Walmart has opened its fifth automated fulfillment center — a 900,000-square-foot facility in Stockton, Calif. — part of a supply chain modernization effort launched in 2022. The center employs ~1,000 people and uses Knapp automation to cut fulfillment steps from 12 to 5. Orders are packed and shipped in under 30 minutes, supporting next-day or two-day delivery to 95% of the U.S. population. A sixth center, 1.5 million square feet, is planned for Canesville, Ga. Walmart operates 4,700 stores and 210 distribution centers.
According to talkbusiness.net, Walmart has opened its fifth high-tech fulfillment center — a 900,000 square-foot facility in Stockton, Calif., designed to accelerate delivery across California and the West Coast.
Expansion of automated infrastructure
The Stockton center joins four other modern fulfillment centers Walmart has launched since 2022: in Joliet, Ill.; McCordsville, Ind.; Lancaster, Texas; and Greencastle, Pa. The retailer operates a total of 4,700 stores and 210 distribution centers, many of which also serve as local fulfillment nodes for customer orders.
The new facility deploys intelligent automation technology developed by Knapp, reducing the fulfillment process from 12 steps to just 5. This includes unloading supplier shipments, routing cases via conveyor to receiving, manual case opening, item placement into totes, and automated storage using ceiling-to-floor shuttle systems engineered to maximize every cubic inch of space.
Once an order is placed, the system retrieves totes and shuttles them to picking stations. Before this automation, employees walked up to nine miles per day across multi-level shelving spanning hundreds of thousands of square feet — a physical burden now dramatically reduced.
Speed and scale of order processing
At the packing station, employees can assemble up to four orders simultaneously, with completed packages shipped in under 30 minutes after order receipt. Each order receives a custom-sized box generated while items are being picked, and the final package is automatically taped, labeled, and routed to its designated shipping zone.
The Stockton center will employ approximately 1,000 people. A sixth automated fulfillment center is planned for Canesville, Ga., where construction is set to begin later this year. That facility will span 1.5 million square feet and also employ around 1,000 workers.
Walmart U.S. CEO David Guggina, who previously ran the company’s supply chain, stated that these investments position Walmart to deliver next-day or two-day shipping to 95% of the U.S. population. The added capacity also supports growth in Walmart’s third-party marketplace business.
Source: talkbusiness.net
Compiled from international media by the SCI.AI editorial team.
