THE FUTURE OF

SMART LOGISTICS
AUTOMATION
Introduction
Geek+ is implementing a new type of
automation in warehouses around the world

Geek+ is one of the world’s fastest growing logistics automation

companies. Its technology offering, which is based around a core
product range of four smart robotic systems – picking, moving,
forklift and sorting robots; all underpinned by a highly intelligent
AI-enabled software platform – offers a scalable alternative
to traditional fixed automation machinery for eCommerce,
industrial and manufacturing customers to invest in. Perhaps one
of the most notable features of the Geek+ solution is its extreme
scalability – both within a single fulfilment center or across a
network of facilities – which can move in lockstep with business
needs to meet rapid customer growth, or to meet sudden peaks
and troughs caused by seasonal trends or unexpected crises.

Ash Sharma Kai Liu

Senior Research Director of Co-founder, VP Picking &
Interact Analysis – a global Smart Warehouse, at smart
market intelligence company logistics provider Geek+
specializing in supply chain
automation

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 Who is Decathlon?
Decathlon is one of the world’s largest retailers of sporting goods.
The company is present in 57 countries and has 1,647 stores
globally. Warehousing – both eCommerce warehouses that
deliver direct to the consumer, and retail warehouses that keep
their high street stores supplied – is a vital part of their business.
Decathlon’s retail warehouses need to run highly efficiently
because the company operates with individual stores holding no
inventory at all – stores receive daily deliveries and 100% of what
they receive needs to go out on shelves.

Why did Decathlon

need robots?
Decathlon’s recent growth has been rapid. To continue to
grow and compete globally in the highly demanding retail and
eCommerce sector, Decathlon needs to ensure its warehouses
are underpinned by an automation solution that delivers in terms
of cost, reliability, efficiency, flexibility and – crucially – scalability.

Decathlon began its cooperation with Geek+ in China – where

a highly competitive labor market makes hiring and retaining
team members one of the biggest challenges for many local
businesses. It was the challenge of finding enough teammates
that initially made Decathlon decide to initiate a search for a
radical new automation solution.

The key search criteria was scalability: Decathlon needed an

automation partner and solution that could cope with the
rapid underlying growth in their business, but that also had the
flexibility to manage the unpredictable demand-cycle faced by
modern retailers; while adapting to a punishing pace of change
management. The ideal scenario would be to select the right
partner in China, perfect the solution at a number of sites, and
then scale it up on a global basis.

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 The challenges retailers face
Automation is creeping into almost every sector imaginable.
Whilst manufacturing has relied on robotics and automation
for decades, logistics – up until now – has remained reliant on
a human workforce. This is all likely to change. A number of
drivers have aligned to create the perfect environment for robot
adoption in warehouses.

Challenges for Impact

Retailers

Proliferation of Retailers need to be able to deliver more

eCommerce products direct to consumers

Expectation of faster Two-day, next-day and even same-

& cheaper delivery day delivery options have become
a consumer expectation. It can be a
competitive advantage for retailers –
but it comes at a cost

Labor A shortage of available labor to manage

this growing demand in warehouses

At the same time labor costs are

increasing and there is an on-going
desire to transition employees away
from manual and strenuous tasks

Changing buying Consumers buying multiple variations

habits & higher of products, and return rates as high as
returns 70%, put massive strain on supply chains

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The results Geek+ delivered
Technology from Geek+ delivered impressive results for
Decathlon, including a tripling of the average productivity of
warehouse teammates, as well as increasing inventory capacity
by 40%. The ‘goods-to-person’ solution, using P800 robots from
Geek+, introduced a flexibility that was simply not available to
Decathlon from other, more traditional, automation set-ups.
According to Bruno Thellier, Transformation Leader at Decathlon:
“It’s not so much that Geek+ solved a specific existing problem,
but more that they gave us totally new capabilities, offering us
efficiencies and improvements that were simply not on the table
before we worked with them.”

The scalability of the Geek+ solution also matched the investment

strategy of Decathlon. In the past, Decathlon was able to invest
in complex, fixed automation solutions with an RoI of five or ten
years. But in today’s volatile business environment, this is not
possible. Retailers can no longer predict what the market will be
like in five years, let alone ten years; so, solutions that scale up
in line and in time with business growth have become the only
option. Goods-to-person fulfilment, like the Geek+ solution, can
provide an RoI of 3 years.

