上線後才真正看到它開始持續增長？我們應該如何看待鏟斗斜坡？謝謝。

Yes, thanks Derek.

是的，謝謝德里克。

You're right. That what's going to drive growth in our recurring revenues, which are led particularly by the margin contribution from software, but also include healthy business and maintenance parts along with some typically build operate transfer services. We expect those to start ramping post acceptance of systems, and that is the trigger event for those revenues.

你說得對。這將推動我們經常性收入的增長，尤其是軟件的利潤貢獻，但也包括健康的業務和維護部分以及一些典型的構建運營轉移服務。我們預計這些將在系統接受後開始增加，這是這些收入的觸發事件。

One thing to keep in mind, as well as, as you think about modeling this forward, our expectation is we're going to be rapidly growing those number of systems and, looking at the team here around the room on this call, led by Rick and Michael, our goal is to grow that 13 as fast as we can to 26 and then double it yet again. So we don't intend for our system revenue to slowdown in growth.

需要記住的一件事是，當您考慮對此進行建模時，我們的期望是我們將快速增加這些系統的數量，並且看看這次電話會議中房間裡的團隊，由Rick 和Michael，我們的目標是盡快將13 個增加到26 個，然後再翻一番。因此，我們不打算讓我們的系統收入增長放緩。

That means that you're unlikely to see the recurring components becoming a strong percentage of revenue over the future timeframe, as long as you're growing fast, but that being said highly profitable stream and when you really break down the economics of our business, the actual gross profit contribution from these recurring businesses are in a similar order of magnitude today to our overall -- to our overall system revenue. So a very important part of the business model that just happens to lag in timing.

這意味著，只要您快速增長，您就不太可能看到經常性組件在未來的時間範圍內佔據收入的很大比例，但話雖如此，但當您真正分解我們業務的經濟性時，這是高利潤的流，這些經常性業務的實際毛利潤貢獻與我們今天的整體收入（我們的整體系統收入）處於相似的數量級。因此，商業模式中一個非常重要的部分恰好在時間上滯後了。

Got it. Thanks guys.

知道了。多謝你們。

Thank you.

謝謝。

We have a question from Rob Mason with Baird. Your line is open.

羅布·梅森向貝爾德提出了一個問題。您的線路已開通。

Yes, good afternoon. And congratulations again on the good start. The question that I had was around the average system value that we've talked about, or you've talked about in the past, roughly $50 million. I know there's variability to that, but as you think as we think about both the inflationary aspect that may be influencing that as well as just, what the customers are requesting, which it seems like they have a desire for more of your technology. You're working on some things I understand, as well as I think that the upsized opportunity at Wal-Mart talked about enhanced capabilities as well.

是的，下午好。再次祝賀良好的開端。我的問題是圍繞我們談論過的平均係統價值，或者你過去談論過的，大約 5000 萬美元。我知道這存在可變性，但正如您所想，我們考慮可能影響這一點的通貨膨脹方面以及客戶的要求，他們似乎渴望獲得更多的技術。我理解你正在做一些事情，而且我認為沃爾瑪的擴大機會也談到了增強的能力。

So can you just give some context around how that may be that $50 million, if we want to use that number, how that may change over time and to the extent you can, maybe the inflationary aspect for technology there.

那麼，您能否提供一些背景信息，說明這可能是5000 萬美元，如果我們想使用這個數字，它會如何隨著時間的推移而變化，以及在您能做到的範圍內，也許是那裡技術的通貨膨脹方面。

Yes, sure. Rob, thanks for the question. And, I'm sure you can do the -- you can do the the math, obviously the revenue in period probably scores material higher for the 13 systems and deploy on average when you spread it over projected timeframe. So I think you hit some of the issues. So first as we talked about a typical system might cost $50 million wasn't necessarily meant to represent what you would see on a quarterly average for a handful of reasons.

