“The micro fulfillment solution at IKEA gives customers a choice between Click & Collect and home delivery,” says Jens Schmale, Head of Region EMEA at Swisslog, emphasizing, “The micro fulfillment approach has countless advantages, including improved speed and efficiency of fulfillment, reduced transportation costs, and shorter delivery times.”
IKEA selected the highly efficient robotized storage and order processing solution AutoStore, complete with 6,000 bins, 14 robots and 4 picking stations. Currently hosting 2,900 articles, the system takes care of the storage and picking of small items weighing no more than 30kg.
Before adopting AutoStore, IKEA estimated an average of about 1km traveled by each operator to prepare an order, with a productivity rate of 20 order lines per hour. Today, with the new automated and data-driven solution, it is expected to increase productivity up to 170 order lines, allowing an important rationalization of the store’s resources with a significant return on investment.
