Apparel chain Gap rushes in robots to warehouses

US apparel chain Gap Inc is speeding up its rollout of warehouse robots for assembling online orders so it can limit human contact during the coronavirus pandemic.

Gap reached a deal early this year to more than triple the number of itempicking robots it uses to 106 by the fall. Then the pandemic struck North America, forcing the company to close all its stores in the region, including those of Banana Republic, Old Navy and other brands. Meanwhile, its warehouses faced more web orders and fewer staff to fulfil them because of social distancing rules Gap had put in place.

"We could not get as many people in our distribution centres safely," said Kevin Kuntz, Gap's senior vice president of global logistics fulfilment. So he called up Kindred AI, the vendor that sells the machines, to ask: "Can you get them here earlier?"

Sourcing parts in time for the eight-foot-tall robotic stations was not simple or cheap, said Kindred's chief operating officer Marin Tchakarov. But the venture-backed startup was able to deploy 10 of them to Gap's warehouse near Nashville, Tennessee and 20 near Columbus, Ohio, with plans to finish the rollout to four of Gap's five US facilities by July, months ahead of schedule, he said.

Each machine handles work typically performed by four people, Kuntz said. Neither the deal to triple the number of robots nor the expedited installations has been previously reported.

The news illustrates how the pandemic may speed up automation in the retail industry. Companies including Gap and

Amazon.com Inc have long used such systems for a range of tasks, like moving items across warehouse floors. Various new technologies are capable of supplanting some cashier, box packing and item picking roles that employ millions of US workers, and the pandemic is giving vendors a chance to make their case.

The firm RightHand Robotics, for instance, has helped its customer Walmart Inc manage more online orders through greater use of its picking machines that had been deployed at several of the chain's facilities.

Vince Martinelli, RightHand's head of product and marketing, declined comment on the deployment but said as a general matter, "If you're going to have limited people in the building, the last thing you want them to do is a simple task that can be automated."

Amazon is also relying more in the pandemic on automation for sorting items that warehouse workers have unpacked.