DHL Supply Chain, part of Deutsche Post DHL Group. is to expand its use of assisted picking operations with the expansion of its collaboration with Locus Robotics.
By 2022, the supply chain specialist plans to take on up to 2,000 robots, making it the largest customer of Locus Robotics worldwide. The assisted picking robots are mostly used in e-commerce or consumer warehouses to help with picking and inventory replenishment, increasing efficiency and accelerating delivery processes.
“It is particularly important for us to be able to consistently optimise our supply chains – assisted picking robots are very effective in this respect,” said Markus Voss, global CIO & COO at DHL Supply Chain.
“So far, more than 500 assisted picking robots are already in industrial use in our warehouses in the USA, Europe and the UK,” he said. “By the end of 2021, another 500 robots are to be added in a total of more than 20 locations. The collaborative picking technology has clearly proven its effectiveness and reliability in modern warehousing. More locations have already been identified with concrete implementation roadmaps for the remaining robots, which we will deploy in 2022. However, the overall potential for assisted picking robots in our DHL warehouses is much bigger, so we are confident that we will meet the targets we have set ourselves together with Locus Robotics”.
The expansion is part of DHL Supply Chain’s Accelerated Digitalization Strategy.
