Walmart looks like it is sparing no expense to automate its warehouse operations .
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The retail giant has plans to possibly spend as much as $200 million on self-driving forklifts that move pallets of goods within its distribution centers, according to a report from Reuters.
Walmart would not comment on the report, but referred to the company’s April announcement that it rolled out 19 autonomous forklifts from Fox Robotics across four of its high-tech distribution centers . At the time, the retailer said it had plans to expand the pilot pending an evaluation of its benefits.
Reuters said Walmart has intended to buy “possibly hundreds” of these autonomous forklifts from Fox Robotics in the future, with the Bentonville behemoth reportedly already having invested $25 million in the Austin-based startup.
Fox Robotics entered into a multiyear program agreement with Walmart after a 16-month proof of concept. The Reuters report indicated that Walmart could stop the rollout at any time, and that it could occur in stages over several years, hinging on the retailer’s satisfaction with the forklifts.
Automation could provide a massive windfall for Walmart as it scales the technology across its logistics operation. Walmart has already opened four “next-gen” distribution centers in Illinois, Indiana, Texas and Pennsylvania to better take on the sprawling network put together by Amazon, and expects a fifth iteration of these automated warehouses to open in Stockton, Calif. by 2026.
The completion of said facilities is designed to enable next- and two-day shipping on “millions of items” including third-party Marketplace products for three-quarters of U.S. households, Walmart contends. The fulfillment centers are built to double the storage capacity of a traditional Walmart warehouse, and also double the number of customer orders able to be fulfilled in a day.
Walmart also has been attempting to cut down delivery times as part of its fulfillment upgrades. The company indicated in a May earnings call that its U.S. division delivered 4.4 billion items either same-day or next-day over the past 12 months, with about 20 percent of those delivered in under three hours.
Analysts from Jefferies recently estimated the company could add $20 billion to its profit before interest and taxes by fiscal 2029, largely in part to its efforts in automation and artificial intelligence.
Since the company started selling its “FoxBot” forklifts in 2021, its installed base has autonomously processed more than 3 million pallet pulls for customers across North America.
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The FoxBot operates via a proprietary AI and machine learning system that serves as the robot’s “brain,” Fox Robotics says. The tech is built to enable the individual forklift to make decisions dynamically and autonomously on tasks including detecting pallet locations, stabilizing picked loads, and loading and unloading pallets with more care to avoid product damages commonly caused by manual forklifts.
According to Maurice Gray, the general manager of Walmart’s Brooksville, Fla. distribution center, Gray said the FoxBot autonomous forklifts complement the automated storage and retrieval system—which catalogues and stores the goods—and are designed to fully automate the warehouse loading dock.
Fox Robotics claims a single operator can manage up to six autonomous forklifts at once, reducing labor costs by 40 percent.
The Fox Robotics partnership isn’t the only significant deal Walmart has conjured to fulfill its automation goals.
In 2022, Walmart invested in another robotics partner, Symbotic , with the companies expecting to implement automation in all 42 of its regional distribution centers. Walmart owned more than 13 percent of Symbotic stock as of a January securities filing.
When the deal first occurred, Walmart estimated that retrofitting all 42 facilities would take a minimum of eight years, which would give a completion target of 2030.
Symbotic’s system features mobile robots that can move stock at up to 25 miles per hour, and robotic arms to pack and unpack items, as well as vision-enabled tech to help streamline the process of fulfilling orders. This system processes pallets and sorts products into different storage structures, with each module capable of processing 1,700 cases per hour. The system aims to enhance storage density, increase available SKUs, reduce product damage and improve throughput and speed.
Both the Symbotic and the Fox Robotic agreements are exclusive, restricting Walmart’s competitors from using the technology.
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