KUAR:
Walmart Inc. and tech company Symbotic announced a new agreement to place Symbotic’s robotics and software automation platform in Walmart’s 42 regional distribution centers. The deal builds on the prior commitment to deploy Symbotic’s system in 25 distribution centers.
Walmart said the end-to-end software-enabled robotics platform will support the company’s goals of modernizing its supply chain operations for increased efficiency including increased capacity, faster order responsiveness and accuracy on shipments to customers and stores.
“The need for accuracy and speed in the supply chain has never been more visible, and we’re confident that now is the time to move even faster by scaling Symbotic’s technology to our entire regional distribution center network,” David Guggina, senior vice president of innovation and automation, Walmart U.S., said Tuesday. “Using high-speed robotics and intelligent software to organize and optimize inventory, the Symbotic System helps us get products to our customers quickly and seamlessly by revolutionizing how we receive and distribute products to stores.”
He said the technology’s ability to build palletized loads of department-sorted inventory will enable Walmart to more quickly get products onto shelves at its more than 4,700 stores, while also making one of the toughest aspects of supply chain work – material handling – safer and simpler. It also creates new, tech-enabled jobs, such as cell operator and maintenance technician, that offer widely applicable skills in robotics and technology.