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Wal-Mart's in-house DC drones stands to cut headcount in warehousing
SEEMINGLY endless corridors inside its 1.2 million-square foot warehouse in Bentonville, Arkansas, Wal-Mart drones can do the dangerous jobs workers no longer need to do, reports Bloomberg.
Flying up and down the distribution centre aisles, camera-armed drones shoot movies, capturing images of products to ensure they are placed correctly so workers can find them when needed.
Wal-Mart has been playing catch-up with rival Amazon in product delivery, and now pushes in-store pickup, where customers order online and products are ready for pick-up at their local Wal-Marts.
Meanwhile, Amazon and Alphabet have been testing drones to deliver small packages to people's homes, something that is still years away. Now it appears that Wal-Mart has an app that can cut in-house headcount and deliver new efficiencies.
When a drone finds a misplaced item, an employee at an "air traffic control", spots a red mark on his screen and sends a worker to rectify positioning.
But the big advance is scanning all of the shelves in the distribution centre (DC). It takes two workers one month to do that while the drone alone does the job in an hour.
The job is also dangerous, requiring men to ride lifts several storeys to reach upper shelves crammed with boxes. The drone doesn't even need a pilot.
Wal-Mart demonstrated this to reporters at a media event before its recent annual shareholders meeting.
The DC drone is still in testing and will be for at least six to nine more months, said Wal-Mart vice president Shekar Natarajan. But it's one of the early ways Wal-Mart sees drones playing a cost saving role in 100 distribution centres.
Flying up and down the distribution centre aisles, camera-armed drones shoot movies, capturing images of products to ensure they are placed correctly so workers can find them when needed.
Wal-Mart has been playing catch-up with rival Amazon in product delivery, and now pushes in-store pickup, where customers order online and products are ready for pick-up at their local Wal-Marts.
Meanwhile, Amazon and Alphabet have been testing drones to deliver small packages to people's homes, something that is still years away. Now it appears that Wal-Mart has an app that can cut in-house headcount and deliver new efficiencies.
When a drone finds a misplaced item, an employee at an "air traffic control", spots a red mark on his screen and sends a worker to rectify positioning.
But the big advance is scanning all of the shelves in the distribution centre (DC). It takes two workers one month to do that while the drone alone does the job in an hour.
The job is also dangerous, requiring men to ride lifts several storeys to reach upper shelves crammed with boxes. The drone doesn't even need a pilot.
Wal-Mart demonstrated this to reporters at a media event before its recent annual shareholders meeting.
The DC drone is still in testing and will be for at least six to nine more months, said Wal-Mart vice president Shekar Natarajan. But it's one of the early ways Wal-Mart sees drones playing a cost saving role in 100 distribution centres.
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