Walmart CEO and President Doug McMillon has said that investments in automation will be one of the company’s key factors for driving profitability in the years ahead. Robotic warehouses where unmanned wheeled carts move goods will reduce the need for workers in the warehouse and will allow shelves to be stocked more efficiently.
Combining this automation technology with inventory optimisation and predictive sales analytics will save a huge amount of costs.
In October, Walmart announced its acquisition of e-grocery automation firm Alert Innovation. Alert Innovation’s Alphabot system stores, retrieves and dispenses orders with robots and without lifts or conveyors. Walmart has worked with the company since 2016 and began piloting the bot in 2019. Its purchase will see the technology grow into at least 4,700 stores.
In 2021 Robotic systems from Dematic, Fabric and Alert were added to the company’s micro-fulfilment centres. In May of 2022, Walmart added Symbiotics end-to-end automation systems across 42 regional distribution centres.
The company also has 36 Drone delivery stores across seven states operated by DroneUp, Flytrex and Zipline. Customer favourites for delivery on the remote-controlled robots are cookies, ice cream, lemons, rotisserie chicken, Red Bull and paper towels.
