DHL Turns to Robots to Equip U.S. Warehouses for E-Commerce
- North American logistics unit will spend $300 million on plan
- Technology has matured enough to justify investment: CEO
Employees move a container towards a loading bay at a DHL Worldwide Express facility ahead of Cyber Monday in Chicago, Illinois
Photographer: Daniel Acker/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Worldwide delivery service DHL is deploying artificial intelligence, self-driving vehicles and product-picking robots at its warehouses in North America to help handle the surge in e-commerce demand.
The U.S. unit of Deutsche Post AG will spend $300 million on its plan to equip 350 of its 430 facilities with new technology that includes autonomous trolleys that shadow human workers and robots that can pick and sort products by themselves, said Scott Sureddin, chief executive officer of DHL Supply Chain North America.