Gap ramps up robot workforce for online sales

Who benefits when workers are forced to stay at home? Robots.

Marin Tchakarov is COO of robotics company Kindred, which is helping retailer Gap speed up its rollout of warehouse robots.

“There has been an unprecedented, for Kindred, surge in volumes – far beyond actually what we’ve experienced in the most peak volumes of 2019.”

Automation is not new to Gap. The retailer had already planned to triple the number of item-picking robots in various warehouses to 106 by the fall. It’s now looking to ramp up its robot workforce by July.

A surge in online sales from stay-at-home shoppers has proven to be a lifeline for the company, which temporarily shut all its North American stores, including Banana Republic and Old Navy.

Gap last month said it faced a cash shortage, prompting it to borrow more than $2 billion.

Each Gap robot helps pick multi-item orders and handles a workload typically performed by four people.

“They don’t call in sick. They don’t get hungry. They don’t get tired.”

Once all the items in a customer's order are in a bin, a worker puts the bin on a conveyer for packing and delivery.

Kindred and Gap say they’re aiming for the technology to complement workers, not replace them.

Gap says it will still scout for new warehouse hires, and potentially new machines.