Six fully automated and programmed robotic “butlers” are busy scurrying around Kerry Logistics’ Product Customization and Consolidation Centre in Hong Kong to speed up the fulfillment of e-commerce orders. Real-time sales orders are transmitted to the robots, then the warehouse management system indicates the item to be picked up by using a lighting system in which every item is tracked using a barcode.
The butlers operate continuously and can pick 280 items per hour – four times faster than by a human. Kerry said that the robots are best used for fulfilling orders of retail brands that are expanding in the e-commerce world and carry a wide variety of products. The company said that the ability to manage capacity efficiently is “becoming paramount, and that automation will play a crucial role in enhancing the overall supply chain efficiency.”