是的，當然。羅布，謝謝你的提問。而且，我相信你可以做 - 你可以做數學計算，顯然，當你將其分佈在預計的時間範圍內時，這 13 個系統的同期收入可能會更高，並且平均部署。所以我認為你遇到了一些問題。因此，首先我們談到一個典型的系統可能花費 5000 萬美元，但由於多種原因，這並不一定代表您在季度平均水平上看到的情況。

First generally our average systems that are in deployment in this period are a little bit bigger just in terms of scope and planning. But then second, there are significant timing events within the quarter, such as the comments I made a few minutes ago about the stacking that as you look at it on a quarterly basis are really going to throw your numbers off a little bit.

首先，一般來說，我們在此期間部署的平均係統在範圍和規劃方面要大一些。但其次，本季度內有一些重要的時間事件，例如我幾分鐘前發表的關於堆疊的評論，當你按季度查看它時，確實會讓你的數字有點偏差。

So I think, as you do some of that analysis around typical systems and smooth them out over a, a few quarter timeframe, it'll make a little bit more sense. Then specifically to your questions about input costs in terms of inflation, the biggest one we've talked a little bit about already this afternoon, that's the impact of the steel index. Inflation does impact our model as well. Now we do have inflation protection with our customers, but there are some timing events that may provide just a little bit of lumpiness to that.

所以我認為，當你圍繞典型系統進行一些分析並在幾個季度的時間範圍內平滑它們時，它會更有意義。然後，具體到您關於通貨膨脹方面的投入成本的問題，我們今天下午已經討論過的最大的一個問題，就是鋼鐵指數的影響。通貨膨脹確實也會影響我們的模型。現在，我們確實為客戶提供了通脹保護，但有些時間事件可能會帶來一些影響。

So, I think like, like everybody else in the marketplace, as we look across kind of broad input costs, we definitely see the starts of inflation pick up this year relative to last year that is a marginal impact as well in terms of flow through flow through revenue and cost on the business.

因此，我認為，就像市場上的其他人一樣，當我們審視廣泛的投入成本時，我們肯定會看到今年通貨膨脹的開始相對於去年有所上升，這對於流通量而言也是邊際影響流量通過業務的收入和成本。

Sure, sure. And Tom, you had mentioned, you would expect the operating expenses to start to plane out here over the next, this quarter or past quarter than the current quarter. Should we think that most of the again, I'll just reference enhanced capabilities, but we've talked about break pack and bringing the next generations bot to market as well. Those costs are included in that assumption about operating expenses cleaning off.

一定一定。湯姆，您曾提到過，您預計運營費用將在下一個季度、本季度或上個季度開始流出，而不是本季度。如果我們認為大多數情況下，我只會提到增強的功能，但我們已經討論了打破包裝並將下一代機器人推向市場。這些成本包含在有關運營費用清理的假設中。

Yes, Rob, I think we've talked a little bit about, and Michael mentioned this in his prepared remarks that you gave a couple of examples break pack and Symbot [ph] you're right that are some prominent innovation initiatives that we're working on that do represent a very significant amount of our R&D spend.

是的，羅布，我想我們已經談過一些了，邁克爾在他準備好的發言中提到了這一點，你舉了幾個break pack和Symbot的例子[ph]你是對的，這是我們的一些突出的創新舉措。我們的研發支出確實佔了很大一部分。

So yes, I don't want to get into addressing the specifics on those programs. One thing I will perhaps add is that what we've done in terms of in investing here and period, as we all of our investments were actually direct expense as well. So I think we've -- that's been helpful to our financial profile as we think about that, but relative to where we might have been when we started the year our CapEx year-to-date is about $11 million versus a plan for the full year of $28 million.

所以，是的，我不想討論這些計劃的具體細節。我也許要補充的一件事是，我們在此處和期間的投資方面所做的事情，因為我們所有的投資實際上也是直接費用。因此，我認為，當我們考慮這一點時，這對我們的財務狀況很有幫助，但相對於我們年初時的情況，我們今年迄今為止的資本支出約為 1100 萬美元，而計劃的目標是全年2800萬美元。

So I think you should expect that we will continue to want to fund innovation. Our innovation, our let me say another way. Our R&D budget is extensively pointed at new innovation and I think we're excited about the portfolio there. While we can't talk, a little bit more specifically about break pack and Symbot, I think maybe Mike, do you want to give a sense about a couple of things that are important to us around our R&D budget?

