American grocery retailer Kroger has placed an order for a wide range of new automated technologies from British technology company Ocado Group to roll out in customer fulfilment centres (CFCs) across its network.
Through the partnership, Kroger will deploy Ocado’s latest ‘Re:imagined’ technologies across various customer fulfilment centres in its live network as well as in future ones.
The technologies encompass Ocado innovations like on-grid robotic pick (OGRP) and automated frameload (AFL). These are expected to bring new levels of efficiency and labour productivity to the Kroger delivery network.
Besides, the innovations will allow the American grocery retailer to further cut its cost to serve from CFCs. It will also help the company to bolster its market-leading customer proposition.
OGRP is a robotic arm mounted directly on the grid. The bots working on the grid position stock next to the robotic arms, which then pack the items into customer bags.
The AFL technology automates the process of loading prepared customer orders onto delivery frames for dispatch within the warehouse.
Ocado said that its partners around the world are upgrading their distribution networks with the company’s new technologies. Recently, AEON announced its decision to retool Ocado’s OGRP technology into its existing operations.
The technology is rolling out in UK CFCs and it is picking an increasingly wide range of items, said the technology company.
At full capacity, the OGRP technology is expected to pick up over 70% of an extensive online grocery range.
Ocado Group CEO Tim Steiner said: “We are delivering a step-change in warehouse automation and new levels of efficiency to our partners as global supply chains are under significant pressure to manage higher volumes and greater complexity, as well as challenges in labour cost and availability.
“Today marks another exciting milestone in our partnership with Kroger. Our current CFCs are already helping to deliver a game-changing quality of service to their customers across the USA.”