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 Intensification – from
eCommerce to retail
The results of the initial Decathlon project were impressive, and
so the Geek+/ Decathlon cooperation was rapidly intensified.

Decathlon/Geek+ China scale up:

JUNE
2018 500m2 proof of concept with 12 P800 Geek+ robots

NOVEMBER Geek+ assists Decathlon eCommerce with a rapid scale up for the
2018 11/11 shopping festival, one of the world’s largest 24hr shopping events

MAY
The eCommerce project is expanded to 3,500m2 and 70+ robots
2019
JULY The project scales out to Decathlon’s retail operation with a
Geek+ customization project. Phase one of the Shanghai
2019 retail warehouse project initially goes live with 70+ robots

FEB Shanghai retail phase two goes live with 111 robots.
2020 Remote implementation enables successful roll-out during COVID-19

MARCH Beijing Decathlon retail project goes live with 70+ robots.
2020 Again, remote implementation is required due to COVID-19

APRIL
Dongguan retail project goes live with 70+ robots
2020

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Working through COVID-19
Ash Sharma, Senior Research Director, Interact Analysis

One interesting element of the Geek+/ Decathlon partnership

is how they deployed the automation solution through the
coronavirus crisis. There is no doubt that the crisis hit Decathlon
hard – during the height of the virus in China all its stores were
closed. And yet, throughout, the company was able to keep many
warehouses operating. During this challenging time, Decathlon
actually pushed ahead with its goods-to-person roll-out, with
remote support from Geek+. Decathlon was able to deploy a full
automation solution in a Shanghai warehouse at the peak of the
virus in China in just two weeks.

Another example was in Beijing, where Geek+ was able to Remote working techniques
implement a system in a 5,000 sqm warehouse with 72 robots. allowed implementation of
This was done even though the project leader was in Shanghai, the Geek+ solution in various
and many other staff were working remotely too. The company warehouses at the height of
made strong use of collaborative applications, such as using the pandemic
Zoom for communications, and WeChat for Business for online
training. This was something they had never done before, but it
worked extremely smoothly.

Additionally, the newly implemented Geek+ solutions that had

come onstream before the virus hit made a big difference to
Decathlon’s ability to manage the huge peak in eCommerce Decathlon was able
orders that hit when lockdown happened. The sudden lack of
warehouse staff was mitigated by the fact that the Geek+ solution
to transfer robots
had tripled employee productivity. from their retail to
Additionally, the extreme flexibility of Geek+ robots was a their eCommerce
major benefit during the epidemic. COVID-19 caused an order warehouses almost
explosion at Decathlon’s eCommerce warehouses. To deal with
this at a time of labor shortages, Decathlon was able to transfer overnight during the
robots from their retail to their eCommerce warehouses almost COVID-19 crisis.
overnight. This was possible because the AI-enabled mobile
robot solution is highly portable, and very easy to reprogram. It Ash Sharma
would have been out of the question if Geek+ had been using Senior Research Director,
traditional, conveyor-based, fixed automation solutions. Interact Analysis

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 Part 1: The Geek+ difference
Kai Liu, Co-founder, VP Picking & Smart Warehouse, Geek+

How the Geek+ solution works

The Geek+ picking solution is based on the principle of
eliminating the need for teammates to walk vast distances
around the warehouse. In a traditional warehouse, employees
spend up to 70% of their time walking to find goods. Whereas,
in a Geek+ enabled warehouse, sorting staff stay at stationary
picking stations, while robots bring the goods to them. The result
is a new generation of automated warehouses which massively
increases the productivity and throughput possible.
A Decathlon teammate
at a picking station The Geek+ system consists of P800 picking robots that work in
conjunction with a bespoke shelving system, powered by an AI-
enabled software system. The robots pick up entire shelving racks
and carry them to warehouse pickers who remain at individual
picking stations and are guided through the picking process by
rack-mounted Pick-to-Light displays.

