Ocado opens doors to automated grocery warehouse

Ocado is offering a tour of one of its automated UK warehouses, giving people the ability to learn more about the systems that power its operations. 

“By far the most differentiating feature of the Andover fulfilment centre is the revolutionary goods-to-person system,” the retailer says. “Inside the highly automated warehouse is a three-storey high aluminium grid containing stacks of white storage crates of grocery items. Whizzing on top of the grid is a fleet of robots that pick up crates from each stack and deliver them to pick stations where personal shoppers assemble the customer orders. The robots have been designed in-house by Ocado Engineering and Ocado Technology and embody the most efficient warehouse logistics solution ever designed, with the potential to revolutionise the way we think about online retail.”

A few facts about the Andover warehouse:

• An average order of 50 items takes just five minutes to pick and pack.
• The warehouse itself spans an area equivalent in size to three football pitches.
• The grid uses more steel than the Wembley arch (1,089 tonnes).
• If you were to lay the tracks the robots travel on in a straight line, they could get all the way from London to Cambridge (112 km).
• Each robot travels between 50 km and 60 km per day.
• The warehouse system is part of the Ocado Smart Platform, a grocery e-commerce solution licenced by Morrisons in the UK, Groupe Casino in France, Sobeys in Canada, and ICA in Sweden.

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