At Picnic, most employees work in the supply chain (order picking in fulfilment, last-mile drivers from hubs). Which use of AI has currently the biggest impact?
Picnic was founded in 2015 in the Netherlands. In 2018 we opened in Germany and in France in 2021. Alongside our rapid growth, we have hired several thousand people per year in some years. Today, we have 20,000 staff. Regarding our model, Picnic started with manually managed hubs and a milkman-style delivery scheme for the last mile. After automating certain elements of the supply chain, we are now significantly automating all warehouse operations. While AI is not something new at Picnic (machine learning, deep learning), a use has multiplied in the order processing process (order preparation, replenishment). For an online food retailer, this is the name of the game.
Where and how is AI operating at scale in automated warehouses?
In our automated warehouses, which prepare several thousand deliveries a day, AI is primarily used to support robots (movements). In Germany, Oberhausen’s first automated warehouse, which opened on June 6 and covers 40,000 sq.m, has 1,000 robots will prepare orders for more than 100,000 customers per week (an investment of €150 million). We have a capacity of 33,000 orders per day.
