Walmart's new high-tech integrated facility in Minooka, Illinois (Photo: Business Wire)
The discount giant will open a state-of-the-art high-tech integration center in Minooka, Illinois. The new 492,000 square foot facility is expected to bring nearly 700 additional jobs to the area.
Once installed, the facility's automation technology will triple the volume of distribution across the center, allowing Walmart to get the right products to the right stores.
walmart Consolidation centers are specialized in moving products quickly to store shelves. Each company has the ability to receive general merchandise from suppliers in smaller freight loads called less-than-truckloads (LTL) and consolidate them into larger freight loads called truckloads (TL).
The products are then shipped to regional distribution centers where they are sorted for delivery to stores. This allows suppliers to consolidate their products into one location, rather than shipping separate orders to each of 42 regional distribution centers.
The center will be the third of its kind in Walmart's supply chain. The first facility is located in Colton, California; Opening in 2019.of opened second In Lebanon, Pennsylvania. In 2022.
“We continue to invest in our people, equipment and technology to ensure we have the right product, in the right place, at the right time,” said Mike Gray, Walmart's senior vice president of ambient operations. said. “As part of these investments, the Minooka facility will provide additional opportunities for small and medium-sized suppliers in regions that do not ship nationally to supply all of Walmart's 4,700 stores.”
“This is a very exciting time to be joining our third high-tech consolidation center in Minooka,” said James White, general manager of the new consolidation center. “The new facility will provide new jobs in the region, as well as provide training and development opportunities that will help our employees advance their careers for years to come.”
Walmart automates its supply chain
Walmart is taking a multifaceted approach to supply chain automation. At the kickoff of the two-day 2023 Investment Community Conference, Walmart announced the plan That's because the discount industry giant said it was a “new, more connected and automated supply chain that improves the customer and employee experience while increasing productivity.”
More than half of Walmart's fulfillment centers could be automated within three years.This initiative includes the next generation Fulfillment center model The center features an automated, high-density storage system that allows the retail giant to double the number of customer orders it can process in a day.
The discounter currently operates a 1.1 million square foot high-tech facility in Joliet, Illinois, and plans to open three more facilities in the U.S. this year. next 3 years We store millions of products available for purchase on Walmart.com, then pick, pack, and ship directly to customers.We also recently started piloting this model in canada.
In addition, Walmart existing contract Partnered with artificial intelligence (AI)-based supply chain technology company Symbiotic LLC to deploy Symbiotic's robotics and software automation platform across all 42 of its supply chains Regional distribution center Over the next few years.
Other efforts to automate supply chain operations include autonomous forklift Spread across four high-tech distribution centers.Forklifts help Walmart further streamline high-tech technology order processing system.
Walmart, headquartered in Bentonville, Arkansas, operates more than 10,500 stores in 19 countries and numerous e-commerce websites.
