Walmart and Symbiotic Inc. announced a $6 billion expanded commercial agreement that will bring increased automation capabilities to Walmart’s distribution centers in the U.S. ahead of the holiday shopping rush.
According to the Oct. 29 announcement, Walmart’s initial commitment covers spending across multiple locations over several years, including 25 U.S. regional distribution centers and opportunities in select international markets.
Walmart Expands Automation Across Its Distribution Network
Symbotic will continue developing AI-powered technology to improve Walmart’s supply chain operations. Its proprietary software works with robotics to coordinate and optimize the movement of products through distribution facilities.
Under the agreement, the promised $6 billion can only be altered if both Symbiotic and Walmart mutually agree on a different sum. Walmart separately committed $125 million toward research and development of next-generation racking technology and related picking, process-flow, and inventory-management capabilities.
Rob Montgomery, Walmart’s executive vice president of U.S. supply chain operations said, “At Walmart, we’re focused on bringing more items to more customers and members, faster than ever. Our investments in the physical and digital supply chain help us serve them however they choose to shop, whether in stores, at the curbside or at home.”
Rob further added that the expanded agreement aims to improve service, grow capacity, simplify work for associates, and lower costs.
By bringing automation capabilities to its regional distribution center networks Walmart intends to support ecommerce inventory management, improve storage capacity, and improve how products move through its supply chain.
These changes are intended to make the overall shopping experience faster and better for shoppers whether they choose to do their shopping online, curbside, or in store just in time for the holiday rush by allowing a broader assortment of goods to be readily available to them.
How Walmart Plans to Improve Its Supply Chain
This collaboration between Symbotic and Walmart has been ongoing for over a decade now and started with a single product, according to Rick Cohen, Chairman and CEO of Symbotic.
“This expanded agreement reflects the strength of that collaboration – a partnership defined by trust and shared ambition,” Cohen said.
Symbiotic provides solutions for large-scale BreakPack picking for distribution centers and SymMicro which focuses on micro-fulfillment for ecommerce. Together, these solutions use AI-powered software to coordinate and optimize the movement of millions of cases every day.
Symbiotic is a leader in AI enabled robotics technology for supply chains. They focus on providing robotics and software in order to boost the performance and productivity of supply chains in many different industries. With the use of next-generation technologies and machine learning, Symbiotic is tackling the toughest challenges found in distribution and supply chain logistics.
