Walmart teams up with Knapp to automate fulfillment centers

Walmart will be upgrading its fulfillment hubs by installing high-tech equipment that will automate most of the work at the warehouses. For this project, the retail giant teamed up with Knapp tech company that provides efficient and economical technologies and automation solutions.

As per CNBC, Walmart’s goal for its move to automate its fulfillment centers is to make deliveries from online purchases much faster. The company is also looking to further grow its online business through this improvement at the warehouses.

Aside from revamping the fulfillment hubs, Walmart will also be constructing four new similar facilities that will have machines for automated packing and shipping of online orders. The company said that this would make the delivery process more efficient, and it is expecting the first location to open in Illinois this summer.

The new automation setup will also benefit the customers since they can now enjoy a next-day or two-day delivery of their purchased items, including snack items. It was said that Walmart’s plans with its facilities come as it competes with Amazon, which has already implemented a system for faster deliveries, especially for Amazon Prime members.

These days, more sales are coming from Walmart’s website, and as more orders come in, the company has already expanded its facilities that prepare online orders. It has 31 facilities to date, and about 75% of its locations also fulfill online orders through these fulfillment centers.

“We have partnered with Knapp, a tech company for intelligent fulfillment solutions, to develop an automated, high-density storage system that streamlines a manual, twelve-step process into just five steps,” Walmart US’ senior vice president of innovation and automation, David Guggina, said in a statement.

He added, “We have been perfecting this system in our fulfillment center in Pedricktown, New Jersey, and have seen how the benefits of this technology are wide-ranging and include: more comfort for associates, double the storage capacity and double the number of customer orders we’re able to fulfill in a day.”​​

Finally, with the automation at Walmart’s fulfillment facilities, employees will no longer look through the shelves to find the purchased items for packing. The new system at the warehouses will make the machines retrieve the items from the storage space and bring them to the section where the employees will pack them in a box and then have them shipped immediately.