Dive Brief:
- United Natural Foods will deploy Symbotic’s AI technology in five of its distribution centers over the next four years, the food company announced Tuesday.
- The food wholesaler said Symbotic’s end-to-end automation system, equipped with order-picking robots, will enable it to boost order accuracy and storage capacity while speeding throughput.
- As part of the deal, UNFI has the option to scale Symbotic technology to additional warehouses.
Dive Insight:
UNFI first rolled out automation in its facilities in 2020 to improve throughput levels and cut operating costs, President and Chief Marketing Officer Chris Testa said on a 2020 earnings call. The food wholesaler operates 59 distribution centers across North America, handling 1.3 billion units per year.
The food wholesaler expects Symbotic’s automation system to help take “operations to a new level,” Mark Bushway, UNFI’s chief supply chain officer, said in a statement. “The Symbotic System will be able to fulfill customer-specific orders, which is expected to create operation efficiencies at the customer store level,” he added.
Symbotic’s system includes robots designed to handle inbound, storage, retrieval and outbound processes in warehouses. It uses robotics and computer vision to break down pallets, store cases in small groups and then build orders. The robotics company said its robotic arms can process up to 1,700 units per hour.
The technology company has worked with other large retailers such as Walmart and Target as companies scale up automation in warehouses to optimize their supply chains. Walmart expanded its partnership with Symbotic last spring to bring its automation system to 42 of its regional distribution centers over the next eight years.
Competitor Locus Robotics has also signed agreements to deploy its robotic sorting systems in third-party logistics companies’ warehouses to speed fulfillment. This week, DHL Supply Chain expanded its partnership with the robotics firm to heighten productivity ahead of the holiday season.
