COVER STORY
Fulfillment Centers Transformed Traditional model evolving with robots, delivery hubs and automated systems By Dan Berthiaume
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obots, customer-centric delivery hubs and automated systems are transforming the traditional retail fulfillment center model. The fulfillment center is not typically an area of the retail enterprise that is viewed as a center of innovation. Much attention has been paid to the “store of the future,” but retailers are also rapidly adopting technologies that are re-inventing the staid operations of the fulfillment center. Of course, the fulfillment center does not operate in a vacuum. Larger retail trends, already evolving for several years but magnified in the past 12 months due to the impact of COVID-19, filter down to the fulfillment center. These include consumers’ move to-
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ward e-commerce (see sidebar), as well as a migration toward offering a more personalized, segmented customer experience. “We are not post-COVID-19, we are in a new beginning of the supply chain,” Matthew Lekstutis, global practice leader, supply chain transformation, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) told Chain Store Age. “The pandemic has accelerated a series of dynamics that were already underway and consolidated and amplified them. “COVID-19 accelerated the industry’s motion toward a personalized experience, with retailers and CPG companies offering an end-to-end supply chain,” continued Lekstutis. “The new supply chain is focused on availability, deliverability, accessibility,
and sustainability and ethics. It is purpose-driven, with a heightened sensitivity to safety.” The “fulfillment center of the future” that retailers are creating to serve the new supply chain as described by Lekstutis is still taking shape. However, three early trends are already having a major impact on how retailers run their warehouses: robots, customer-centric delivery hubs, and automated systems.
ROBOTS Faced with an unprecedented surge in online orders and significant workforce disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, an increasing number of retailers JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2021
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