Ocado cherry-picks Japan for first robotic warehouse in Asia

British retail business Ocado Group and Japanese retailer AEON have green-lighted the official go-live of their first robotic Customer Fulfilment Centre (CFC) in Japan, with further fully automated warehouses to come.

The centre was unveiled by executives from both retailers at a ceremony in Honda-cho, Midori-ku, Chiba-city yesterday, marking Ocado’s 2021 commitment to open a stream of CFC’s across the globe.

According to Ocado, it’s robotic warehouse is currently taking orders for AEON’s new “Green Beans” brand launched in April in the Kanto region, the first of its kind in Asia.

The long-awaited CFC features a Smart Cart function and allows one-hour delivery slots to customers, as well as a 50,000 SKU (stock keeping unit) product range at scale.

The duo’s second CFC is also being developed and will be based in Hachioji, Tokyo, Ocado claimed.

“Today marks the launch of something totally new in the Japanese grocery market, bringing a world-leading quality of service online to AEON NEXT customers in Tokyo for the first time,” said Tim Steiner, CEO of Ocado Group.

Steiner added that grocery spend in Asia is set to outstrip every other region over the next decade. As the market develops, the ecommerce networks Ocado is building with partners in Asia will generate a step-change in the quality of service that customers can expect online, something that can be helped by automation, according to the retailer.

So how is Ocado’s new CFC in Asia automated?

– Robots constantly record data while on the grid – roughly 5,000 data points 1,000 times per second. The bots will then use this data to ‘self healthcare’ and let engineers know when they need taking in for maintenance.

– AI-powered, demand forecasting engines predict what customers are most likely to order at any time in the week, month, or year. This gives customers’ vast volumes of choice and high availability and ensures CFCs’ stock is balanced accurately, contributing to very low food waste – as low as 0.4%, compared to an industry average of 2-3%.

– AI is also leveraged to let the pickers know which bag to put an item in, ensuring one bag doesn’t become too heavy or tins are placed with soft fruit that might bruise, for example.

– Simulations are ran to build ‘digital twins’ of Ocado’s CFCs (exact virtual replicas of our CFCs) and uncover new efficiencies in processes. In 2020, over 620,000 simulations covering over two million hours of warehouse run time were played out.

“The effort is a cornerstone of AEON’s continued digital shift across the enterprise, and we will continue to collaborate with Ocado to innovate the online shopping experience,” said Akio Yoshida, president of AEON. “We have also established a last mile subsidiary with ‘AEON NEXT Delivery’ to ensure a superior doorstep experience and have direct contact with our customers.”