MERIDIAN, Idaho — Scentsy's distribution center in Meridian has implemented a new automated warehouse system with 100 smart robots — increasing efficiency by bringing products to employees.
The robotic AutoStore system has been years in the making and features 20,800 bins accessed by robots that move across a grid to retrieve products.
"It's very modular. It has robots that run on top of the grid that you can see behind me… And these robots are moving around and they're picking up bins that have the product sitting in them," said Paul Klassen, Chief Operating Officer of Scentsy.
The robots deliver the bins to operators at 16 packing bays, eliminating the need for employees to walk and manually locate each product.
"We still have operators that are interacting with the system they're just interacting differently," Klassen said.
Despite the automation, Klassen emphasized that the implementation of robots hasn't replaced human jobs.
"We didn't have any layoffs related to this automation project specifically, unfortunately, we did have layoffs, but it was really related to the economy and the market and where we sit today," Klassen said.
Scentsy recently reduced its workforce by 116 employees, but the new system has created advancement opportunities for remaining staff.
"We were able to promote a couple of our shipping operators to robot technicians, which elevated and provided a direction for their careers into a new career path so we're really excited about that," Klassen said.
On a typical day, 5-8 packing bays are in operation, but during peak season, all 16 bays will be in use.
