Established in 2001, Yonghui Superstores is a Shanghai-listed (601933) company operating supermarket chains. It has nearly 900 supermarkets in 24 provinces and cities across China, covering over 6 million square meters. China’s biggest supermarket chain in 2018, it is a top 100 China Company.

The challenge

• Significant increase of single item orders
• Need to improve warehouse in and outbound order processing efficiency to meet higher volume demand
• High labor costs

Our solution

• Yonghui Superstores’Kunshan Warehouse in April 2019. Operated by Geek+, we provide a comprehensive robotics solution with full picking system and business intelligence monitoring
• The project area is about 1600 square meters, using 43 P800 robots, 186 shelves, and 80 tray holders, focusing in and out processing of food and daily consumer goods

The Geek+ impact

• Average picking efficiency multiplied by three (153 lines / hour)
• Daily shipping processing capacity is in the 5000-7000 order line, easily solving the increased demand requirements for East China region
• Picking error rate significantly decreased
• Shorter working time and more cost-efficient on-site management
• Reduction of on-site manual labor to achieve cost reduction and efficiency gains

The customer

Sinopharm Logistics is the logistics arm of Sinopharm, China’s largest pharmaceutical distributor. It is the first third-party professional pharmaceutical logistics company in China, covering warehousing services, drug sales, domestic road freight forwarding and other services.

The challenge

Sinopharm Logistics implements a single drug traceability system to ensure the accuracy of drug shipments, and has a strict multi-vendor, multi-channel and drug quality status management system, which has significantly increased the need for accurate small part picking while increasing overall productivity and lowering labor costs and worker intensity.

Our solution

• Geek+ picking system deployed in 1500sm warehouse, covering 10 workstations and 399 shelving units
• Solution customized for the pharmaceutical industry customized solution such as batch management, quality status management, drug storage compliance management, and expiration date management
• First time use of light selection technology applied to the workstations, so that the individual workstation picking efficiency can be increased to 80-120 lines/hour/person

The Geek+ impact

• Significant picking efficiency increased, from 30-40 lines/hour/person tp 80-120 lines/hour/person
• Manual picking efficiency increased by about 3 times
• Labor intensity greatly reduced
• Ultra-high picking accuracy

The customer

Jointown Pharmaceutical Group is the largest private pharmaceutical distribution company in China, distributing international and Chinese drugs and medical equipment. In 2018, the company reported revenues of over $20 billion USD (RMB87 billion yuan) and 1,287 retail points.

The challenge

Jointown Pharmaceutical Group has 127 pharmaceutical logistics centers with a storage capacity of 10 million pieces. Under new requirements the Company set an overall processing volume of 10,000 pieces/hour with 99.9% accuracy.

Our solution

• 100 picking robots deployed and integrated with existing automation, combining with the facility’s conveyor belts and forklifts to provide complete automation over multi-floor temporary storage, involving 1,736 storage space
• Picking robots transport goods directly to the platform for unmanned unloading
• User friendly interface providing multiple data gathering, reducing operation risks and increasing transportation safety

The Geek+ impact

• Saving space: smaller space needed for robot movement and storage capacity increased by 1/3 compared with conventional manual forklift operations
• Significant labor and equipment cost reduction
• ROI under two years
• An innovative model of temporary storage automation and unmanned operations, a blueprint for new pharmaceutical warehouses