a Danish distributor of electrical motors and industrial parts with a large warehouse
How a Motor Distributor Cut Daily Walking Distance by Automating 6+ Kilometers of Indoor Transport
A documented parts distributor automated 6+ km of daily warehouse walks with an AMR on an 80-meter loop. See the safety and labor pattern US DCs can copy.
- 6+ km
- Daily moves
- 80 m
- Per trip
- 30-40
- Trips/day
- 10
- Cart fleet
Based on a documented real-world deployment. Figures are from public reporting; the organization is not named.
Parts that never stopped moving
A Danish distributor of electrical motors and industrial parts ran a large warehouse where pickers repeatedly carried goods from storage to the shipping area. Each leg was only about 80 meters, but teams made that trip dozens of times every day.
Heavy motors made the walks tiring and raised injury risk. Leadership wanted to automate the point-to-point loop without rebuilding the entire building.
- Short but frequent 80-meter legs
- 30 to 40 repeat trips daily
- Heavy parts stressing staff
Cart train behind one AMR
The team deployed a mobile robot that pulls up to ten carts fitted for Euro pallets. Workers load carts in the warehouse, then the robot autonomously hauls the train to the shipment zone.
Integrators mapped the roughly 80-meter route and trained staff to hand off loaded carts. The robot became the steady link between picking and outbound packing.
- Map the warehouse-to-ship lane
- Load Euro-pallet carts at pick locations
- Let the AMR haul the cart train autonomously
- Keep workers on picking and QA tasks
Kilometers of walking removed
Published case material states that multiplying 30 to 40 daily trips across the 80-meter distance adds up to more than six kilometers of transport each day. Automating that loop freed colleagues to focus on order fulfillment instead of walking.
Staff reported enthusiasm for the system and cited a safer environment when heavy parts ride on carts instead of repeated manual carries. Reliability of the robot was highlighted as a operational win.
Pattern for US distributors
Service Robot Co. did not run this Danish site. US motor, electrical, and MRO distributors often see the same micro-routes that look short on paper but stack into kilometers per shift.
A vendor-neutral integrator can pilot one AMR lane on rental or lease, measure trips eliminated, and service the fleet nationwide. Start with the highest-frequency 50 to 100 meter legs before you expand.