One Relationship. The Full Picture. Inside the LaFayette Engineering Family of Companies.

One of the biggest conversations at MODEX 2026 happened the moment a visitor looked around Booth C14787 and asked a question that came up over and over throughout the week:

“Wait — Century, MESH, and Kendale are all connected?”

The answer is yes. And understanding how they fit together is one of the most important things a material handling buyer can know heading into an automation project in 2026.

The LaFayette Engineering Family of Companies

LaFayette Engineering is the parent company behind a family of businesses that together cover the full lifecycle of modern warehouse and distribution automation:

• Century Conveyor Systems — conveyor, sortation, and material flow systems
• MESH Automation — controls, robotics integration, and intelligent induction sorting
• Kendale Industries — fabrication and mechanical engineering depth
• Attabotics — high-density cube storage and goods-to-person robotics

Each company brings its own expertise. Together, they offer something that very few material handling providers can match: a single relationship that can design, build, integrate, and support a complete automation system — from the physical conveyor line through the software layer that orchestrates it all.

Why Integration Matters More Than It Used To

For most of the past decade, material handling buyers built systems from multiple independent vendors. A conveyor from one company. Controls from another. Robotics from a third. Software from a fourth. And then a systems integrator to stitch it all together — and absorb the blame when the pieces didn’t communicate properly.

MODEX 2026 signaled clearly that this model is losing favor. Buyers want fewer relationships and more accountability. They want a partner who owns the full scope of the system — not just the portion they manufacture. And they want someone who will still pick up the phone three years after installation when something needs attention.

The LaFayette family is built for exactly that conversation.

What Each Company Brings to the Table

Century Conveyor Systems

Century’s core is the physical execution layer of a warehouse system: conveyor lines, motor driven roller (MDR) systems, high-speed sortation, print and apply, weighing and dimensioning. These are the systems that move product through a facility — the mechanical backbone of any automated distribution operation.

Century’s portfolio includes 24V zero-pressure accumulation conveyor, high-speed sorters capable of handling mixed SKU streams, and inline data capture systems that eliminate manual scanning and weigh stations. After decades of installations across industries, Century’s product lines are refined and reliable — with a service network to match.

LaFayette Engineering (Controls & Software)

LaFayette Engineering is the intelligence layer — warehouse control systems (WCS), controls engineering, and the software that coordinates the full operation. In an era where robots, conveyors, picking systems, and human labor all need to function as a single coordinated environment, the controls and orchestration layer is increasingly where systems succeed or fail.

LaFayette Engineering’s role in the family isn’t just to wire up the conveyor. It’s to make the entire system think clearly and act fast — managing throughput, labor, SLAs, and exceptions from a single layer of intelligence.

MESH Automation

MESH Automation brings robotics integration and advanced sortation capability — including an induction sorter that drew significant attention on the MODEX floor. MESH fills the gap between the mechanical conveyor system and the robotic platforms that increasingly operate alongside it, handling the controls and integration work that makes mixed-automation environments function smoothly.

Attabotics

Attabotics is the family’s goods-to-person robotics platform — a high-density cube storage system that uses robots to retrieve and deliver items to human operators, dramatically reducing the footprint required for a given storage volume while improving pick accuracy and speed.

Attabotics relaunched under LaFayette Engineering with a sharper focus on deployment discipline: engineering depth, improved customer support infrastructure, and reliability improvements that make the technology more accessible and easier to adopt in real projects. The new integrator partnership program announced at MODEX 2026 expands access to the platform through established integration channels — making it easier for buyers to bring Attabotics into projects alongside existing Century and LaFayette Engineering relationships.

The Practical Meaning for a Buyer

Here’s what the LaFayette Engineering family means in plain terms for a distribution or manufacturing operation evaluating automation:

One conversation can cover the full system. Rather than meeting with four different vendors, getting four different proposals, and trying to reconcile them into a coherent plan, a buyer can work with one team that understands the full architecture.

Integration risk goes down. When the conveyors, controls, robotics, and software come from companies that work together daily, the integration work is less painful, less expensive, and more likely to deliver on the design intent.

Support is coherent. When something needs attention after go-live, there’s one number to call — and the person on the other end understands the full system, not just their piece of it.

The solution can be right-sized. Not every operation needs every piece of the family’s portfolio. Some projects are Century-only. Some add MESH. Some are full-stack builds with Attabotics at the center. The family’s depth means the solution can be matched to the operation — not the other way around.

What MODEX 2026 Confirmed

Three days on the floor at MODEX confirmed what the LaFayette Engineering family has been building toward: the industry is moving toward connected, integrated, serviceable automation — and the demand for a single partner who can deliver the full picture is accelerating, not slowing down.

Century Conveyor Systems is that entry point for a lot of those conversations. It’s where many customer relationships start. And increasingly, it’s where they expand — because the family’s depth means Century can grow with a customer’s operation over time.

If your operation is evaluating automation — whether that’s a first conveyor system, a controls upgrade, a goods-to-person pilot, or a full distribution center build — the Century Conveyor team is the right starting point.

Contact Century Conveyor Systems:

• Phone: (908) 205-0625
• Email: info@centuryconveyor.com
• Web: centuryconveyor.com