所以我認為你應該預料到我們將繼續資助創新。我們的創新，我們的讓我換個說法。我們的研發預算廣泛針對新的創新，我認為我們對那裡的產品組合感到興奮。雖然我們不能談論，但更具體一點關於break pack和Symbot，我想也許邁克，你想談談我們的研發預算中對我們來說很重要的一些事情嗎？

Sure. Rob, I think we've got, a lot of investments not just in the key programs of Simat and breakpack, but, when you look at, really drives our entire system it is a software enabled system and whether we're looking at, things like the high speed robotics or intelligent vision and scanning systems, or just this fleet of autonomous vehicles that our software driven, AI really is a potential massive unlock for future potential.

當然。羅布，我認為我們不僅在 Simat 和 Breakpack 的關鍵程序上進行了大量投資，而且當你看到時，它確實驅動了我們的整個系統，它是一個軟件支持的系統，無論我們是否正在考慮，像高速機器人技術或智能視覺和掃描系統，或者只是我們的軟件驅動的自動駕駛汽車車隊，人工智能確實是未來潛力的巨大潛力。

And, I think we've got a first mover advantage here and when you think of the applications of AI, maybe I'll just give you a couple of examples to put some color on this, but you take our bots, for example Robin [ph], they gather information from sensors and motors on the bots, and they look for patterns of data that can predict upcoming performance issues or degradation or, or failures.

而且，我認為我們在這裡擁有先發優勢，當你想到人工智能的應用時，也許我只會給你幾個例子來對此進行一些說明，但是你可以使用我們的機器人，例如羅賓[ph ]，他們從機器人上的傳感器和電機收集信息，並尋找可以預測即將出現的性能問題或退化或故障的數據模式。

And, we use that information to proactively remove a bot from the system and prevent an issue. We use artificial intelligence, modeling for routing and tasking on which cases to go pick up in the optimal order or in the case of our palletizers the robots that build, these four by four by eight pallets.

而且，我們使用這些信息主動從系統中刪除機器人並防止出現問題。我們使用人工智能，對路線進行建模，並分配以最佳順序拾取哪些箱子的任務，或者就我們的碼垛機而言，機器人會構建這些四乘四乘八的托盤。

We created digital twin of every case as it goes through a scan tunnel and gets indoctrinated into the software of our system. And then we use that information with pallet building algorithms that self-learn and take into account past behaviors and they can anticipate based on the product type crush ability or fragility, or where there may be an open flap. And then of course, dynamically adjust in like a Tetris, like fashion to build these pallets.

我們為每個案例創建了數字孿生，當它通過掃描隧道並被灌輸到我們系統的軟件中時。然後，我們將這些信息與托盤構建算法結合使用，這些算法可以自學習並考慮過去的行為，並且可以根據產品類型的壓碎能力或脆弱性或可能存在打開擋板的位置進行預測。當然，然後像俄羅斯方塊一樣動態調整，像時尚一樣構建這些托盤。

So I think when we're thinking about R&D generally, we are absolutely going to continue to innovate. I think we're on a run rate of, north of a $100 million annually for R&D and that's really, what Rick founded this company on is just wild innovation and we're going to pivot towards speed and scale of the company. But we're not slowing down the innovation. There's lots of key areas that I think are on our product roadmap and our technology roadmap and that's something that Rick is personally really leaning in heavily.

所以我認為，當我們普遍考慮研發時，我們絕對會繼續創新。我認為我們的研發費用每年超過 1 億美元，實際上，Rick 創立這家公司的基礎就是瘋狂的創新，我們將把重點轉向公司的速度和規模。但我們並沒有放慢創新速度。我認為我們的產品路線圖和技術路線圖上有很多關鍵領域，而這也是 Rick 個人非常重視的。

That's very helpful. Thank you.

這非常有幫助。謝謝。

Yes, you got it, Rob.

是的，你明白了，羅布。

Thank you. Our next question comes from James Ricchiuti with Needham. Your line is open.

