Rick Cohen – Symbotic CEO
Slide: First Principles of the $1T Supply Chain
Thank you Vikas
Let me explain why the supply chain is fundamentally broken and needs to change and why this is the right time for Symbotic to change that supply chain.
Let me explain how the supply chain has worked since the 50’s and why it is going to dramatically change in the next ten years
Manufacturers want to produce and ship things in large quantities. They want to make full pallets and they want to ship truckloads. The most efficient way to move to stuff from the manufacturer and receive stuff in a warehouse is by truck in full pallets.
Warehouse move individual cases to the stores and typically these stores are within 100-200 miles of the warehouse, and the stores want individual cases
The supply chain moves goods through a process of atomizing pallets and cases into items, while buffering the flow to match supply and demand.
Meanwhile, the supply chain has become increasingly global, and labor is increasingly strained, stressing today’s supply chain to the breaking point.
We have invented a unique system that transforms this process with A.I. and robotic automation, and that’s why leading retailers like Walmart partner with us.
Symbotic’s system is the backbone of commerce for our customers, processing inventory faster, more accurately, and far more efficiently.
Slide: Manually Operated Distribution
Let’s back up and discuss the current state of the industry.
Today’s modern supply chain was designed to store, ship and buffer pallets and tractor-trailer’s containers.
It is labor-intensive, space consuming and inflexible, whether you are a large, small, global or regional operator.
Mostly, this warehouse stores air. These humans must inefficiently travel miles per day, the work is strenuous and tedious, often resulting in high workers comp costs, and turnover rates often exceeding 100% if you can even fill the jobs.
Finally, humans are three 9’s accurate, maybe at best four 9’s, resulting in expensive extra buffering in the system and stock-outs at the point of commerce.
Slide: Mechanized Distribution
So, over the last couple of decades the industry has begun to partially mechanize.
The most common technology used, in about 15% of warehouses, reduces the needs for humans to transit the warehouse. This is the approach behind conveyance-based automation.