eStore Logistics opens new fulfillment centre equipped with autonomous robots
This mesmerising footage shows automated robots picking stock alongside human counterparts, for Australia’s largest ecommerce fulfilment provider, eStore Logistics, which has just opened its seventh fulfillment centre, at Dexus’s Horizon 3023 estate in Ravenhall.
The 17,585sqm fulfillment centre has just become fully operational, creating 80 jobs.
Developed to help service Australia’s accelerated shift to online retail, the $28 million warehouse is equipped with 75 AI powered Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMRs) working in tandem with specialist staff to speed up deliveries.
The AMRs will handle up to 40,000 orders each day from the centre, picking enough stock to fill approximately two Olympic-sized swimming pools each week.
This is eStore Logistics’ third fulfillment centre featuring the AI powered AMR picking technology and increases its fleet to over 250 robots.
The state of the art, automated warehouse will make the stock picking process up to four times faster than a traditional warehouse, and will provide more cost-effective services and facilitate three hour-delivery for ecommerce orders that come in as late as 4pm.
The fulfillment centre has been designed to handle a wide variety of products sold online from small items that are shipped in a small mailer all the way up to large bulky items such as furniture and everything in between.
“Automated robots have already significantly sped up the picking and packing process for our customers,” said eStore Logistics Managing Director Leigh Williams.
“However, what’s even more phenomenal is that these AI-powered robots are constantly learning. The more they work, the more data they have access to and the smarter they become.
“Automated warehousing takes customer satisfaction to a whole new level, allowing us to improve efficiency and ultimately democratise fast delivery for businesses of all sizes.
“As we scale, we’ll continue to invest in technology that grows and evolves to meet the increasing demands of the ecommerce industry.”
He said AMRs create a less labour-intensive and more efficient and safer working environment.
“Similar in form to household robotic vacuum cleaners, they travel quickly under shelves in the warehouse, simplifying the process of put-away, picking and packing.
“Robots retrieve and store inventory automatically, removing the need for staff to walk the warehouse floor, or operate equipment to ship an order, which in turn reduces human error. “Instead, AMRs bring inventory stored on shelves or pallets to a workstation, staffed by a member of the eStore Logistics’ team, for picking. The robots then automatically move the shelves away from workstations where they are stored for future retrieval and order fulfilment.”
The opening of the new fulfillment centre takes eStore Logistics’ warehousing footprint to over 100,000sqm across Australia.
The warehouse was designed and customised by Dexus in conjunction with eStore Logistics and marks the second leasing deal the two companies have collaborated on in the past year. The first was a 26,600sqm facility developed at Foundation at Truganina Estate which was completed in mid-2020.