During my gap year, I ran the backroom at a local Wal-Mart. While I was there, we switched to a new fulfillment system that involved putting all of the stocking responsibilities on one team, instead of spreading it between departments.
The problem isn't the technology, it's the physical amount of product coming in compared to man hours. A typical 8hr shift would look like:
- 3hrs to unload the general merch delivery truck. An hour to unload the two freezer/cooler that would arrive at some point throughout the shift
- 1hr30m of breaks
- 1hr setup for night shift
- 1hr of 'picks', which was stock we had in the backroom that the system said could go out. This doesn't include the actual stocking of said items
That leaves 1hr30m to unload all the stock from the trucks, which doesn't happen.
Even if these robots were in my store and could tell me for certain that products needed to be reshelved, the man power isn't there to do it. It ends up being that all the teams achieve their department goals except for the fulfillment team that gets killed.
The problem isn't the technology, it's the physical amount of product coming in compared to man hours. A typical 8hr shift would look like:
- 3hrs to unload the general merch delivery truck. An hour to unload the two freezer/cooler that would arrive at some point throughout the shift
- 1hr30m of breaks
- 1hr setup for night shift
- 1hr of 'picks', which was stock we had in the backroom that the system said could go out. This doesn't include the actual stocking of said items
That leaves 1hr30m to unload all the stock from the trucks, which doesn't happen.
Even if these robots were in my store and could tell me for certain that products needed to be reshelved, the man power isn't there to do it. It ends up being that all the teams achieve their department goals except for the fulfillment team that gets killed.
edit: formatting