Non classé

Winning the Race, Fleet Feet Implements Autonomous Mobile Robots

Published

12 mois ago

17 février 2025

Winning The Race, Fleet Feet Implements Autonomous Mobile Robots

Fleet Feet is the largest franchisor of retailer specialty stores focused on providing premium service for runners, walkers, and fitness enthusiasts of all abilities. To improve their operations, they installed autonomous mobile robots in their warehouse.

According to a survey of 250 global companies by the consulting firm McKinsey, 91% of shippers and 75% of logistics service providers have implemented a warehouse management system. In contrast, autonomous mobile robots have been implemented in less than 8% of US warehouses.

When new industrial technology emerges, it is large companies that implement them first. There is a lag before smaller companies begin to implement the technology. Fleet Feet is a smaller company. They run a 75,000-square-foot distribution center. AMRs are much more commonly implemented in warehouses of over 250,000 square feet.

Further, where large warehouses may employ hundreds of pickers, Fleet Feet had fewer than 20. A big part of the value proposition for AMRs is improved picking efficiency. Can a warehouse with so few pickers get good payback from AMRs?

The Fleet Feet Supply Chain

The goal for the Carrboro, North Carolina-headquartered retailer is to make each store a hub for the local running community that it serves. Store associates are expected to be active in the local running community they serve. The company also uses technology to provide premium services to its customers.

The Fleet Feet outfitting process begins when a customer walks in the door. The customer explains what they want to do – whether that is competing in a marathon, a fun run in their community, or just walking with friends in their neighborhood – and then a store service representative (what they call “outfitters”) takes 3D measurements of the customer’s feet and watches them walk using Dynamic Pressure Mapping technology. Outfitters expertise, along with these data-driven insights allow customers to find their best-fitting footwear.

At the end of 2021, Fleet Feet acquired JackRabbit – a competitor with 55 brick-and-mortar stores across 15 states. This more than doubled the number of company-owned stores. Fleet Feet also gained JackRabbit’s e-commerce business in the acquisition.

The distribution center is critical to Fleet Feet’s product flow to their 80-plus company-owned stores. Most of the goods destined for the company-owned stores flow through their distribution center in Durham, North Carolina. The warehouse also supports their e-commerce business. The DC has 36 employees and operates seven days a week. Inbound shipments include parcel, less than truckload, and truckload. Outbound shipments – shipments to the stores – are parcel.

Anthony Pendola, a senior manager of distribution at Fleet Feet, said that the JackRabbit acquisition “caused us to take a hard look at our supply chain system and processes.” After that acquisition, the company recognized that they faced challenges keeping the stores in stock. “In the distribution center, we tried adding staff and lengthening the workday to meet those challenges. But those things proved to be superficial fixes. We recognized we needed a solution that would help us increase our throughput but that would also be scalable as we continued to add more and more stores. AMRs seemed like the right solution”

Fleet Feet aims to have 400 stores in the next five or so years. The company opened 10 stores in 2024 and expects to exceed that number in 2025. So, scalability means greatly increasing the number of orders the warehouse fulfills without having to move into a larger facility or hire numerous new associates.

The Implementation of Autonomous Mobile Robots

The company went live with autonomous mobile robots from Locus Robotics in October of 2023. The company had not had any automation in its distribution operations before this.

Unfortunately, the warehouse robotics implementation was part of a much larger project. Because of the growth, it was clear that they did not have enough warehousing space. They consolidated three warehouses – one of which they got in the acquisition – into the Durham DC. Building and opening that distribution center took a year and a half. They moved into the distribution center in August 2023 and went live with the warehouse robots in October.

Meanwhile, growth also served as an impetus for the company to replace its core business system. They moved from QuickBooks to NetSuite. The warehouse management system they had been using was not compatible with NetSuite. This led to the need to implement a new WMS that was. They selected a solution from Körber Supply Chain Software; the Körber Edge solution.

Körber, in addition to being a WMS supplier, is partnered with Locus. Körber is a leading system integrator of autonomous mobile robots. By having Körber implement both the WMS and the AMRs, Fleet Feet believed they could incorporate the AMRs into their operation sooner than expected.

There Were Challenges

There was skepticism that AMRs were the right solution. Mr. Pendola admitted he was one of the skeptics. “I would sit through the demos, and I would think, how are these bots going to handle large orders that we routinely send our stores? An order might have 100 pairs of shoes, 300 pairs of socks, and then another 150 assorted items. This bot with a container on it, how is it going to accommodate all of that? It seemed like something that was a great concept, but maybe just not a viable option for how our operation works.”

