Walmart opened a more than 900,000-square-foot “next-generation” fulfillment center in Stockton, California, helping scale fulfillment capacity for West Coast customers, according to an Oct. 8 press release.
The facility leverages automation, technology and machine learning to move products faster and more efficiently, per the press release. More specifically, the technology improves storage capacity to boost the number of orders the facility can fulfill daily compared with a traditional fulfillment warehouse.
A high-density storage and retrieval system brings products directly to associates to reduce repetitive, manual tasks, per the release. In turn, the system cuts the company’s traditional 12-step fulfillment process down to five steps.
Walmart’s Stockton facility is the retailer’s fifth next-generation fulfillment center targeting increased order capacity to drive faster shipping. The retailer initially revealed plans to build the fulfillment centers in 2022. At the time, Walmart said that the facilities could provide 75% of the U.S. population with next- or two-day shipping.
Walmart opened its first next-generation fulfillment site in Joliet, Illinois, in 2022, and its second facility near Indianapolis that same year. Other locations include Lancaster, Texas, and Greencastle, Pennsylvania.
The retail giant continues to invest in its supply chain, with automation being a critical component of that spending. As part of its efforts, Walmart aims to upgrade all 42 of its U.S. distribution centers with automation, with more than 20 currently in the process of being updated.
In January, for instance, Walmart announced plans to invest more than $330 million to install robotics and automation at a distribution center in Louisiana to double the facility’s shipping capacity. In June, the retailer outlined the last phase of a distribution center remodel in Texas, which includes adding new electrical and material-handling equipment.