Proprietary AI algorithms mean that the system is highly

intelligent; indeed, the AI-enabled software offering is at the core
of the value of the Geek+ solution, enabling the smartest possible
workflow in the warehouse. The software is able to analyze all
orders, and automatically optimize warehouse storage; managing
An AI-enabled how and where products are stored in warehouses, and guiding
software solution robots to follow optimal journey routes.

is at the core of Teammates then assign items manually to the correct orders.
The process also works in reverse, managed by a different
the Geek+ category of putting staff on dedicated putting stations from
offering. where they assign required goods to shelving racks, which are
then returned to the storage areas by robots. The robots require
Kai Liu minimal human intervention and are able to autonomously
Co-founder, charge themselves to ensure they can keep running 24/7.
VP Picking & Smart
Warehouse, Geek+

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The Geek+ solution in action

Applying RFID – a bespoke

solution for Decathlon
Kai Liu, Co-founder, VP Picking & Smart Warehouse, Geek+

Decathlon is a pioneer at using RFID technology in the retail

industry, and Geek+ engineers have worked closely with the
company to develop an RFID solution that operates in tandem
with the standard picking solution to improve the picking
process. Previously, every time a rack arrived at a workstation;
bar codes needed to be scanned manually to confirm the
correct items had been selected. RFID allowed this to be done
automatically, reducing the per-item sorting time from 12
seconds to 3 seconds on average. The technology also allowed
Decathlon to improve their inventory collection system. Robots RFID solution
carry the shelves to dedicated RFID inventory stations which scan
all products and compare them with the inventory logged on
the warehouse management system’s software, automatically
detecting any errors.

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 The benefits of Geek+
The benefits of the solution to Decathlon were very quickly evident.

Storage capacity up 40%

Storage space within existing warehouses increased by an
average of 40% due to the ability to stack the robot-compatible
shelving racks very densely. At the retail store warehouse in
Shanghai, storage capacity went up from 500,000 items to

40%
700,000 items. At the Shanghai eCommerce project, storage
increased from 300,000 to 500,000 items.

Warehouse teammate productivity more than tripled

Meanwhile, teammate productivity was more than tripled on
average. This was safely achieved by using Geek+ technology

3
to reduce the walking time required of each teammate. A side

x
benefit was that this radically improved the working environment
for all employees. In the same Shanghai examples, the retail
warehouse average picks per employee increased from 125 to an
average of 450 per hour, boosting throughput from 75,000 to
100,000 items per day. At the eCommerce warehouse, average
picks per employee per hour went from 95 to 285 – pushing daily
throughput from 22,500 to 35,000 items on average.
Redeployed

Huge decrease in labor added value

The shortage of potential employees in China’s highly
competitive labor market had been a primary initial reason for
Decathlon looking for new automation solutions, and the Geek+
solution led to a huge reduction in required labor at Decathlon’s
Chinese warehouses. In the Shanghai eCommerce operation,
teammates went from 35 to 17, while at the retail operation
numbers dropped four-fold – from 100-24.

This project was not about firing people. Decathlon’s growth

was heavily constrained by lack of teammates. Now they can
redeploy large parts of their workforce to help them manage
their overall growth. Kai Liu Co-founder, VP Picking & Smart Warehouse, Geek+

Scalability
The solution requires almost no traditional fixed infrastructure
such as conveyors. And the robots have no need of fixed
guidance systems on warehouse floors (other than simple QR
code stickers). It is this that makes the solution so easily scalable,
with robots and shelving racks deliverable to almost any location
at short notice; and Geek+ engineers able to quickly implement
solutions – remotely if necessary.

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Part 2: Deployment
Ash Sharma, Senior Research Director, Interact Analysis The fact that with
The proof of concept project was established at an eCommerce the proof of concept
facility in Shanghai, where Decathlon was able to set up a 700 project it took us
sqm project employing 15 Geek+ robots and two workstations.
Decathlon allocated one project leader and one IT developer. two months to go
Geek+ allocated a small team and, in a single month, the project from having never
was ready to go. After one more month, Decathlon had the
working experience and data they needed to make the decision
worked with Geek+
to work with Geek+ going forward. before, to having an
established project
and enough data
Deployment: setting up to make a decision
a retail project in Taipei City about whether to
work with Geek+ in
One of Decathlon’s early retail projects was set up in Taipei, to
supply all Decathlon’s retail stores in the city. Here again, a proof future was, for me,
of concept project was completed, this time a 1,500 sqm project highly impressive.
with 17 robots and four workstations. Implementation was more
complex because the Decathlon team could not be on site – with Bruno Thellier
members of the IT team working from France, the project leader Transformation Leader
working from Shanghai, and another key team member working at Decathlon
from Beijing. Even so, total set up time from the decision to do
the project to the completion of the assessment and the decision
to roll it out more widely was just three months. This included
the time needed to deliver the Geek+ robots to Taipei. Once the
robots were installed, it took only a single day of tests to make
the project run smoothly, so that Decathlon could then start to
run the system and collect the data they needed to make their
decision.

