Locus Robotics

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Retail Case Study

evo doubles productivity in time for peak season

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Locus Robotics was brought in to solve the peak season problem.

Peter Lagow, Presales Consultant

Körber Supply Chain

Overview & Challenge

evo, a sports gear and apparel retailer, generates 70% of its revenue from online sales. As winter gear sales spike during holiday peaks, the team at evo moved to a new 165,000ft2 facility just in time to get ahead of 2019 peak demand. 

From the start, evo had trouble hiring temporary and seasonal workers to meet fulfillment goals that were expected with the new building. “We made it through, it was chaotic and unsustainable,” said Spencer Earle, Director of Supply Chain. 

As fate would have it for all retailers, another unexpected event occurred soon after: a global pandemic. Traditional fulfillment methods could not keep up with peak while maintaining safety compliance and social distancing. “We would have 10 to 15 pickers at peak times and the bins are stuffed full, which mixes up SKUs and orders,” Earle said. 

evo’s technology partner Körber Supply Chain helped identify possible AMR solutions and the pair determined Locus Robotics’s multi-bot solution would be a great fit for the warehouse. 

“We went with Locus because of their familiarity with our warehouse management system, Körber,” said Chris Christiansen, Outbound Manager at evo.

Locus Multi-Bot Solution at GEODIS

10

Deployed LocusBots

53

Days for Implementation

2

Container configurations

Rich Analytics + Actionable Reporting Dashboard

Results

Sports gear and apparel retailer doubled productivity by equipping workers with AMRs

evo, with the guidance of Körber, determined that a brownfield deployment would best meet the company’s needs during a time of fast growth. 

“When we know that there isn’t room for physical reconstruction when we have a tight timeline, and we need to get more out the door, there’s absolutely no better option than going with a collaborative, in-aisle robot solution,” said Peter Lagow, Presales Consultant on the Körber team. 

Locus deployed 10 robots initially into the facility. The implementation was led by Körber, completed just 53 days from the signing of the contract and just in time for peak. “There was definitely a lot of work on the Körber side, there was a lot of work on the Locus side, but they made it easy for us so the implementation went really smoothly, and the go-live went really smoothly as well,” said Earle. 

Workers that were picking an average of 35 units per hour (UPH) with manual carts started picking an average of 90 UPH with LocusBots, some workers topping 125 UPH. 

During peak, evo rents 7 additional robots to support higher volumes at the facility and return the robots when demand returns to normal levels. The team found that 5 workers collaborating with AMRs are picking more tasks than 10-15 workers did in the past using manual cart-based picking methods. 

“In the future we hope to find additional uses [for the solution]. We see opportunity in directed putaway as well as transporting goods from one part of the warehouse to another,” said Earle

2.6x

Productivity Increase

125

UPH achieve

Fast Implementation

Real-Time Reporting

“We knew evo was growing rapidly based on our partnership over the years and they needed something flexible that can grow with them, and that’s when we thought Locus would be a perfect fit ”
Michel Pérez Guzmán
Director of Professional Services, Körber
“This was one of the first technologies that I’ve seen come into a building where the team was excited from the get-go, and it just hasn’t stopped”
Chris Christiansen
Outbound Manager, evo

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