謝謝。我們的下一個問題來自 James Ricchiuti 和 Needham。您的線路已開通。

Hi, thank you. A couple of questions, if I may, just on the 13 systems that you have deployments in progress, can you give some flavor as to how that might be the makeup of that, presumably if you're one large customer and because the follow up question that I have is as you talk about scaling and going from say 13 to 26 and doubling again, I recognize that you're following this module or plugin play strategy, but will there be some learning curve challenges as you expand with some new customers?

嗨，謝謝你。如果可以的話，我想問幾個問題，就您正在進行部署的 13 個系統而言，您能否介紹一下這可能是如何構成的，假設您是一個大客戶，並且因為後續行動我的問題是，當您談論擴展並從13 到26 並再次翻倍時，我認識到您正在遵循此模塊或插件播放策略，但是當您擴展一些新客戶時，是否會遇到一些學習曲線挑戰？

Yes, thanks for the question, James and as I think, you know our $11.3 billion backlog is across our five customers today but does have a strong concentration to our largest customer, the one that we've disclosed with a -- that we've given a multi-site contract to. So as we think about the 13 systems that are in deployed today, that is with more than one customer, but it does represent a strength towards one customer in particular.

是的，謝謝你的問題，詹姆斯，正如我所想，你知道我們今天 113 億美元的積壓訂單來自我們的五個客戶，但確實非常集中於我們最大的客戶，我們已經通過 - 我們'已經給了一份多站點合同。因此，當我們考慮今天部署的 13 個系統時，雖然涉及多個客戶，但它確實代表了針對一個客戶的優勢。

So your question on how does that apply towards learnings? I think Michael addressed it in his prepared remarks. Michael, maybe you want to speak a little bit more, we're focused on our system being a Lego block, like installation, the same system that we deploy to customer A goes to customer B. It just might be a little bit different configuration of the Lego blocks. So I would say our confidence in deploying to customers across verticals is very high.

那麼你的問題是這如何應用於學習？我認為邁克爾在他準備好的講話中談到了這個問題。邁克爾，也許你想多說一點，我們專注於我們的系統是一個樂高積木，就像安裝一樣，我們部署給客戶 A 的系統也部署到客戶 B 上。只是配置可能有點不同的樂高積木。所以我想說，我們對向跨垂直行業的客戶進行部署的信心非常高。

Yes James. I'll just add in Tom's comment, the model is about, doing many things simultaneously here, and in order to do that, we've got to have good process control. We've got to have good discipline, good change management control and minimize the opportunity to introduce errors and risks as we ramp with speed. And there are two things that I think kind of help in that journey.

是的，詹姆斯。我只是在湯姆的評論中添加一點，該模型是關於在這裡同時做很多事情，為了做到這一點，我們必須有良好的過程控制。我們必須有良好的紀律、良好的變更管理控制，並在我們加快速度時最大限度地減少引入錯誤和風險的機會。我認為有兩件事對這段旅程有所幫助。

One just working with tier one partners, forces some internal disciplines. You don't have the ability to just throw things over the wall when you're working with tier one companies. And so I think, ensuring that we have our bombs accurate ensuring that we have prints and work instructions done completely ensuring that we're doing that last mile of engineering. Those are all good practices that drive discipline and standardization that allow us to scale with speed.

僅僅與一級合作夥伴合作就需要遵守一些內部紀律。當你與一級公司合作時，你沒有能力把事情扔到牆外。所以我認為，確保我們的炸彈準確無誤，確保我們完成打印和工作說明，完全確保我們正在做最後一英里的工程。這些都是推動紀律和標準化的良好實踐，使我們能夠快速擴展。

The second point, I think, is just, the nature of being a public company and the governance and compliance that comes with that. And again, I think that forces discipline. So yes, we are looking to get to a plug and play model. The idea here is to really invest for speed and scale and build out the infrastructure that's going to allow us to deliver these systems scale the company, and continue to innovate at the same time.

我認為第二點是公正的，作為一家上市公司的性質以及隨之而來的治理和合規性。再說一次，我認為這會迫使紀律。所以，是的，我們正在尋求一種即插即用的模式。這裡的想法是真正投資於速度和規模，並建立基礎設施，使我們能夠交付這些系統，擴大公司規模，同時繼續創新。

Just a final question, just in terms of driving innovation, you clearly have a pretty healthy R&D spend, but I'm also wondering if M&A plays into the strategy over the next year or so, and what areas you would like to look at possibly inorganic growth.

