An Invar Systems project, involving the rollout of Hikrobot AMRs across Superdry’s international DC network, has won the Technology Transformation trophy at The Logistics Awards and follows accolades received at the Supply Chain Excellence Awards in the autumn, where the entry won the highly coveted Technology Supply Chain Excellence trophy.
The Logistics Awards, organised by the publishers of SHD Logistics magazine, is one of the most prestigious award schemes in the supply chain sector.
Commenting on the award win, Tim Wright, Managing Director of Invar Systems said: “The entire team, and everyone within the Invar Group, is delighted to have been recognised by the industry for the hard work, dedication and technological expertise that has gone into this advanced AMR pick-to-light project for Superdry. This is a great honour. ”
A successful pilot project for handling ecommerce returns was conducted in 2018, involving six autonomous Hikrobot carriers at the company’s UK distribution centre in Burton-upon-Trent. Following the success of the project, Superdry went on in January 2020 to deploy a further fleet of 20 Hikrobot carriers to handle continental ecommerce returns at its European DC in Belgium.
Last spring, the Burton-upon-Trent site saw the installation of 40 more Hikrobot autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) in an expansion of the existing goods-to-person system. The enlarged operation handles the entire picking and put-away of womenswear for retail, ecommerce and wholesale. Over 80,000 sq ft of the warehouse has been set out with 1000 transportable pick-wall modules and the area is equipped with a total of twelve pick-to-light stations.
Menswear will follow later with an estimated requirement for 60 more robots and expectations are for the further deployment of Hikrobot carriers in Belgium and the USA – all part of a phased roll-out of goods-to-person robotics that is set to boost productivity and capacity across Superdry’s international network of multi-channel fulfilment centres.
