“I still need my crew,” says Rick Zumpano, vice president of distribution at Boxed. “They just spend more time picking and less time walking. I’ve sort of taken the shovel out of their hand, and given them an end loader.”
The system runs on a multi-story mezzanine with nearly two miles of conveyer belts. A lot of the software was built in-house, which Huang says saved Boxed a good chunk of change. A robot, called the iBOT, brings the items that need to be picked directly to workers, allowing them to package items for several shipments at a time.
Huang says automation will allow him to create more jobs as efficiency increases and Boxed is able to open more fulfillment centers.