Robots on job at Dillard’s hub

Maumelle distribution center ships out online orders

Stacey Pope fetches items brought to her Tuesday by an orange KIVA System robot at a Dillard’s Inc. warehouse in Maumelle.
Stacey Pope fetches items brought to her Tuesday by an orange KIVA System robot at a Dillard’s Inc. warehouse in Maumelle.

— Inside the Dillard’s Inc. distribution center in Maumelle, 167 orange robots dart back and forth, helping their human counterparts ship orders made through the company’s online store.

The square-shaped robots, standing about 2 1/2 feet tall and 3 feet wide, help send online orders quicker and easier than before, said Marty Martin, manager of the center.

“The technology we brought aboard made it a whole lot more efficient,” he said.

During a tour of the center Tuesday, Little Rock-based Dillard’s offered a look at its “Internet Fulfillment Center” and the KIVA robotic system used to help fill orders.

The company announced its intentions to move its Internet operation from Nashville, Tenn., to Maumelle in 2010. The first order from Maumelle was shipped in March.

The center, originally used by Target Corp. as a distribution hub, is the company’s only online shipping center, Spokesman Julie Bull said.

Dillard’s employs about 350 people at the 850,000-squarefoot center, she said.

Bull said the company originally planned to employ 300 people, but demand has allowed the company to take on more employees.

“This thing has exceed every expectation we had already,” Bull said.

The facility has two main sections, one solely worked by employees and another where employees and robots team up to process orders.

In the section where only employees check and place orders, clothes in clear plastic bags hang from metal bars, and shoes and home products are stored on large shelves.

There workers pull ordered items from shelves and package them.

Martin said the company’s goal is to get products ready for shipping within six hours of receiving an order.

In the area where the robots work, smaller highdemand products such as shoes are stored on tall metal shelves that robots are able to pick up and carry to workers.

More than 10,000 bar codes on the floor guide the robots as they glide from one spot to another.

Sensors on the robots, which can carry up to 2,000 pounds, read the bar codes that guide them as they move rhythmically across the warehouse carrying large metal shelves that hold boxes filled with merchandise.

The boxes are taken to employees, who remove an order and place it into a box for shipping. When the boxes are ready for shipping, a robot carries them off to the shipping area.

KIVA operator Coty Clary said he enjoys working with the robots.

“It’s unique in that you don’t have to walk around to get a product,” he said. “It makes the job a lot easier. The robot just brings it to you.”

Business, Pages 25 on 09/26/2012

Upcoming Events