Supply Chain Stories: Automation and Growth in eCommerce

In the most recent episode of our award-winning podcast series “All Business. No Boundaries.”, we talked to?Tony Gariety, Vice President of Logistics and Distribution at Carhartt, and?Omer Rashid, Vice President of Operations Development at DHL Supply Chain. Tony and Omer discussed Carhartt's rapid growth and how challenges, such as capacity constraints and keeping up with heightened demand, were addressed with an assisted-picking robotic solution and a partnership with DHL Supply Chain. Listen to the full podcast episode?here.

About Carhartt

Carhartt is a retail brand founded in 1889 that produces clothing for hard workers across various industries. The brand has become increasingly popular with consumers outside the original target audience through social media attention. The company relies on all retail channels, including a growing eCommerce operation and 35 storefronts throughout the U.S.

Growing and Expanding

The Carhartt brand has become very popular in recent years, and their reliance on eCommerce as a primary channel for their business demonstrated a need for a strong and efficient supply chain. Quickly outgrowing their initial distribution centers, the Carhartt team partnered with DHL Supply Chain to provide additional warehouse space and utilize our accelerated digitalization strategy.

The first site opened in 2021 in Canal Winchester, Ohio and during the design phase, the solution changed multiple times as Carhartt saw further growth and needed more capacity at the site. The team knew a more automated solution was needed and partnered with AMR vendors for design concepts and ultimately selected Locus. Due to an accelerated go-live timeline, the site started as a fully manual operation, but within three months had deployed Locus on site.

Best. Co-worker. Ever.

Throughout the Locus implementation, the site team worked closely with Carhartt to implement the solution in the facility. One factor in the success of this implementation came from site leadership’s commitment to the solution and deployment plan on how the bots were introduced to associates. These associates had the chance to learn more about the solution through videos and interactive orientation at the nearby Recruiting Center. The reception of the collaborative robots at the site has been overwhelmingly positive as the idea of working closely with this technology excited employees.

Solid Results

The robots were not only a hit with associates, but they also drove efficiencies within the operation. The team saw an increase in daily each pick unit capacity of 80-90% and a 50% improvement in pick productivity. During peak season, the site flexed up to 82 LocusBots to support the additional volume, which helped reduce overtime and allowed associates the opportunity to take time off to enjoy the holidays.

The success of the LocusBots picking solution has also created an opportunity for additional automation within DHL/Carhartt network where three new facilities are planned to go live in the next year. One site will include an additional Locus deployment, one of the sites will be a highly automated site, and the third site will be dedicated to supporting their ever-popular beanie hat. Additionally, the team plans to implement?Boston Dynamics’ “Stretch”?robot within the network once the solution is ready.