But Locus eventually proved to be very flexible; it could handle both big store orders and single-item picks for an e-commerce order. “I learned the importance of having an open mind.” All picking is now done by just five order selectors working with 22 bots.

The fact that multiple systems were being implemented at roughly the same time meant that the company did not have sufficient time to prepare for the WMS and AMR implementations.
“We took a rip the band-aid off approach,” Mr. Pendola reluctantly admitted. “There were a lot of unknowns we were just unprepared for.”

One example, the warehouse uses a custom-made box that, generally speaking, holds 12 pairs of shoes. The box sits snuggly on the robot platform when it is stood up on its side. Shoes get picked into that box. When the box is filled, it goes to a pack station for shipping. Because the shoes are packed into the shipping box, no repackaging is necessary. One of the problems they ran into was that the boxes had flaps on them. Sometimes, when robots passed each other in the aisle, the flaps from each box would get caught on one another, and the boxes would fall onto the floor. Then associates would have to repack the boxes, but they would not know which pairs of shoes went in which box. That would bring the operation to a halt.

And then someone had the “great idea,” Mr. Pendola explained, to take a bungee cord and secure the flaps by wrapping it around the robot. “We still use those yellow bungee cords today.” $5 bungee cords fixed the problem.

The other challenge is that to efficiently fill the custom-made boxes, accurate weights and dimensions for their products were necessary. If an order contained a few size 14 triple EEEs, 12 pairs of shoes would not fit in the box. If there were a number of small-size women’s shoes, more than 12 would fit. When the warehouse ran manually, this was not important. But for the new process, it was critical.

Fleet Feet has over 200 brands and over 10,000 of stock keeping units. For a big wave of work associated with an order, there might be 500 items, both shoes and apparel, that needed to fit in the tote. At the end of the wave, instead of having 500 items, because of poor dimensioning, there might be only 200. “What about the other 300?” Mr. Pendola exclaimed. “Where are they going to go? That created a really big problem.” This problem was solved by getting the correct dimensions from their suppliers and entering that information in their business system. But getting that information took time.

Fleet Feet Got Significant Benefits

Fleet Feet got several benefits from the implementation:

Increased picking efficiency – Picking increased from 85 units per hour to 180 units per hour. Some associates are averaging over 250 units per hour.
Improved inventory accuracy in the warehouse – Because of the increases in picking efficiency, workers were freed up for new tasks. The picking staff dropped from nearly 20 to 9. Fleet Feet created an inventory coordinator team that focuses solely on inventory accuracy. DC’s inventory accuracy now exceeds 99.5%. Better inventory accuracy also improves procurement.
Improved worker onboarding – Previously, it would take 8 to 10 hours for new employees to get comfortable with using the scanner device to get picking instructions. Now, workers can be trained in 15 to 20 minutes.
Future-proofing the warehouse – AMRs are a scalable technology. If the throughput needs to increase, it is easy to add new bots. Their robots-as-a-service contract with Körber supports this contractually.
Improved Ergonomics – Workers do not have to walk as much based on the optimization logic and the fact that the bots make the trip to the shipping stations rather than the pickers. The picking job is now less strenuous. There is also no longer a need for a second shift. Because of this, most pickers prefer working with the bots.
Support for Nonnative Speakers – Employees have an ID. When a worker approaches a bot, the bot links to the ID. The bot pulls up the worker’s profile and knows their preferred language. Then, work instructions are displayed in that language.

But the biggest benefit from the project was improved customer service! Best-in-class customer service is what will drive growth for Fleet Feet. Before the implementation, the warehouse sent one shipment to each company-owned store per week. Now, they are replenishing stores more frequently. The retailer’s order cycle – the period from when an order would enter the queue until it was shipped – decreased from three and a half days to half a day. Thus, the stores are now more likely to be in stock when a customer walks through the door.

Mr. Pendola summed it up by saying, “True success doesn’t come from cutting costs or squeezing margins. It comes from growth, sustainable purposeful growth. That is how we build long-term value.”

The post Winning the Race, Fleet Feet Implements Autonomous Mobile Robots appeared first on Logistics Viewpoints.

Non classé

India–U.S. Trade Announcement Creates Strategic Options, Not Executable Change

Published

12 heures ago

3 février 2026

India–u.s. Trade Announcement Creates Strategic Options, Not Executable Change

The announcement by Donald Trump and Narendra Modi of an India–U.S. “trade deal” has drawn immediate attention from global markets. From a supply chain and logistics perspective, however, the more important observation is not the scale of the claims, but the lack of formal detail required for execution.

