Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com has built a fulfilment centre that handles up to 200 000 orders a day and is operated by just four employees. The centre just outside Shanghai uses artificial intelligence to scan and inspect packages as they are being processed. Once packages are taken off trucks they are scanned and the system calculates where they should be dropped off. The packages are grouped by region, picked up by autonomous forklift trucks and taken to a truck for delivery. The company employs 17 500 people at its other facilities.

See below recent Supply Chain and Planning meeting which included a visit of the recent John Lewis warehouse in the UK.

iads Supply chain & planning meeting 2018