IKEA to automate IKEA Tokyo-Bay warehouse from November 2022 for the first time in Japan
IKEA, whose vision is to create a better everyday life for the many people, announced that on Thursday, November 24th, 2022, the IKEA Tokyo-Bay warehouse will become the first IKEA store in Japan to be automated.
IKEA is committed to creating a better everyday life for the many people and is con-stantly working on a variety of initiatives. In Japan, in addition to nine IKEA stores (Standard store), three city shops and customer support centres, IKEA has opened an e-commerce site (IKEA Online Store) and launched the IKEA App, expanded IKEA Pick-up Points around the country and opened IKEA pop-up stores to increase the num-ber of touch points for customers. IKEA is focusing on measures to accelerate the omni-channel approach, which connects each touchpoint and provides a compre-hensive approach to meet the needs of changing purchasing behaviour, especially increasing EC orders.
【Automated warehouses】
The development of logistics is important for omni-channelisation, and IKEA has long been working to improve the efficiency of its logistics operations.IKEA views the entire Kanto region as a single market (One Tokyo Market) and aims to maximise seamless coordination and fulfilment capabilities between shops. IKEA Tokyo-Bay will take on the role of more efficient delivery of products by consolidating the delivery of small items previously handled by each IKEA store (large shop) in the Kanto region. IKEA has now introduced an automated warehouse picking system, called AutoStore, which started operating at the IKEA Tokyo-Bay warehouse from No-vember 24th, 2022. The introduction of AutoStore will enable robots to automatically pick up goods from the high-density automated storage warehouse in response to customer orders for home furnishing accessories and small items. With Au-toStore's automatic pick-up of small delivery items in the Kanto region, work can now be completed about eight times more efficiently than the manual work previous-ly carried out by co-workers (employees).
IKEA places great emphasis on creating a good working environment for co-workers, and the introduction of AutoStore creates a co-worker-friendly working environment in the warehouse. The robot carries the goods to the pick-up port where the co-worker waits, eliminating traditional pick-up tasks, and the ergonomic pick-up port reduces the strain on the co-worker's body when picking up the goods, making the space easier to work in. And the more time co-workers spend with customers, the more they are able to help customers who need support and provide a more pleas-ant shopping experience. By improving the way IKEA's co-workers, who support IKEA's logistics, work, we will further support IKEA's omni-channel growth in the future.
Stefan Hofer, IKEA Japan Country Customer Fulfilment Manager, says: "We are very pleased to introduce AutoStore, automated picking to IKEA Tokyo-Bay. The IKEA store in Japan, as a logistics hub, secures customer fulfilment to satisfy customers both in-store and over e-commerce. We have been working hard to understand the needs of our customers and co-workers on a daily basis over the past years. With the introduc-tion of AutoStore, we are able to create a more comfortable working environment for our co-workers and provide better customer service to satisfy our customers. With the gains in efficiency, we are now able to allocate more time on customer value adding tasks.
The AutoStore to be installed at IKEA Tokyo-Bay, is equipped with an oxygen reduc-tion system, which controls the oxygen concentration in the air and provides fire pro-tection. This enhances safety not only for co-workers and products, but also for the warehouse as a whole. IKEA Japan has been using only 100% renewable electricity in its shop operations and head office since 2018*1, and the AutoStore will also be powered by 100% renewable electricity.
【Enhanced touchpoints】
IKEA Pick-up Points offer customers the opportunity to receive large furniture pur-chased from IKEA store or the online store at a more affordable price than regular delivery. At the moment, we have six Pick-up Points across Japan in Sapporo, Okaya-ma, Takamatsu, Hiroshima, Shizuoka and Hamamatsu. In order to provide more cus-tomers with a better everyday life, IKEA Japan plans to open an additional 10 or more Pick-up Points across Japan by the end of 2023.IKEA Japan also plans to actively develop IKEA pop-up stores to provide more people with ideas and products for a better and more sustainable life at home. We want people to feel IKEA as a familiar partner to support their life at home.
【Zero emissions for last mile deliveries】
IKEA aims to reduce absolute greenhouse gas emissions from product transport by 15% by 2030 compared to 2017. Ingka Group aims to achieve 100% last mile delivery by zero-emission vehicles by 2025 in all countries where it does business . IKEA Ja-pan currently has six EVs in use and plans to increase the number of EVs in the fu-ture. All electricity used for charging comes from renewable electricity sources.
*1 IKEA Shibuya and IKEA Shinjuku do not have access to renewable electricity due to the nature of their electricity contracts, which is com-pensated for by purchasing green electricity certificates for the amount of electricity used.