Deployment: rapid transfer

times
Recently, Decathlon made a major change in its logistics park in
Shanghai: enlarging its automated eCommerce space from 3,300
sqm to 5,500 sqm – taking the total number of Geek+ robots in
operation on the site to 71. Decathlon reported that this was an
extremely quick transfer by ordinary standards – taking a total of
three weeks from conception to getting it up and operational.
The warehouse teams were running the new system with
complete efficiency within 24 hrs.

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geek+
deployment
in progress

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The KPIs
Forward projections & scalability:

Decathlon has a strategy of not over-investing in automation We wanted to play

solutions. While the company has anticipations of big increases in
sales volumes in future, the uncertain business and international the game sensibly,
climate makes it impossible to make forward projections with any and not over invest.
confidence. Thellier says, “We wanted to play the game sensibly,
and not over invest. With Geek+ robots, we don’t need to forecast
With Geek+ robots, we
a year in advance. We can make huge increases to automation don’t need to forecast
capacity within just a couple of months – based either on short
a year in advance.
term projections or in response to sudden increases in demand.”
We can make
huge increases to
Even more investment flexibility is provided by the ability
to lease robots from Geek+ for temporary periods. This is
automation capacity
particularly useful for big eCommerce events – or other within just a
temporary demand peaks. Geek+ maintains a fleet of leasable couple of months.
robots that Decathlon can call on only for the time it needs
them. Bruno Thellier
Transformation Leader
The human factor: Humans were possibly the most important at Decathlon
KPI for Decathlon. They wanted to know how Geek+ could help
them with their labor shortage problem. A tripling of labor
productivity, in many cases even more than tripling – for example,
at the Shanghai retail warehouse, average picks per teammate
increased from 125 to 450 per hour – significantly exceeded
Decathlon’s expectations. At Decathlon, skills development,
well-being and security for all teammates, are considered to be
equally as important as productivity. Such strong productivity
gains meant that teammates could transfer their time to working
on higher value-added tasks.

Shrinkage: In retail, shrinkage is when actual inventory levels

are lower than the levels that were recorded by accounting. It is
almost always an indication of error or of theft. With the Geek+
solution, the shrinkage rate has been massively reduced, and
accuracy has reached 99.99%. Storage
capacity

+40%
Storage capacity: Improving storage capacity was not a key
criterion that Geek+ was being judged on – warehouse capacity is
simply something Decathlon monitor so that they can anticipate
when to build new capacity. Nevertheless, Decathlon found that
every warehouse they fitted out with Geek+ robots had effectively
increased in size by 40% overnight due to the improved density
of shelving racks – significantly delaying the need for future
investment in new storage capacity.

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Part 3: future scale-out
Kai Liu, Co-founder, VP Picking & Smart Warehouse, Geek+

At a corporate planning event toward the end of 2019, Decathlon’s

strategy teams widely discussed the growing difficulties of
predicting future demand. Thellier says, “looking back at those
meetings now, in light of Coronavirus, the arguments about
future uncertainty are even more pertinent than we realized
at the time. I think companies have an ever-growing need for
scalable systems to allow them to manage ups and downs in
their businesses. This is a particularly marked trend in the retail In today’s retail
sector – and it will only continue. In today’s retail environment,
the only certainty is uncertainty – and the Geek+ solution helps
environment, the
us manage uncertainty really well.” Ultimately, Decathlon cannot only certainty is
invest now in large, fixed automation solutions that will not pay
uncertainty – and
off for five years – it is simply too big a risk. Mobile robots are the
only solution that fit their strategy. the Geek+ solution
For Decathlon, with their global business model - which currently helps us manage
sees 1,647 stores and associated eCommerce operations located uncertainty really
across 57 countries - scalability at the international level was also
really important. The extreme simplicity and portability of Geek+
well.
robots mean that automation solutions can be shipped around Bruno Thellier
the world with ease and arrive in any country, in any warehouse, Transformation Leader
and be in action in a few short weeks. at Decathlon

Decathlon: a global presence

57
COUNTRIES

1,647
STORES

1,647 stores and Each store is supported Decathlon plans to scale

associated eCommerce and supplemented by out the Geek+ automation
operations located retail and eCommerce solution to many of its
across 57 countries warehouses global locations

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 The potential number of customers/warehouses with similar
problems that could be solved by Geek+-type solutions

There are close to 100,000 distribution and fulfilment centers

around the world. Today fewer than 5% of those are fully
automated. Amazon aside, goods-to-person robotics have only
been implemented in a few hundred warehouses so far, but we
expect that to change massively in the next five years and the
potential is huge.

