Walmart’s four ‘vending machine’ factories with robots will ship packages faster than other companies

Ahead of Black Friday, which is anticipated to be one of the busiest shopping days of the year, Walmart has given shoppers a preview of its new “vending machine” robot factories.

Approximately 80 miles of tracks and 6,800 robots are housed among the four companies, which serve 95% of the US population.

One million square feet of products are stored in the shipping facilities.

Walmart’s NextGen fulfillment centers are massive, primarily automated warehouses designed to help the company catch up to Amazon’s speedy delivery and user-friendly online buying platform.

The four NextGen facilities, the first of which debuted in 2022, are something new for the retail behemoth, which already has dozens of distribution centers throughout the US.

Half of Walmart’s online orders may be fulfilled by these four locations alone.

The new centers are between 1.5 and nearly 2 million square feet in size.

Even while it may seem like a lot, they are still only half as big as Amazon’s biggest fulfillment center.

Although they are designed for online orders, they can store 10 times as many products as a standard fulfillment center.

This sets them apart from the more than 4,700 retail locations of Amazon, which carry the daily inventory that consumers desire.

According to Karisa Sprague, SVP of Walmart fulfillment and reverse operations, “the store really holds basic items that customers repetitively buy, week in and week out,” Fast Company reported.

“And then the e-commerce fulfillment centers hold that additional assortment that isn’t on the store shelves.”

Product unpacking and repackaging accounts for the majority of the work done at the centers.

Upon arrival, the contents are manually removed and placed inside one of Walmart’s typical plastic “totes.”

There are around 2 million totes in each plant.

The boxes are then moved about the center by 1,700 shuttle robots and 21 miles of conveyor battles, where they are stacked 35 stories high in anticipation of an incoming order.

After purchase, a human employee assists with packing and removes the package from the shelf.

According to Sprague, “It’s like a really large vending machine,”

To fulfill the precise order, an automatic machine assembles a fresh cardboard box in one of the almost 100 available sizes.

Four shipments are packed at a time by each employee.

In the last stage, a conveyor belt moves the boxes into a truck.

The boxes are stacked inside the car into safe “walls” with assistance from one worker.

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