Surplus supermarket Company Shop Group has rolled out autonomous robots and artificial intelligence across its Barnsley warehouse, which has “dramatically increased efficiency”, it says.
Company Shop Group has partnered with real-time warehouse visibility and automation provider Dexory on the work, which has improved inventory accuracy and product flow, and reduced waste within its ambient warehouse operations.
A trial of the tech saw 380 pallets of stock found and scanned in the warehouse by Dexory’s robots that were “previously missing, misplaced, or not properly recorded” and added back into Company Shop’s warehouse management system.
“The Dexory solution stood out as the most effective and least disruptive option after reviewing several providers,” said Martin Upton, operations director at Company Shop Group. “The system has significantly increased visibility into our dispatch area – something we had limited access to before. This has dramatically increased efficiency and enabled smoother product flow throughout our operation.”
The robots perform multiple autonomous scans per day, meaning operational teams get a real-time view of dispatch pallets, so they are able to “act quickly, identify root causes of issues, and implement targeted training and continuous improvement efforts”, Dexory said.
“We’re proud to support a mission-led business that is tackling waste reduction across the industry,” said Oana Jinga, chief commercial & product officer and co-founder of Dexory. “By combining our AI-powered robotics and real-time data platform, we’re enabling their team to spot issues sooner, react faster, and ultimately deliver a more effective and efficient end-to-end process – turning warehouse visibility into tangible operational and environmental impact.”
The project has freed up a significant amount of labour time for the Company Shop’s stock control team, it said.
The companies are now exploring an expansion of the work across further Company Shop sites, with the group saying it considers the partnership “a key pillar in achieving its long-term goal: creating a world where no surplus product goes to waste”.
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