![]() ![]() Totes are loaded into metal frames on wheels and loaded into the back of a temperature-controlled delivery van. The outbound station is on the chilled side of the facility for quality control. Orders heading to a similar destination are grouped together, too, so they wind up in the same delivery van. They are spit out in a sequence, so an entire customer order is together - regardless of items' temperatures. When customers' groceries are done being picked, red and blue totes travel to the end of a conveyer belt to a station for outbound orders. When an employee is done filling a batch of totes, they press a button and the containers get gobbled back up by the grid. It also tells the system how to pick, so that fragile items like loaves of bread and cartons of eggs are last. The software that powers the entire grid helps group together similar orders, such as pairing customers who ordered the same kind of ketchup or yogurt. They scan items, much like a cashier would at the store. A green light also appears above the correct tote and a small screen shows the quantity of the item to add to the bag. They stand in front of a counter area that spits out three different totes at a time to fill with customers' purchases.Įach employee's computer screen shows which items should go with a customer's order. On the chilled side, the grid is much smaller - eight totes deep versus 21 deep - since each item that goes into a tote has a much shorter shelf life.Įmployees at pick stations have a conveyer belt next to them that serves up totes full of the items that they need to grab for a customer. Here most employees wear heavy coats and winter hats. Others pick in an area that resembles the inside of a refrigerator at 34 degrees. Some work on the ambient side, which is kept at about 70 degrees. In the middle of the hive, employees stand at pick stations. Those items get put into foam-lined blue totes along with dry ice to keep them cold on the delivery route. Employees hand pick pizzas, pints of ice cream, microwavable dinners and more. Instead, they are kept in a large, walk-in freezer that is kept at minus 10 degrees. They move around the totes and come up with best routes to get them to outbound lanes or inbound lanes, so that employees can fill them up with inventory and process customers' orders.įrozen items are not part of either grid. The robots run this intricate storage-and-retrieval system. Each has wheels that allow them to go four directions and a metal, tape measure-like ribbon at each of its four corners.Īlmost like a carnival game, the robots can unwind the metal-like tape, hook onto the tote and snatch it into its belly from multiple yards away. Robots roughly the size of a dishwasher glide on top of the grid of plastic totes. Elaborate choreographyīehind the scenes, Ocado's software powers robots in an elaborate choreography. to 9 p.m., the grid can be down for any maintenance that's needed. That's when employees pick groceries for next-day deliveries. The hive remains active nearly round-the-clock. For example, bunches of bananas stay in a cardboard box inside of the tote to minimize the risk they will get squished.Īll are gobbled up by the grid-based system, which is made up of conveyer belts and chutes. Some groceries get an extra layer of protection. And anything that could contaminate food items, such as deodorant and laundry detergent, goes into an orange tote. Other smaller totes go inside of those "hive totes." Red totes hold refrigerated and ambient temperature items. They get filled and emptied of inventory - but are never used as a delivery receptacle for a customer. White totes are "hive totes" that stay in the grid. It is made up of two sides: a chilled side for perishable items and an ambient side for shelf-stable consumer packaged goods and household items. From a bird's-eye view, the grid - or hive - is about the same size as a football field. Totes shuffle around like a game of Tetris. And a third category is filled with bagged groceries picked out for a customer. Some are full of items that haven't yet been doled out for a customer, such as loose onions, boxes of Pampers diapers or bags of gummy worms. The totes are stacked on top of one another in rows. The engine of each shed is a high-tech grid of roughly 200,000 plastic totes. ![]()
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