最後一個問題，就推動創新而言，您顯然擁有相當健康的研發支出，但我也想知道併購是否會在未來一年左右的戰略中發揮作用，以及您可能希望關注哪些領域無機生長。

Yes, thanks, James. So clearly we're focused first and foremost on scaling our business with this massive backlog and more as fast as we can build it, our customers want it. That's going to be our first and foremost effort. All that being said, we clearly recognize that we are the most strategic technology provider to our customers and that provides a natural long term opportunity to be thoughtful in the M&A market over time.

是的，謝謝，詹姆斯。很明顯，我們首先關注的是通過大量的積壓來擴展我們的業務，並且盡可能快地構建它，我們的客戶想要它。這將是我們首要的努力。話雖如此，我們清楚地認識到，我們是客戶最具戰略意義的技術提供商，並且隨著時間的推移，這為在併購市場中深思熟慮提供了自然的長期機會。

So, that doesn't change the priority today, but we clearly want to be watching the market and being thoughtful about what we do.

因此，這不會改變今天的優先事項，但我們顯然希望關注市場並深思熟慮我們所做的事情。

All right, Catherine, I believe in light of time we have opportunity for just one more caller of the question.

好吧，凱瑟琳，我相信鑑於時間的推移，我們還有機會再問一位提出問題的人。

Our last question comes from Joe Giordano with Cowen. Your line is open.

我們的最後一個問題來自喬·佐丹奴和考恩。您的線路已開通。

Hey guys, how are you doing? I think Tom, you mentioned the 13 in process, generally, you're talking like a 18 months to acceptance. I know you have ambitions to be significantly faster than that over time. Like, how should we think about the roadmap to becoming significantly faster at doing that? And along those lines, have you had discussions more so with like national E&T firms to ensure kind of consistency as you do this?

嘿伙計們，你們好嗎？我認為 Tom，您提到了 13 個正在進行中的項目，一般來說，您所說的驗收需要 18 個月。我知道您希望隨著時間的推移，速度會明顯更快。比如，我們應該如何考慮路線圖，以顯著更快地做到這一點？沿著這些思路，您是否與類似的國家 E&T 公司進行了更多討論，以確保這樣做時的一致性？

Yes, Joe this is Mike I'll take that. We're super happy with kind of our 13 deployments and what's important to know is that, during these deployments the customers often ramping inventory and volumes into the system. So these are live production capacity environments, and you can kind of think of these deployments as a fill phase, right?

是的，喬，這是邁克，我接受。我們對 13 次部署非常滿意，重要的是要知道，在這些部署期間，客戶經常會增加系統的庫存和數量。因此，這些是實時生產能力環境，您可以將這些部署視為填充階段，對嗎？

So there's lots of learnings that we're incorporating as we go along into the overall build out of the system and again, those 13 deployments, if you will, are in various stages from builds to install commission and testing and validation, but it's given us lots of learnings and insights that we're feeding back into the process. So, we're going to continue to scale that obviously, excited about moving those deployments into fully operational completed sites.

因此，當我們進行系統的整體構建時，我們會吸收很多知識，如果你願意的話，這 13 個部署處於從構建到安裝調試、測試和驗證的不同階段，但它是給定的我們將大量的經驗教訓和見解反饋到這個過程中。因此，我們將繼續擴大規模，顯然，我們很高興將這些部署轉移到完全運營的已完成站點中。

And I think at the end of every quarter we'll update you on deployments and completions, but the effort is really around compressing that overall schedule from kind of the 18 months. You mentioned and ensuring that we can do this in a consistent manner and deliver the schedule.

我認為在每個季度末，我們都會向您通報部署和完成情況的最新情況，但我們所做的努力實際上是為了將總體時間表從 18 個月左右壓縮下來。您提到並確保我們能夠以一致的方式做到這一點並交付時間表。

And I'll just add to that, Joe, this is something that's a long term focus for us. So, we intend on driving improvement, but you should think about this as a long game. Our customers love the system deployments as we do them today and they want them coming as fast as they can. Our goal is to compress that meaningfully over the coming years.

