Gap rolling out warehouse robots amid social distancing - Business Insider

Gap Inc. is speeding up its rollout of robots that can put together online orders in warehouses.

Gap reached a deal early this year to more than triple the number of item-picking robots it uses to 106 by the fall. Then the pandemic struck North America, forcing the company to close all its stores in the region, including those of Banana Republic, Old Navy and other brands. Meanwhile, its warehouses faced more web orders and fewer staff to fulfill them because of social distancing rules Gap had put in place.

Each machine handles work typically performed by four people, Kuntz said. Neither the deal to triple the number of robots, nor the expedited installations, have been previously reported. Vince Martinelli, RightHand's head of product and marketing, declined comment on the deployment but said as a general matter, "If you're going to have limited people in the building, the last thing you want them to do is a simple task that can be automated."

The interest is no surprise: researchers from the Brookings Institution have said spurts of automation often follow economic shocks, a phenomenon they said could be replayed as retailers' sales plunge.

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