At this stage, what exists is a political statement rather than a completed trade agreement. For companies managing sourcing, manufacturing, transportation, and compliance across India–U.S. trade lanes, uncertainty remains the defining condition.

What Has Been Announced So Far

Based on public statements from the U.S. administration and reporting by CNBC and Al Jazeera, several points have been asserted:

U.S. tariffs on Indian goods would be reduced from an effective 50 percent to 18 percent

India would reduce tariffs and non tariff barriers on U.S. goods, potentially to zero

India would stop purchasing Russian oil and increase energy purchases from the United States

India would significantly increase purchases of U.S. goods across energy, agriculture, technology, and industrial sectors

Statements from the Indian government have been more limited. New Delhi confirmed that U.S. tariffs on Indian exports would be reduced to 18 percent, but it did not publicly confirm commitments related to Russian oil, agricultural market access, or large scale procurement from U.S. suppliers.

This divergence matters. In supply chain planning, commitments only become relevant when they are documented, scoped, and enforceable.

Why This Is Not Yet a Trade Agreement

From an operational standpoint, the announcement lacks several elements required to support planning and execution:

No published tariff schedules by HS code

No clarification on rules of origin

No definition of non tariff barrier reductions

No implementation timelines

No enforcement or dispute resolution mechanisms

Without these components, companies cannot reliably model landed cost, supplier risk, or network design changes.

By comparison, India’s recently announced trade agreement with the European Union includes detailed provisions covering market access, regulatory alignment, and investment protections. Those provisions are what allow supply chain leaders to translate trade policy into operational decisions. The U.S. announcement does not yet meet that threshold.

Implications for Supply Chains

Tariff Reduction Could Be Material if Formalized

An 18 percent tariff rate would improve India’s competitive position relative to regional peers such as Vietnam, Bangladesh, and Pakistan. If implemented and sustained, this could support incremental sourcing from India in sectors such as textiles, pharmaceuticals, and light manufacturing.

For now, however, this remains a scenario rather than a planning assumption.

Energy Commitments Are the Largest Unknown

The claim that India would halt purchases of Russian oil has significant implications across energy, chemical, and manufacturing supply chains. Russian crude has been a key input for Indian refineries and downstream industrial production.

A shift away from that supply would affect energy input costs, tanker routing, port utilization, and U.S.–India crude and LNG trade volumes. None of these impacts can be assessed with confidence without confirmation from Indian regulators and implementing agencies.

Agriculture Remains Politically and Operationally Sensitive

U.S. officials have suggested expanded access for American agricultural exports. Historically, agriculture has been one of the most protected and politically sensitive sectors in India.

Any meaningful liberalization would raise questions around cold chain capacity, port infrastructure, domestic political resistance, and regulatory compliance. These factors introduce execution risk that supply chain leaders should consider carefully.

Compliance and Digital Trade Issues Are Unresolved

Several areas remain undefined:

Whether India will adjust pharmaceutical patent protections

Whether U.S. technology firms will receive exemptions from digital services taxes

Whether labor and environmental standards will be linked to market access

Each of these issues influences sourcing strategies, contract terms, and long term cost structures.

Practical Guidance for Supply Chain Leaders

Until formal documentation is released, a measured approach is warranted:

Avoid making structural network changes based on political announcements

Model tariff exposure using multiple scenarios rather than a single assumed outcome

Monitor customs and regulatory guidance rather than headline statements

Assess exposure to potential energy cost changes in Indian operations

Track implementation of the India–EU agreement as a near term reference point

Bottom Line

This announcement suggests a potential shift in the direction of India–U.S. trade relations, but it does not yet provide the clarity required for operational decision making.

For now, it creates strategic optionality rather than executable change.

Until tariff schedules, regulatory commitments, and enforcement mechanisms are formally published, supply chain and logistics leaders should treat this development as informational rather than actionable. In trade, execution begins only when the documentation exists.

The post India–U.S. Trade Announcement Creates Strategic Options, Not Executable Change appeared first on Logistics Viewpoints.

Non classé

Winter weather challenges, trade deals and more tariff threats – February 3, 2026 Update

Published

17 heures ago

3 février 2026

Home

Winter weather challenges, trade deals and more tariff threats – February 3, 2026 Update

Discover Freightos Enterprise

Published: February 3, 2026

Blog

Weekly highlights

Ocean rates – Freightos Baltic Index

Asia-US West Coast prices (FBX01 Weekly) decreased 10% to $2,418/FEU.

