FIELDMICRO – An Automation, Control, And Monitoring System – Saves Farmers Time, Money
Powered by FieldBot, SmartFarm is a platform that uses smart technology that provides real-time monitoring, infrastructure automation, and satellite imagery for greater insights into your farm operation. Farmers see and hear what the FieldBot, a portable remote-control device that connects to farm equipment/hardware, sees and hears.
Inside Amazon’s Kent fulfillment center, a proving ground for the company’s coronavirus response
The last three anxious months have brought dramatic changes to the Kent warehouse as the company learned on the fly how to operate during a pandemic. Updates refined at the facility have been implemented across Amazon’s empire.
Major warehouse development planned for Metro Vancouver
A major warehouse development is planned for a large vacant industrial site just south of Riverway Golf Course in South Burnaby.
Beedie Development Group has eyed 5255 North Fraser Way — a 14.9-acre property at the northwest corner of the intersection of North Fraser Way and Glenlyon Parkway — into a two-building complex.
Woolworths rolling-out two state-of-the-art facilities in Australia
Woolworths Group and Qube have announced plans to invest in an automated Regional Distribution Centre and a semi-automated National Distribution Centre in New South Wales. The total investment in the facilities from both companies will reach approximately $1.2 billion.
How automation is growing amid coronavirus outbreak and beyond
Autonomous cars, drones delivering packages and robots filling prescriptions are becoming familiar sights, so today we look at where automation might impact businesses the most.
Even before the global pandemic, waiting in line to get prescriptions filled in a pharmacy was a pain. Enter NowRx, a company that started in the Bay Area and expanded to Orange County with sights on extending its reach to other regions of the state and Arizona.
The company claims it has 99% of the pharmaceuticals typically found at brick-and-mortar pharmacies (and online) and can deliver medication to you on the day or sometimes hours after your doctor submits a prescription.
Waitrose.com, fast tracking new fulfilment centre
Waitrose has announced it will build a third distribution centre to rapidly scale up its online presence, while partner Ocado has extended a partnership with a UK robotics company.
Amazon to build mammoth 2.1 M SF first robotic warehouse in Australia
Online retailer Amazon will build a mammoth 200,000 square metre robotic fulfilment centre in Sydney's west in a move which is set to give the e-commerce giant an even stronger foothold in the Australian retail market.
Announced on Tuesday, Amazon will build the giant automated warehouse at the Oakdale West industrial estate in western Sydney, close to the future location of the western Sydney international airport. The centre is expected to create around 1500 warehouse jobs, along with another 700 during construction.
British robotics firm signs seven-year deal with Ocado
Ocado has extended a tie-up with a British technology company to manufacture more of its robots as it banks on the boom in online grocery shopping.
The “multi-million” pound investment in Tharsus, based in Blyth, Northumberland, means Ocado can export more of its technology swiftly to other countries.
The contract will create and safeguard a combined 100 jobs in the North East and more widely in the UK, while Tharsus’ sister company Universal Wolf is also recruiting 23 new roles immediately, partly as a result of this contract.
Tharsus was established in 1964 and had just 22 people when CEO Brian Palmer first joined the business in the late 1990s.
Since then it has evolved into a leader in UK robotics, delivering innovative technology solutions to companies such as DHL, Automata and Small Robot Co, employing almost 280 people across three sites in Blyth.
Lululemon Acquires At-Home Fitness Brand Mirror for $500 Million
Lululemon today announced plans to acquire home exercise startup Mirror for $500 million. The fitness apparel company noted its plans by way of a press release, noting that it hopes to close the sale by the end of the second fiscal quarter of this year.
The deal comes at a time when home workout solutions are in high demand. The COVID-19 pandemic has severely limited workout options for many across the world, and the continued closure of gyms has prolonged the problem. Even when they begin to reopen in different locales, it seems many will be wary of returning to a potentially high-risk enclosed space, so long as the virus continues to spread.
The remarkable evolution of shopping luxury fashion online
This week, Net-a-Porter celebrates its 20th birthday, a milestone moment for a brand that completely transformed the luxury retail landscape when it first launched two decades ago. The revolutionary idea – of selling high-end fashion on the internet – might have been met with skepticism in the year 2000, but led the way for the fashion industry to alter itself dramatically once brands and consumers saw the advantages of the concept.
Swiss grocery giant, Migros, expands automated facility powered by Witron
Migros-Verteilbetrieb Neuendorf AG, one of Switzerland’s largest logistics operators, is expanding and modernising its existing logistics centre in Neuendorf, Switzerland, in partnership with WITRON Logistik + Informatik, a German company specialising in logistics automation.
33% of Supply Chain Leaders Moved Out of China by 2023-Gartner Survey
A Gartner, Inc. survey of 260 global supply chain leaders in February and March 2020 found that 33% had moved sourcing and manufacturing activities out of China or plan to do so in the next two to three years. Survey results show that the COVID-19 pandemic is only one of several disruptions that have put global supply chains under pressure.
FreshDirect kicks off two-hour grocery delivery
Dubbed FreshDirect Express, the service enables customers in Manhattan, Brooklyn and sections of Queens to order from a curated selection of products and have them delivered to their door within two hours. Time slots are offered in 60-minute windows.
TJX e-commerce sales in North America were basically zero
TJX, which owns TJ Maxx, Marshalls, HomeGoods and a few other nameplates and is unquestionably the leader in the off-price channel, is telling the people who own and buy its stock that it doesn’t need a robust online business to continue to be successful.
Own a Grocery-Anchored Strip Center? You May Want to Consider This
Grocery stores have been a bright spot for strip mall REITs during the COVID-19 pandemic. BTIG consultants say there’s one step REITs can take to help their grocers further cement their status as anchors and to smooth the transition to online delivery.
US Mall Owners Open Micro-Fulfillment Hubs For E-Commerce Orders
Fillogic has announced plans to open tech-enabled micro-distribution hubs by July 1 at five major retail properties, four of which are in New Jersey and one is in Connecticut. The mall owners are Brookfield Properties, Macerich, and Taubman and the micro distribution centers will be set up in Deptford Mall, Paramus Park, Stamford Town Center and two other regional properties. By the end of 2020, such hubs will have been set up at 10 locations in the tri-state area, according to Fillogic.
Port City Logistics Announces Major Expansion in Port Wentworth; $80 Million Investment
Eric Howell, Chief Executive Officer of Port City Logistics said, “Being a few hundred yards from the GPA Garden City Terminal gates makes this an ideal property to serve Savannah and the Southeast. The supply chain landscape, especially e-commerce, is changing faster than ever, and this 1.1 million square foot facility gives us the agility to service any need. Our company’s purpose is to ‘Pursue Excellence’ in everything that we do, and this new distribution center takes us another step toward achieving that goal.”
Amazon Grows to 333 Million SF Footprint Via New Deal
As demand for its services grows, Amazon has dramatically expanded the footprint of its facilities all over the globe. When compared to the 288 million square feet of space that the retailer used to operate its massive business in 2018, at the end of the fiscal year 2019, Amazon reported that this had grown by 16% to 333 million square feet. The bulk of this space is leased, as Amazon owns roughly 15 million square feet of this, and a big chunk of the total footage belongs to the company's storage facilities and fulfillment centers.
‘Canada Is Awesome,’ Shopify CEO Tells Workers Barred From U.S.
Shopify Inc. Chief Executive Officer Tobias Lutke is touting Canada as a relocation option after President Donald Trump temporarily suspended several employment-based visas.