DHL Deploys 1,000 Warehouse Robots, Expands Warehouse Automation

DHL is expanding its partnership with robotic tech company AutoStore, rolling out increased numbers of AutoStore’s pick-and-pack robots to its warehouses and targeting the expansion of  automated warehouse operations “on a global scale.”

The partners have been collaborating since 2012, and DHL is already involved in nine operational AutoStore warehouse projects across Singapore, the U.S. and Germany, with four more in the planning stage. 

At the sites, AutoStore’s robots are used to autonomously pick ordered goods and group them for further processing by employees, with AutoStore also providing modular infrastructure for the robots to move along – a grid-like structure that holds container bins of stock to be sorted.

The nine existing systems effectively operate 800,000 “bins” of stock, with the upcoming four Systems estimated to raise this number to 1.2 million. DHL said in the future it intends to construct five further facilities.

With the expansion, the partners are targeting deployment of more than 1,000 robots at DHL’s fulfillment warehouses. 

“We are pleased to expand our existing relationship with AutoStore as we continue to implement our digitalization and automation strategy in a growing number of warehouses,” said Markus Voss, DHL’s COO. “AutoStore’s standardized and modular technology perfectly aligns with our aim to make our operations more efficient, enabling swift scalability and adaptability across various use cases and end-markets – a crucial factor for us as a third-party logistics provider.” 

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The partners said the expanded collaboration will “redefine the future of warehousing” by offering scalable automated solutions. 

“Shortly we'll have more than a thousand of these robots performing work for us,” said Voss. “We've seen great improvements, with five times higher productivity, when we have implemented these solutions. We're seeing…increased efficiency, accuracy and also visibility… I'm very excited to see many many more of these solutions implemented across the globe.”