Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

Gap orders 73 piece-picking robots to meet coronavirus e-commerce surge

Kindred's “Sort” system uses robotic arm to place items into an automated putwall.

kindred piece picking robots

Robotic fulfillment vendor Kindred Inc. says the clothing retailer Gap Inc. has purchased 73 of its automated piece-picking robots in an effort to meet increasing demand for online orders and employee safety due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The deal boosts Gap’s fleet of Kindred bots to 106, following a pilot program launched in 2017 where Gap used Kindred’s “Sort” robotic piece-picking systems for secondary sortation points at its distribution centers in Tennessee, California, and New York.


Kindred’s piece-picking robots use the company’s “AutoGrasp” robotics intelligence platform that identifies and singulates items to pick and place into an automated putwall. According to the company, AutoGrasp combines vision, grasping, and manipulation algorithms to move clothing, poly bags, and other small items. By using artificial intelligence (AI) and human-in-the-loop data methodology, the system continuously improves robot capabilities so that picking becomes smarter, faster, and more accurate over time.

Statistics from the pilot show that Gap used the units to sort more than 13 million units of merchandise in the first quarter of 2020, running at an average sorting speed of 335 units per hour. Once the additional systems are deployed, Gap will have paired Sort robots with all the automated primary sortation systems in its distribution network, the company said.

“We’re pleased that our partnership with Kindred has grown from a test pilot to a full deployment of their Sort robots across our U.S. network – especially at a time when we’re trying to keep our employees safe,” Kevin Kuntz, senior vice president of Global Logistics Fulfillment at Gap, said in a release. “We look forward to working together with Kindred on cutting-edge automation.”

San Francisco-based Kindred has already deployed 20 of the new systems to Gap’s largest-volume distribution center in Columbus, Ohio, and 10 more to a DC near Nashville, Tennessee.

“Applying automation and artificial intelligence-based solutions to e-commerce logistics and fulfillment allows retailers to scale their operations predictability and efficiently,” said Pierre Lamond, Kindred’s chairman of the board and partner at Eclipse Ventures. “Furthermore, as we see in the current crisis, retailers with resilient operations outperform the competition in areas such as customer satisfaction, sales, and margins. We have digitized the commerce side of the retail equation, now we must modernize the rest of the value chain to meet increasing demand.”

The Latest

More Stories

ITS Logistics truck carrying Sherwin Williams products
ITS Logistics

Transportation challenges, solved

Sometimes, all you need is the right partner to solve your logistics problems.

In 2021, global paint supplier Sherwin Williams faced driver and hazardous material (hazmat) capacity constraints: There simply weren’t enough hazmat drivers available in its fleet to maintain the company’s 90% fleet utilization rate expectations for key partner store deliveries while also meeting growing demand for service. Those challenges threatened to become even more acute in the future, as a competing paint supply company began to scale back its operations in the Pacific Northwest, leaving Sherwin Williams with an opportunity to fill the gap.

Keep ReadingShow less

Featured

Freight Science dashboard screen
Freight Science

High-tech solution helps truckload carrier drive change

The trucking industry faces a range of challenges these days, particularly when it comes to load planning—a resource-intensive task that often results in suboptimal decisions, unnecessary empty miles, late deliveries, and inefficient asset utilization. What’s more, delays in decision-making due to a lack of real-time insights can hinder operational efficiency, making cost management a constant struggle.

Truckload carrier Paper Transport Inc. (PTI) experienced this firsthand when the company sought to expand its over the-road (OTR), intermodal, and brokerage offerings to include dedicated fleet services for high-volume shippers—adding a layer of complexity to the business. The additional personnel required for such a move would be extremely costly, leading PTI to investigate technology solutions that could help close the gap.

Keep ReadingShow less
indigo software screenshot WMS

Aptean adds British WMS vendor in latest acquisition

The Georgia-based enterprise software vendor Aptean today said it had acquired Indigo Software Ltd., a British provider of purpose-built warehouse management and logistics software solutions.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Aptean said the move will add new capabilities to its warehouse management and supply chain management offerings for manufacturers, wholesalers, distributors, retailers, and 3PLs. Aptean currently provides enterprise resource planning (ERP), transportation management systems (TMS), and product lifecycle management (PLM) platforms.

Keep ReadingShow less
schneider app screenshot for owner operators

Schneider seeks more business with owner-operators

Transportation and logistics service provider Schneider National Inc. is reaching out to owner-operators, encouraging them to do more business with the Wisconsin company using an updated digital platform.

Schneider says its FreightPower platform now offers owner-operators significantly more access to Schneider’s range of freight options. That can help drivers to generate revenue and strengthen their business through: increased access to freight, high drop and hook rates of over 95% of loads, and a trip planning feature that calculates road miles.

Keep ReadingShow less
port of vancouver

West coast dockworker strike could dent Canadian economy

The port worker strike that began yesterday on Canada’s west coast could cost that country $765 million a day in lost trade, according to the ALPS Marine analysis by Russell Group, a British data and analytics company.

Specifically, the labor strike at the ports of Vancouver, Prince Rupert, and Fraser-Surrey will hurt the commodities of furniture, metal products, meat products, aluminum, and clothing. But since the strike action is focused on stopping containers and general cargo, it will not slow operations in grain vessels or cruise ships, the firm said.

Keep ReadingShow less