Kuehne+Nagel has installed a new robotized order sortation system from Libiao Robotics at its multi-client Châtres warehouse, southwest of Paris, France. The new technology is designed to improve productivity, handle high volumes during peak periods, develop collaboration technologies to support human resources, and reduce repetitive manual tasks.
Logistics company Kuehne Nagel is using collaborative autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) supplied by Chinese company Libiao Robotics to automate its shuttle logistics center in the Seine-et-Marne region. Kuehne Nagel claims to be the first third-party logistics provider (3PL) in France to use automated order sorting in this way, and the first in the world to deploy the technology in its warehouses.
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, the collaborative technology has reduced error rates, which Kuehne+Nagel says are now near zero.
Introducing collaborative robots into warehouses is especially important in areas with large seasonal fluctuations in quantities, and robotic technology is an effective solution to manage these fluctuations, in addition to being easy to use.
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 around 50 Libiao AMRs, was integrated by Körber Supply Chain, which has been Libiao’s global partner integrator for the past three years. The solution is a further component in a broader project that embraces collaborative, flexible, and scalable technology. In a first successful pilot project, Kuehne+Nagel built a system of nine Libiao robots deployed as part of a Robots-as-a-Service (RaaS) approach to help sort parcels, envelopes, and goods. In this first phase, 30% of orders made during the last peak season were processed using sorting robots. The company is now going a step further by more widely deploying a new generation of robots that consolidate items per order.
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