Walmart will open a 925,000 square-foot automated fulfillment center in Lebanon, TN, to support its growing supply chain network and e-commerce business with a speedier spin on distribution, the company announced.
The new facility will employ a unique combination of associates, AI software and automated robots that work together to ship orders to customers at a greater rate than is typically achieved by established distribution centers, Walmart indicated. The new fulfillment center is the retailer’s first such facility in the state of Tennessee.
The fulfillment center will support an initiative Walmart shared earlier this year to build additional supply chain capacity using automation to stay ahead of demand, improve the customer experience and increase productivity, the company noted. It will store millions of items from Walmart’s everyday low-priced merchandise, which will directly ship to customers as soon as the next day. A fleet of automated robots will navigate a compact storage system to retrieve products included in the orders they receive and bring them to associates for packing. The order is then shipped quickly and directly to the customer, Walmart emphasized.
“We’re thrilled to be bringing a new high-tech fulfillment center to the community of Lebanon,” said David Guggina, svp/automation and innovation at Walmart U.S. “This facility will include game-changing automation technology that’s radically disrupting the supply chain, improving the customer experience and saving time for associates.”
