Ocado pioneered in the United Kingdom where more than 1,000 engineers have worked to develop the technology that is now being picked up by major supermarket chains such as Kroger in the United States and Groupe Casino in France.
The COVID-10 pandemic has prompted a huge increase in internet grocery shopping, but most of the orders are filled by supermarket employees picking items off store shelves or in back-of-the-store warehouses.
Ocado built a huge warehouse and a multi-tiered network of containers with the many different items usually found in a supermarket.
Boxes that gather an order travel on the top level, stopping to lower a claw to pick the desired items from the containers.
These boxes’ movements are controlled and co-ordinated by the sophisticated electronics and computers that govern the entire warehouse. Things move so fast that orders are assembled in minutes to be loaded into trucks that deliver to customers’ homes.
Ocado’s business is outlined in a feature article in the current issue of Fortune magazine.
