As labor shortages and increasing parcel volumes challenge logistics operations worldwide, DHL sought to automate a key bottleneck in its sorting facilities. At its Parcel Madrid hub, the company introduced a robotic solution to automate the pick-and-place process for small inbound parcels. The result: a system capable of handling over 1,500 parcels per hour with 99.99% accuracy.
DHL is a leading global brand in the logistics industry, providing national and international parcel delivery to more than 100 countries; e-commerce shipping and fulfillment solutions; international express, road, air and ocean transport; and industrial supply chain management.
As the tight labor market forces logistics providers to automate to address staffing, scalability and other challenges, DHL sought to automate a high-variance task that had been causing sorting facility bottlenecks, especially on the second shift. DHL Express needed an automated process to reliably pick and place inbound small parcels.
Dynamic environment
DHL turned to leading integrator Vanderlande in collaboration with AWL and Fizyr. To ensure the highest success rates in this highly dynamic environment, AWL partnered with Fizyr for its advanced vision and paired it with gripping technology to enable it to handle packages of various sizes and weights.
Custom built for DHL Parcel Madrid, this automation solution – named ROSI – reliably picks and places parcels onto the conveyor belt of DHL’s parcel intake system. Fizyr vision determines the shape of each object, delivers instructions to the robot for pick order and precise grasp techniques and locations. Utilizing those vision-based instructions, the robot ultimately picks the parcels quickly and reliably and places them on the conveyor.
Increase productivity
The robot picks over 1,500 parcels per hour with 99.99% accuracy, removing the risk of repetitive motion injuries to employees while increasing productivity from 30 to 60 tonnes per day for commercial flights.
“Automation is the most important factor that helps us increase productivity,” says Rafael Mateu, Operations Manager, DHL Express. “We have increased from 30 to 60 tonnes per day for commercial flights, which is the biggest advantage of the new warehouse.”
