U-Freight invests in smart warehouse tech in Hong Kong

U-Freight Logistics has developed one of its five Hong Kong facilities into a smart warehouse to reduce picking costs and speed up operations to meet growing demand.

The forwarder’s 21,000 sq ft eCommerce fulfilment centre (EFC) in Kwai Chung has been equipped with an automatic guided vehicle (AGV) and Intelligent Racking system, and associated operating software.

For inbound consignments, the system will analyse the weight and dimensions of each Stock-Keeping Unit (SKU) in order to bring the most suitable storage rack to the EFC operations staff, enhancing the utilisation of storage capacity and shortening processing time.

This also shortens the time period to the outbound order processing stage.

“When there are no operations staff at the EFC, the non-sleeping AGVs still execute instructions and pre-arrange the required goods to be ready for pick/pack when the operations staff return to work,” U-Freight said.

“The deployment of autonomous mobile robots in warehouses around the globe is transforming the future of the e-commerce sector and its ability to meet rising business and consumer demand,” said U-Freight chief executive Simon Wong.

“The latest development is part of U-Freight’s ongoing investment to meet the ever-increasing challenges of providing logistics services to this rapidly expanding sector of global trade.

“In our EFCs, picking operations account for an increasing proportion of costs, accounting for more than 50% of warehouse operation costs.

“Traditional warehouses mostly adopt the ‘person-to-goods’ selection mode, which can mean high labour cost and low selection efficiency.

“By implementing an automatic guided vehicle (AGV) and intelligent racking system, we will be adopting the ‘goods-to-person’ picking mode, and believe this will improve production efficiency.”