Kuehne+Nagel has installed a new robotized order sortation system from Libiao Robotics at its multi-client Châtres warehouse southwest of Paris, France, with integration services provided by Körber Supply Chain.
Libiao Robotics announced that the new technology is designed to improve productivity, handle high volumes during peak times, develop collaborative techniques to assist human resources and reduce repetitive manual tasks. This is the first of Kuehne+Nagel’s distribution centers worldwide to be equipped with this type of mobile sorting solution.
The Libiao solution is tailored to order fulfilment for e-commerce and fashion customers, “enabling our teams to remain flexible, responsive and maintain operational continuity, especially during seasonal peak periods or changes of location,” explains Christophe Vandrome, contract logistics director at Kuehne+Nagel France.
The robot, nicknamed “Mini Yellow” by Libiao Robotics and its customers because of its distinctive color, receives packed and labeled parcels from warehouse workers on a tilting platform and then transfers the parcels into the appropriate boxes, ready for delivery. In addition to saving time, this collaborative technology has reduced error rates, which Kuehne+Nagel says are now near zero.
These collaborative robot technologies are “designed to meet our customers’ needs while focusing on employee wellness and efficiency,” Van Drome adds. “Our teams are excited to have these robots because they reduce the monotony of logistics tasks and allow us to focus on more value-added tasks, like personalizing packages.” The robotization of facilities is also leading to the creation of new jobs and new skills in areas such as robot maintenance.
The Châtres facility, which features approximately 50 Libiao AMRs, was integrated by Körber Supply Chain, which has been Libiao’s global partner integrator for the past three years. Prior to this production-scale project, Kuehne+Nagel conducted a pilot project to build a system of nine Libiao robots, deployed as part of a Robots as a Service (RaaS) approach to help sort parcels, envelopes and goods.
