Staples develops robot for fulfillment centers
Flickr/Mike Mozart
Staples is rolling out an automated system for its fulfillment centers.
Office-supply retailer Staples has developed a robotic handling system for its fulfillment centers that it expects to roll out over the next 24 months, the company said Thursday.
The technology from Great Star Industrial USA LLC is the first of its kind, Staples said, with separate solutions for picking items with high cubic velocity and for low cubic velocity. Low-cubic-velocity items can be retrieved at up to five at a time, with multiple automated vehicles able to pick products simultaneously.
The vehicles bring both high cubic velocity and for low cubic velocity items to a station to be packed for shipment, a process that Staples said requires less capital investment than traditional systems and is more efficient and accurate.
Framingham-based Staples has already begun using the system in one of its fulfillment centers. Lily Chi, the executive vice president of Great Star, called the system "transformational for the industry."
Staples did not disclose costs or estimated cost savings of the program, but the automation system comes as Staples looks to cut costs during a period of falling sales. Staples reported a net loss of $615 million in 2016. The company, which has 1,300 stores in the U.S. and 1,900 worldwide, closed 48 stores last year and said in March that it will close 70 more this year.
Sycamore Partners, a private equity company, announced last month it plans to buy Staples for $6.9 billion. Sycamore already owns several other retailers, including Coldwater Creek, Hot Topic, Nine West, Talbots and The Limited. The Wall Street Journal reported that Sycamore plans to split Staples into three - a United States division, a Canadian one and a third for its corporate-supply business - to help finance the purchase.
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