Why They Choose our AMRs

Project Overview

This project is based in a logistics warehouse connected to a factory in Ehime Prefecture, Japan. We aimed to tackle issues like labor shortages, high costs, and the need to handle many orders daily in a remote location. To solve these, we introduced 60 Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMRs) to help with picking tasks, enabling us to consistently fulfill 50,000 to 60,000 items each day. The AMRs greatly boosted picking efficiency, allowing each person to handle 6,000 to 7,000 items per hour. This innovation reduced the number of pickers from 60–70 to 32, cutting labor costs while keeping efficiency high.

We started with 60 AMRs in August 2023. By November 2024, we added 20 more after expanding the picking area, making a total of 80 AMRs. This upgrade improved our system's performance and flexibility.

The Problem

The warehouse, located in a remote area of Ehime Prefecture, Japan, faced significant challenges, including a shrinking local labor force, high labor costs, and the difficulty of meeting daily order fulfillment demands. Traditional recruitment methods relied on temporary workers, which led to management difficulties and further increased costs. Additionally, the manual picking process was inefficient, with operators' skills varying due to a lack of formal training, resulting in high error rates and bottlenecks. As order volumes grew, the reliance on manual operations became unsustainable, risking declining service quality and escalating costs. The business needed to implement automation to ensure efficiency, reduce costs, and support long-term growth.

• Labor Shortages and Rising Labor Costs
  The warehouse is located in a remote area of Ehime Prefecture, Japan, where the local labor force has been continuously shrinking. Traditional local recruitment methods no longer meet operational needs. To handle the high-volume orders daily, the company had to rely on temporary staff from neighboring districts. This reliance on external temporary labor increased management complexity and elevated costs due to commuting, allowances, and other factors.
• Low Picking Efficiency and Uneven Skill Levels
  Before the introduction of AMRs, all picking tasks relied entirely on manual labor. Each day, 60–70 operators used trolleys and PDAs to perform picking tasks. However, many of these operators were short-term employees who lacked formal training, resulting in varying levels of proficiency and accuracy. This led to inconsistent picking efficiency, high error rates, and bottlenecks in the order fulfillment process.
• Bottlenecks in Traditional Operations
  As the order volume grew rapidly, the traditional manual operation mode struggled to support the high-intensity, high-standard order fulfillment demands. Without automation, the warehouse risked declining service quality, rising costs, and limited business expansion. Therefore, it became necessary to restructure the operations through automation to ensure sustainable growth.

Where are we now

The project has deployed 80 AMRs, replacing manual picking, and now meets client KPIs with stable operations, handling over 60,000 items daily during peak times.

As of now, the project has successfully deployed 80 AMRs (60 units in August 2023 and an additional 20 units in November 2024). The system is stable and has fully replaced the original manual picking process. The picking accuracy and on-time shipment rate have met the client’s KPIs, and the warehouse has successfully handled more than 60,000 items per day during peak seasons.

The next phase of optimization will focus on:

• Continuously adjusting SKU configurations and dynamically optimizing picking paths and replenishment strategies based on AI analysis.
• Deepening the data integration between AMRs and WMS to enhance multi-system collaborative automation.
• Exploring AMR applications in other areas such as inbound, replenishment, and returns.
• Introducing visualized operation dashboards for more granular management and monitoring of on-site operations.