GXO Logistics has reached a multi-year global agreement with fulfillment solutions provider 6 River Systems, to meet the demand for collaborative mobile robots (CMRs), or ‘Chucks’, in its logistics operations across the USA and Europe.
In 2021, GXO more than tripled its use of collaborative robots and plans to add hundreds more this year and beyond. The pure-play contract logistics provider is expanding its use of technology to meet the demand for outsourcing logistics from current and new customers. Along with productivity improvements, GXO’s use of technology is intended to help recruit new team members by creating a safer and more engaging workplace.
Chucks are designed to reduce training time for new team members by approximately 80%. The collaborative robots use sophisticated sensors to navigate and can operate in multi-tier installations, directing employees to the correct inventory on multiple levels, processing more goods and maximizing available space. They also reduce walking distances for employees and speed up operations such as stocking, picking and sorting items.
Sandeep Sakharkar, chief information officer at GXO, said, “6 River Systems’ Chucks provide a huge boost to the retention of our team members and deliver a substantial sustained increase in operational productivity. This agreement fortifies our long-term partnership with 6RS, ensuring rapid deployment of popular productivity-enhancing warehouse collaborative robots that give our customers a competitive advantage.”
Rylan Hamilton, co-founder and co-CEO at 6 River Systems, said, “Our extended partnership with GXO proves that our wall-to-wall fulfillment solutions provide our customers with the ability to scale their global operations. In less than five years, GXO has been able to utilize 6 River Systems innovations to address some of their biggest opportunities and create a trusted fulfillment ecosystem for their customers. We look forward to delivering great business outcomes to GXO with this new phase of our strategic partnership.”