Issue link: http://www.epageflip.net/i/985328
4 NWA Democrat-Gazette Walmart Shareholders Thursday, May 31, 2018 ROGERS — Roberto checks inventory in a fraction of the time it takes Walmart workers. The 6-foot, 300-pound Roberto starts rolling up and down aisles at the Pleasant Grove Road Walmart Supercenter at 12:45 a.m. each weekday to see what is out of stock, mispriced and in the wrong place. Roberto is part of a 50-store pilot program testing robots made by Califor- nia-based Bossa Nova Robotics. C.J. is the robot at Walmart's Elm Springs Road store in Springdale. Both were deployed earlier this year. "We are always looking for new things to try," said John Crecelius, Walmart U.S. vice president of central operation. "It's been fun, and it's something you have to learn from." The robots, named by store employees, roll down preassigned aisles at set times taking high-definition two- and three-di- mensional photos. Jacob Wells, a quality assurance analyst for Bossa Nova, said the system sends im- ages and information such as shelf labels, section breaks and data to the Walmart headquarters so the information is ready for the morning shift. "The robot can do those repetitive movements and allow associates to quickly restock," Ragan Dickens, Walmart spokesman, said as Roberto rolled down the potato chips aisle. Roland Berger, a global consultancy agency, reported in December 2016 that ro- bots used for in-store goods management, such as inventories and stock control, may soon allow retailers to make significant savings and release staff from mundane tasks. A 2016 study by ECR France and Sym- phony IRI Group shows retailers lose about 6.5 percent of revenue when they run out of stock and 2 percent from partial stock shortages, such as when goods are available in the stock area. Robot inventory can also help reduce unknown lost inven- tory, in particular through theft and ad- ministrative errors, according to the study. Roland Berger suggests the biggest sav- ings may be achieved in the productivity of sales staff, who currently spend between 10 percent and 30 percent of their time working on tasks such as tidying, stock control and goods reception. Crecelius said taking inventory evolved from writing lists with a Sharpie on card- board to a hand-held scanner system Walmart implemented three years ago to the robots. "When something is mundane and te- dious, if you have technology to help make it simpler, you should use it," he said. Martin Hitch, co-founder and chief business officer for Bossa Nova Robotics, said his firm is focused on improving re- tail operations. Bossa Nova started work on this robot project six years ago and formed a relationship with Walmart Inc. about four years ago. "A number of changes have happened over that four-year period in response to the business requirements of Walmart," Hitch said. "We need to make sure we are delivering everything they need when they need it." The robotics firm did some testing for Walmart in late 2014 and put its first robot in a permanent location in August 2015. Hitch said Bossa Nova is now work- ing with five retailers, but none are as far along in testing as Walmart, and none are ready to go public. Other retailers have pilot programs they are promoting. Lowe's, for example, debuted LoweBot in 2016 in San Francisco area stores. The robot finds products and helps customers with simple questions. Walmart's robot rollout to stores has been staggered and evolving, Crecelius said. Some of the 50 pilot stores have changed since the project's start and are now grouped in clusters, he said. "With the 50 stores, the robots are map- ping stores in different geographies, differ- ent scenarios and with different customer bases," Crecelius said. The Northwest Arkansas robots run once at 12:45 a.m. Monday through Friday. Other stores have robots running routes up to three times a day, he said. "The bit that still amazes me is the way the public has embraced the robot," Hitch said. "We deploy a robot in a store, and it takes almost no time for the customers to just continue shopping with the robot running up and down the aisles." That was true on a recently early Friday morning. Shoppers all but ignored Roberto as it rolled through at 1 a.m. The robots make a slight beeping noise as they go, almost a squeaking sound, so shoppers will know they're coming, Hitch said. If something is in the robots' way, it will shut off its lights used to take photo- graphs and go around the obstacle. Wells said that section will just show up as a black spot in the photos. A recent study by the Pew Research Center found that 65 percent of Americans expect robots and computers will do much of the work now done by humans over the next 50 years. Crecelius said robots are not replacing human workers, but are designed to give employees more time with customers."It's something that brings value to the custom- er and the associates," he said. Hitch noted some jobs require a human touch, such as the Walmart greeter. Research and Markets reports the retail automation market could be worth more than $18.9 billion by 2023, expanding at an annual growth rate of more than 10.9 percent. Crecelius would not say how much money Walmart is spending on its robot fleet, adding the number changes contin- uously as technology evolves. He added determining a monetary value to the pro- cess is ongoing. "We're happy with what we are seeing," he said. Christie Swanson can be reached at cswanson @nwadg.com or on Twitter @NWAChristie. NWA Democrat-Gazette/SPENCER TIREY Roberto, the Bossa Nova Robot, scans inventory on an aisle in the early morning of May 4 inside the Walmart store in Rogers as Yekaterina Gatchenko, an operator tech, watches. The California-based Bossa Nova Robotics has worked with Walmart Inc. nearly four years on the 50-store pilot project. CHRISTIE SWANSON NWA DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE Robots help Walmart take stock of the store