Picking milestone reached due to eComm boom
AMR leader Locus Robotics has achieved a major milestone with the announcement its robots have picked more than 200 million units.
The milestone, achieved by a company in the UK, comes during the pre-peak season period leading into the critical Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales period.
“We are thrilled to have reached the 200 million units picked milestone,” said Locus Robotics CEO Rick Faulk. “As more and more shoppers move online, and as we quickly approach what is expected to be the biggest – and most challenging – holiday retail season yet, retailers are turning to AMRs to innovate to meet growing demand and avoid risking losing valuable customers.”
The 200,000,000th pick occurred at a Boots UK warehouse facility, and the item picked was a Cuticura Original Anti-Bacterial Hand Gel.
“The flexibility of the Locus system to scale as the demand grows has been key to our success,” said Boots UK supply chain development manager Ken Hall. “The autonomous nature of the LocusBots has also been instrumental in worker health and safety, enforcing social distancing through such a busy period while also delivering significant productivity improvement.”
The Covid-19 pandemic has quickly transformed the global retail industry, making online and omnichannel purchasing the new standard worldwide. The explosion of online shopping has put increasing pressure on fulfilment companies to adequately staff their fulfilment teams to meet the growing number of orders and ensure that items are picked and packed as efficiently as possible. These trends will continue as the 2020 holiday shopping season approaches. According to recent reports from Adobe, Cyber Monday sales are expected to hit a record-breaking $9.4 billion (£7.35 billion), up almost 19% from last year, and Black Friday sales online are expected to be $7.5 billion (£5.86 billion), up 20.3%.
Locus Robotics’ industry-leading robotics fulfilment solution enables brands, retailers, and third-party logistics (3PL) operators to easily meet higher order volumes and the increasing consumer demand for e-commerce, retail, omnichannel, and manufacturing order fulfilment. Customers worldwide, including CEVA, DHL, Boots UK, GEODIS, Port Logistics Group, Verst Logistics, Radial, and others, see doubling or tripling of fulfilment productivity and lowered labour recruitment, training, and retention costs.
For more information, visit www.locusrobotics.com
