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Part One - How Seegrid Robots Navigate at Giant Eagle

Giant Eagle, one of the nation's largest privately held
multi-format food and fuel retailers, had to address how to handle inbound pallets beyond the manned hi-lift industrial vehicles used to putaway the product. Between twenty and thirty percent of inbound freight is now handled by three Seegrid GP8 double robotic pallet trucks at Giant Eagle's OK Grocery retail support center in Crafton, Pennsylvania. Giant Eagle also deployed four GP8 double robotic pallet trucks at its ASF retail support center in Cleveland, Ohio.

Giant Eagle uses driverless robotic pallet trucks to "streak"
(moving pallets from one area to another) inbound delivered pallets to a drop zone via WMS (Warehouse Management System). Currently the robots are used for inbound delivered pallets. The company is evaluating opportunities to use the same process for outbound deliveries.

Just as shoppers use the express lane to get in and out of the supermarket as efficiently as possible, Giant Eagle uses an efficient, simple solution incorporating WMS integration with Seegrid robots. The VMU (Vehicle Mount Unit) along with a barcode scanner are mounted on the backrest of the robots. All inbound pallets are staged along the dock based on different product type. As soon as a robot operator scans each barcode on two double stacked pallets, the VMU screen displays the drop location of the pallets. The operator then enters the start, drop, and end location into the HMI (Human Machine Interface) on the robot. The robot then travels on its route and drops off the pallets.

As soon as the pallets are dropped off by the robot, forks are in the down position; the barcode scanner scans the barcode placed directly in front of the scanner on the mast. The hi-lift operator gets a notification on their scanner with instructions for a new task in their job queue. The new task is based on priority rules set by Giant Eagle. The hi-lift operator completes the
putaway process by placing the pallets into the racking.

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How Robots Improve Operations
Giant Eagle moves pallets from the receiving dock to an area closer to the reserve location. This practice improves operations by shifting wasted travel on the hi-lifts to the reserve and back to the dock. Giant Eagle recognizes time savings along with the ability to haul more product each trip, thus clearing the dock faster-improving operations. "Our Seegrid pallet jacks enable us to minimize travel within our operations," said Joe Hurley, Sr. VP of Supply Chain and Logistics for Giant Eagle. "The robot is able to take pallets directly from the pickup point on the receiving dock to an end-of aisle drop point without requiring an operator of a hi-lift. We've increased productivity with our replenishment hi-lifts in aisles, because operators now have more products to move in shorter distances. So we've actually increased productivity."
Part Two to be continued next week...

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Pittsburgh, PA - USA
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