Number of
warehouses using Installed base of
goods-to-person goods-to-person
robots robots

2,500 500,000
450,000
2,000 400,000
350,000
1,500 300,000
250,000
1,000 200,000
150,000
500 100,000
50,000

2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023

Number of warehouses using goods-to-person robots

Installed base of goods-to-person robots

Source: Interact Analysis

© Interact Analysis

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The future of eCommerce
Ash Sharma, Senior Research Director, Interact Analysis

Interact Analysis predicts that Coronavirus will have significant

and long-running impacts on the future of eCommerce. Our
data showed that eCommerce got a major short-term boost
almost everywhere that went into lockdown. But our prediction
goes beyond this to argue that many people will switch to online
shopping in the crisis, and then stick with it forever. Ten years
ago, it was widely predicted that 40% of the UK’s grocery market
would be online by 2025. Last year, this number was reduced to
7.7% by 2024. But now it looks as though the original prediction
will come true, or even be exceeded – helped along by COVID-19.

Retailers will face multiple challenges – such as improving

efficiency of online marketing and sales practices, as well as
offering new products – in particular items purchased mainly by
the elderly – who have traditionally been ignored by online sellers.
Elderly people are very relevant in this story as they represent a
large demographic who have not traditionally used eCommerce
at all. They are now converting in droves, and it is unlikely they
will switch back when this is over. Retailers may also need to
look at how to improve processes so that younger people can
order goods for very elderly relatives and have them successfully
delivered. As retailers adapt to this new world, they will rely
heavily on warehouse automation vendors to help them prepare.

2019 2024 2019 2024

91,000 120,000 6 million 8 million

Number of warehouses globally Number of manual employees required

2019 2024 2019 2024

$1.9Tr $3.1Tr 5% 9%
Ecommerce sales % of warehouses that are automated

Source: Interact Analysis

© Interact Analysis

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 Our research shows that high levels of automation will be vital for
successful eCommerce warehousing operations. There are three
key drivers for warehouse automation. The first is increasingly
complex networks of distribution channels, which see products
moved around the country, often travelling between multiple
warehouses of sizes that would have been unheard of just a
few short years ago, before they even reach the consumer.
Managing such distribution channels manually is complex.
Smart algorithms can increasingly manage these networks far
more efficiently than people. The second driver is the highly
competitive nature of eCommerce. Changing consumer
demands are forcing eCommerce companies to deliver to ever
more exacting time slots, while also cutting costs. The extreme
logistical challenges this presents (locating an individual product
Interact Analysis predicts that in a vast warehouse at a specific time, packaging it correctly
eCommerce sales globally will and loading it on the correct truck) are uniquely suited to
increase from $1.9Tr in 2019 to management by AI-enabled software.
$3.1Tr by 2024. Elderly people The third and final driver is labor shortages. If complex
are very relevant in this story warehouses are not automated, they are highly labor intensive.
And the main markets for warehouse automation in Europe,
North America and China have extremely tight labor markets.
Finding employees willing to take on warehouse jobs is both
increasingly difficult and increasingly expensive. Additionally, the
uncertainty of eCommerce demand, with its sudden seasonal
spikes mean that the requirements for additional labor fluctuate
wildly in a way that is not conducive to hiring people. Warehouse
automation providers are finding that the best way to retain labor
is to automate the repetitive elements of it, using new technology
to make a smaller labor force both happier with their jobs
and more productive. As a side benefit, increased productivity
indirectly leads to wage increases for the employees concerned,
meaning that when highly automated warehouse operations do
need to find additional teammates, they are easier to attract.

To continue the
conversation about the
future of smart logistics
automation, contact

Marie Peterson - Marketing

and Communications
Director at Geek+:
[email protected]

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