a major third-party logistics provider operating a pet food fulfillment area in a forty-thousand-square-foot pick zone
How a Pet Food DC Raised Pick Rates from 65 to 98 Units per Hour
A major 3PL deployed twelve cart-towing AMRs in a pet food pick zone and reported rates rising from about 65 to 98 units per hour with overtime down about 75%.
- 98 UPH
- After rate
- 65 UPH
- Before
- 50%
- Gain
- 12 AMRs
- Fleet
Based on a documented real-world deployment. Figures are from public reporting; the organization is not named.
Heavy carts slowed pet food picking
A major third-party logistics provider operating a pet food fulfillment area in a forty-thousand-square-foot pick zone moved cartons that could weigh up to two hundred pounds through manual cart builds.
Teammates spent effort pushing carts instead of picking, packing, and hitting order fulfillment targets. Overtime climbed when volume spiked.
- Heavy cartons on manual carts
- Travel time between pick faces
- Rising overtime on peak weeks
- Accuracy audits on every pick
Cart-towing AMRs across the pick area
The site integrated twelve autonomous mobile robots designed to attach and move carts so associates could stay at pick stations while robots handled travel.
The fleet covered a forty-thousand-square-foot picking zone focused on pet food SKUs. Training stayed short so teammates could shift from cart pushing to pick and pack work.
- Map pick paths and cart handoff points
- Deploy AMRs with cart interfaces
- Redirect labor from travel to picking
- Use system checks to reduce full audits
Published rates and overtime
Operations leadership reported pick productivity rising about fifty percent, with units per hour moving from about sixty-five to ninety-eight.
Overtime fell about seventy-five percent according to the public case summary. The site also reduced full pick audits to about ten percent of orders because the system verified items multiple times during picking.
What US 3PL and CPG sites can take from this pattern
This story is a documented example, not a Service Robot Co. customer claim. It still shows why US logistics operators compare cart-towing AMRs when heavy cases dominate travel time.
Service Robot Co. selects OEM-neutral warehouse AMRs, then finances, deploys, integrates, trains, and services units through a nationwide engineer network. A free site assessment maps cart weights, aisle widths, and phased go-live before peak season.