我想補充一點，喬，這是我們長期關注的事情。因此，我們打算推動改進，但您應該將其視為一場漫長的遊戲。我們的客戶喜歡我們今天所做的系統部署，他們希望系統部署盡快完成。我們的目標是在未來幾年內有意義地壓縮它。

And then just can I ask one more just on the one thing I've noticed, I guess in robotics generally is when there's a good idea there's other solutions that pop up that look very similar. I know yours a very difficult one to that, but can you talk about maybe the competitive response over the last has that changed at all over the last I don't know, six months or during the process when you initially filed have you seen any kind of your competitors try to move in a similar fashion? Thanks.

然後我可以就我注意到的一件事再問一個，我想在機器人技術中，通常當有一個好主意時，就會出現其他看起來非常相似的解決方案。我知道你對此非常困難，但是你能談談也許過去的競爭反應在過去我不知道，六個月或在你最初提交申請的過程中發生了根本變化嗎？您的競爭對手是否會嘗試以類似的方式採取行動？謝謝。

Yes, Joe, certainly we watch the market all the time. I do think we're probably the only ones really using AI and autonomous vehicles in this type of unique solution and, with the fact that our entire system is really software driven, it's difficult to replicate.

是的，喬，我們當然一直在關注市場。我確實認為我們可能是唯一真正在這種獨特的解決方案中使用人工智能和自動駕駛汽車的人，而且由於我們的整個系統實際上是軟件驅動的，因此很難復制。

So, I think we've got a good first mover advantage in the market. I think the backlog of more than $11 billion speaks for itself, and again, customers have voted with their wallets, but, do we expect copycat, do we expect imitation? Sure and then I think it kind of leads me to think about our technology and our IP protection and I'll probably make just a few points on this, I guess, one, if you look at our patent portfolio that we've built out, Joe, we've got nearly, I think it's close to 500 patents, among issued and pending.

所以，我認為我們在市場上有很好的先發優勢。我認為超過 110 億美元的積壓是不言而喻的，而且，客戶再次用他們的錢包投票了，但是，我們是否期望山寨，我們是否期望模仿？當然，然後我認為這會讓我思考我們的技術和知識產權保護，我可能會就此提出幾點觀點，我想，第一，如果你看看我們已經建立的專利組合喬，我們已經擁有近500項專利，其中包括已發布和正在申請中的專利。

So that's number one. Number two, again, the AI engine that we have that, analyzed kind of six terabytes of data daily through each system allows us to continuously improve and that's helped -- that's helping extend our lead in the market, but then third I think it really comes back to, Rick's leadership and vision when he started this company and that's all around this culture of continuing innovation.

所以這是第一。第二，我們擁有的人工智能引擎每天通過每個系統分析6 TB 的數據，使我們能夠不斷改進，這很有幫助——這有助於擴大我們在市場上的領先地位，但第三，我認為這確實是回到 Rick 創辦這家公司時的領導力和願景，這一切都圍繞著持續創新的文化。

So, we're going to continue to innovate around products and solutions and work very collaboratively with our customers who are amazing partners in developing technology roadmaps. But yes, we watch the competitive landscape all the time and certainly the paranoid survive. So we'll continue to keep our eyes wide open. But we feel pretty comfortable about how we're positioned and the investments we're making.

因此，我們將繼續圍繞產品和解決方案進行創新，並與我們的客戶密切合作，他們是開發技術路線圖的出色合作夥伴。但是，是的，我們一直在關注競爭格局，偏執狂肯定會生存下來。因此，我們將繼續睜大眼睛。但我們對自己的定位和正在進行的投資感到非常滿意。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Thank you, everybody for joining our call tonight. We'll be seeing you on the conference circuit and working with you in various conversations and one on ones. So we appreciate your time and interest and we'll talk to you next quarter. Bye, bye.

謝謝大家今晚加入我們的電話會議。我們將在巡迴會議上見到您，並與您進行各種對話和一對一的合作。因此，我們感謝您的時間和興趣，我們將在下個季度與您交談。再見。

This concludes today conference. You may now disconnect.

今天的會議到此結束。您現在可以斷開連接。