U-Freight has turned one of its facilities in Hong Kong into a smart warehouse, featuring an automatic guided vehicle (AGV) and intelligent racking system to improve the efficiency for both inbound and outbound operations.

The smart warehouse tech rolled out at its 21,000-sqft e-commerce fulfilment centre (EFC) located in Kwai Chung is part of U-Freight’s ongoing investment to meet the challenges of providing logistics services to the rapidly expanding sector.

The Hong Kong-based forwarder believes the automation would be able to help cut costs from its warehouse operations and enhance workplace safety as well as ergonomic conditions for staff.

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“The deployment of autonomous mobile robots in warehouses around the globe is transforming the future of the e-commerce sector and its ability to meet rising business and consumer demand,” says Simon Wong, chief executive of U-Freight Group.

For inbound consignments, the system, supplied by Hong Kong-based RV Automation Technology Company, analyses the weight and dimensions of each stock keeping unit to select the most suitable storage rack to the fulfilment staff.

Whilst this would fully utilise storage space and speed up processing time, this also shortens the time for outbound order processing, with automated vehicles working nonstop—even when staff are out for the day—to ready the required goods for pick and pack when they arrive.

“Traditional warehouses mostly adopt the ‘person-to-goods’ selection mode, which can mean high labour cost and low selection efficiency,” explained Wong.

“By implementing an automatic guided vehicle (AGV) and intelligent racking system, we will be adopting the ‘goods-to-person’ picking mode, and believe this will improve production efficiency.”