Ocado has announced a new approach to building robots in fulfillment centers. We expect this to dramatically improve efficiency and reduce operating costs. The company has developed a 600 series bot. This is cheaper and lighter than the current 500 series bots.
More about the project
Tim Steiner, CEO and creator of Ocado, spoke at the Ocado Rewired virtual event on how the Covid-19 epidemic has had a significant impact on the growth of online food delivery. He stated that the tough trade-off in grocery is being able to give things that customers truly desire and are worth the money while also offering varying lead times to accommodate their lifestyle.
The 600-series supermarket fulfillment bots, according to Steiner, “transform everything.”
Ocado 600 series with topology optimization is a technology used in the aerospace industry to manufacture airplane components that are both robust and lightweight. Following that, we collaborated with HP to generate a 3D print of the pieces required to manufacture the 600 series using laminated modeling.
The bot was tested on the Ocado facility’s grid, and Steiner stated, “The 600 series provides up a chance to reimagine the grid.” Ocado has the chance to construct an ultra-lightweight grid that can be built in parallel in weeks rather than months because of its minimal weight, he added. This also implies that the grid may be implemented in a range of existing structures, lowering the expenses involved with the construction of new facilities, he noted. It also implies that Ocado will be able to establish micro-fulfillment facilities.
“Because the 600 series bots are energy efficient and use significantly less power to produce the same throughput from the same footprint, newer locations require less cooling, energy consumption levels, and total building expenses.” The use of significantly less materials for lightweight grids not only simplifies site design, but also allows new technologies to be integrated in smaller structures and specialised facilities to be built. The timeframe and expenses connected with this have been greatly lowered, according to the business.
The business confessed that it has not yet decided where these printers would be placed. They can be housed on-site at a central manufacturing plant or warehouse, and they can print components as needed for 600 Series repairs.
On the software front, Ocado has also introduced a new delivery method dubbed Ocado Orbit. This is the first virtual distribution center in the world. Ocado’s distribution methodology aims to directly fulfill a customer’s purchase through the Customer Fulfillment Center (CFC).
Ocado’s smart platform eliminates the need to network regional distribution centers in order to send items to fulfillment centers, however CFCs are the specified minimum size required by suppliers in order to accomplish the economics required by suppliers. It has to be. Orbit, according to Ocado, overcomes this issue by establishing a system in which tiny warehouses share a “virtual distribution hub.”
For some of the inventory, each serves as a key supply center. This implies that you can receive huge orders from a single provider, but all suppliers have access to a combined range, providing your consumers with a variety of options. Orbit uses machine learning to increase the overall inventory kept throughout the network. Products are transferred from warehouse to warehouse to guarantee that the groceries that customers desire are in the warehouse nearest to their home.
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