Associates who used to manually stack cases may work in a high-tech facility as an automation equipment operator. Credit: Walmart.

Walmart’s executive vice-president of supply chain operations Dave Guggina has provided details on the future of the retailer’s grocery network.

Walmart continues to invest in data, increasingly intelligent software and automation across its ambient and fulfilment networks to create a more connected supply chain.

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Guggina believes that the grocery transformation can be broken down into three distinct approaches. 

New builds

Walmart is building five brand-new high-tech perishable distribution centres (DCs). The first high-tech DC in Shafter, California has been operational since 2021. The second, located in Lancaster, Texas, is ramping up operations and will be followed by others in Wellford, South Carolina, in Belvidere, Illinois and in Pilesgrove, New Jersey.

Collectively, these facilities will bring 2,000 new jobs into local communities and Walmart’s supply chain network.

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Expansions  

Walmart is expanding four traditional perishable distribution centres by adding more than 500,000ft² of automation per site to increase fresh product capacity.

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The chosen facilities are Mankato in Minnesota, Mebane in North Carolina, Garrett in Indiana and Shelbyville in Tennessee. 

Retrofits

Florida’s perishable distribution centre in Winter Haven will also be upgraded with new technology.

Walmart’s goal is to learn more about the feasibility and requirements of retrofitting an existing grocery building with automation technology.

The retailer is also equipping its perishable distribution centres with technology to double the number of cases and process more than twice the volume of a traditional centre.

The technology inspects cases from farmers and suppliers for quality before they are de-palletised. The cases are then stored in an 80ft high automated storage system that operates in a temperature-controlled environment.

When it’s time to build a store order, the system retrieves the cases from storage to begin building store-ready pallets. These are built by department, making them easier to unload at the store.

These intelligently layered pallets – with more fragile items such as eggs and fruit towards the top – are then wrapped and loaded onto a truck for shipping.

Guggina states that these upgrades will help Walmart’s store associates in gaining promotions and higher pay.