Walmart Brings Automation to Regional Distribution Centers
Source:Chain Store Age
From:Taiwan Trade Center Miami
Update Time:2021/08/05
Walmart is applying artificial intelligence to the palletizing of products in its regional distribution centers.
Since 2017, the discount giant has worked with Symbotic to optimize an automated technology solution to sort, store, retrieve and pack freight onto pallets in its Brooksville, Fla., distribution center. Under Walmart’s existing system, product arrives at one of its RDCs and is either cross-docked or warehoused, while being moved or stored manually. When it is time for the product to go to a store, a 53-foot trailer is manually packed for transit. After the truck arrives at a store, associates unload it manually and place the items in the appropriate places.
Leveraging the Symbotic solution, a complex algorithm determines how to store cases like puzzle pieces using high-speed mobile robots that operate with a precision that speeds the intake process and increases the accuracy of freight being stored for future orders. By using dense modular storage, the solution also expands building capacity.
In addition, by using palletizing robotics to organize and optimize freight, the Symbotic solution creates custom store- and aisle-ready pallets. Walmart expects to save time, limit out-of-stocks, and increasing the speed of stocking and unloading.
This solution follows tests of similar automated warehouse solutions at a Walmart consolidation center in Colton, Calif., and a perishable grocery distribution center in Shafter, Calif.
In July 2019, Walmart unveiled its newly built, 340,000-sq.-ft. high-tech consolidation center in Colton, Calif., which was the first in Walmart’s supply chain to receive, sort and ship freight. Its automated technology enables three times more volume to flow throughout the center and helps Walmart deliver the right product to the right store, so customers can find the products they need, the retailer said.
Walmart’s consolidation centers play a very specialized role in the company’s supply chain. Such facilities receive less than a truckload of general merchandise items like toys and kitchen appliances from suppliers, consolidate quantities of this freight in a full truckload and then ship it to regional distribution centers. This allows Walmart’s 42 regional centers to focus on the next step – distributing products to stores.
Previously, the process in place at Walmart’s existing consolidation centers has been manual. Merchandise suppliers created and shipped 42 separate orders through the same consolidation center that then forwarded the orders on to each of the 42 regional distribution centers where they were officially received and counted. This made reacting to order inaccuracies a challenge, because associates may not discover them until the orders were planned to be at the store.
But the new system which is now in place in Colton center will enable suppliers to fill one massive order instead of 42. The software automatically will scan and count the product immediately when it arrives and documents the information in Walmart’s systems, allowing it to react faster to order-filling issues.
Automating the receiving upstream in the consolidation center allows supply chain teams to group products based on how they are stocked, making unloading simpler.
The new center will also be a warehouse. Having products separated and stored further upstream will allow Walmart’s supply chain to react even faster to unexpected events, such as a blizzard in the Northeast, and get the right products to the right places.
Walmart plans to implement this technology in 25 of its 42 RDCs. “Though very few Walmart customers will ever see into our warehouses, they’ll still be able to witness an industry-leading change, each time they find a product on shelves,” said Joe Metzger, executive VP of supply chain operations at Walmart U.S. “There may be no way to solve all the complexities of a global supply chain, but we plan to keep changing the game as we use technology to transform the way we work and lead our business into the future.”
Source: https://chainstoreage.com/walmart-brings-automation-regional-distribution-centers https://chainstoreage.com/operations/supply-chain-first-for-walmart