DHL Supply Chain and Locus Robotics announced plans on March 11, 2020, for ten new U.S. deployments of warehouse picking robots during the year. The agreement called for 1,000 LocusBots to support 12 DHL sites in North America. The expansion concerned robots working alongside people in order fulfillment—not an announcement of warehouses operating without them. [S1]

The companies described a piece-picking system first piloted together in 2017. LocusBots navigate through the warehouse and transport pick items to associates; the announcement says the robots can support different picking strategies. Human workers remain part of the stated workflow. The useful distinction is between automating movement within a picking operation and automating every task needed to complete an order. [S1]

DHL reported fulfillment-productivity increases of up to 80% in selected customer operations in its initial life-sciences and retail deployments. That is a company-reported result for selected operations, not a promised gain for each of the new sites. Locus chief executive Rick Faulk said the sites had been identified and deployment was expected during 2020 to support peak-season volume. The March announcement therefore establishes an expansion commitment and a timetable, not ten completed installations. [S1]

Software integration was a separate part of Locus’s rollout strategy. In a June 19, 2019 announcement, Locus named JDA Software as a reseller and said the companies would build a more seamless integration over time. JDA would ultimately offer a one-stop subscription service. Those were forward-looking statements in the earlier release; they do not establish that the promised integration was finished by March 2020, or that DHL’s new sites would use JDA. [S2]

A warehouse considering these robots still needs to establish which movements the robots will handle, which picking tasks stay with associates, and what software connections are ready at the proposed site. These are deployment questions, not findings that DHL lacks those capabilities. A robot deployment count cannot answer those site-level questions, and a reseller agreement is not a record of a completed integration. [S1][S2]

Source documents

  1. DHL Supply Chain and Locus Robotics Expand Partnership, Launching 10 New U.S. Deployments in 2020https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/dhl-supply-chain-and-locus-robotics-expand-partnership-launching-10-new-us-deployments-in-2020-301021358.html
  2. Locus Robotics Announces Partnership with JDA Softwarehttps://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/locus-robotics-announces-partnership-with-jda-software-300871127.html