Global health and wellness brand GNC was facing increasing congestion inside
its Indianapolis, Ind. distribution center. With 15,000-28,000 pieces of
product arriving daily, the tough manual task of depalletizing—which fell to
six to eight employees—was creating inconsistency and clogging flow within the
facility.
Previously held back by the “unknown,” GNC began to see the benefit that an
automated system could provide in streamlining operations. AWL—FANUC
Authorized System Integrator—partnered with GNC to design and implement two
robotic depalletizers with FANUC R-2000 industrial robots to take over
depalletization and free up employees for more meaningful work inside the
distribution center.
An internal contest was held and the robots were named: Astro is stationed on
Side A of the facility, while Blitz lives on Side B. Each day, employees call
out to Astro or Blitz to indicate which area they need more product from. But
more important than robot names is the trust that’s been earned by GNC with
its employees, who understand the many benefits provided by allowing
automation to take over the manually labor-intensive work of depalletizing.
Resulting in a smoother, more predictable product flow and better use of
skilled labor inside the facility.