Asia-US East Coast prices (FBX03 Weekly) decreased 2% to $3,859/FEU.

Asia-N. Europe prices (FBX11 Weekly) decreased 5% to $2,779/FEU.

Asia-Mediterranean prices(FBX13 Weekly) decreased 5% to $4,179/FEU.

Air rates – Freightos Air Index

China – N. America weekly prices increased 8% to $6.74/kg.

China – N. Europe weekly prices decreased 4% to $3.44/kg.

N. Europe – N. America weekly prices increased 10% to $2.53/kg.

Analysis

Winter weather is complicating logistics on both sides of the Atlantic. Affected areas in the US, especially the southeast and southern midwest are still recovering from last week’s major storm and cold.

Storms in the North Atlantic slowed vessel traffic and disrupted or shutdown operations at several container ports across Western Europe and into the Mediterranean late last week. Transits resumed and West Med ports restarted operations earlier this week, but the disruptions have already caused significant delays, and weather is expected to worsen again mid-week.

Join 65,000+ Supply Chain Experts Who Never Miss an Issue!

Start your week with the industry insights others miss.

« * » indicates required fields

Company

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Email*

Consent*

I agree to receive logistics, freight tech, and commercial emails.

The resulting delays and disruptions could increase congestion levels at N. Europe ports, but ocean rates from Asia to both N. Europe and the Mediterranean nonetheless dipped 5% last week as the pre-Lunar New Year rush comes to an end. Daily rates this week are sliding further with prices to N. Europe now down to about $2,600/FEU and $3,800/FEU to the Mediterranean – from respective highs of $3,000/FEU and $4,900/FEU in January.

Transpacific rates likewise slipped last week as LNY nears, with West Coast prices easing 10% to about $2,400/FEU and East Coast rates down 5% to $3,850/FEU. West Coast daily prices have continued to slide so far this week, with rates dropping to almost $1,900/FEU as of Monday, a level last seen in mid-December.

Prices across these lanes are significantly lower than this time last year due partly to fleet growth. ONE identified overcapacity as one driver of Q3 losses last year, with lower volumes due to trade war frontloading the other culprit.

And trade war uncertainty has persisted into 2026.

India – US container volumes have slumped since August when the US introduced 50% tariffs on many Indian exports. Just this week though, the US and India announced a breakthrough in negotiations that will lower tariffs to 18% in exchange for a reduction in India’s Russian oil purchases among other commitments. President Trump has yet to sign an executive order lowering tariffs, and the sides have not released details of the agreement, but once implemented, container demand is expected to rebound on this lane.

Recent steps in the other direction include Trump issuing an executive order that enables the US to impose tariffs on countries that sell oil to Cuba, and threatening tariffs and other punitive steps targeting Canada’s aviation manufacturing.

The recent volatility of and increasing barriers to trade with the US since Trump took office last year are major drivers of the warmer relations and increased and diversified trade developing between other major economies. The EU signed a major free trade agreement with India last week just after finalizing a deal with a group of South American countries, and other countries like the UK are exploring improved ties with China as well.

In a final recent geopolitical development, Panama’s Supreme Court nullified Hutchinson Port rights to operate its terminals at either end of the Panama Canal. The Hong Kong company was in stalled negotiations to sell those ports following Trump’s objection to a China-related presence in the canal. Maersk’s APMTP was appointed to take over operations in the interim.

In air cargo, pre-LNY demand may be one factor in China-US rates continuing to rebound to $6.74/kg last week from about $5.50/kg in early January. Post the new year slump, South East Asia – US prices are climbing as well, up to almost $5.00/kg last week from $4.00/kg just a few weeks ago.

China – Europe rates dipped 4% to $3.44/kg last week, with SEA – Europe prices up 7% to more than $3.20/kg, and transatlantic rates up 10% to more than $2.50/kg, a level 25% higher than early this year.

Discover Freightos Enterprise

Freightos Terminal: Real-time pricing dashboards to benchmark rates and track market trends.

Procure: Streamlined procurement and cost savings with digital rate management and automated workflows.

Rate, Book, & Manage: Real-time rate comparison, instant booking, and easy tracking at every shipment stage.

Book a Demo

Learn More

Judah Levine

Head of Research, Freightos Group

Judah is an experienced market research manager, using data-driven analytics to deliver market-based insights. Judah produces the Freightos Group’s FBX Weekly Freight Update and other research on what’s happening in the industry from shipper behaviors to the latest in logistics technology and digitization.

Weekly Freight Updates

More tariff threats, LNY rush easing, and winter storm disruptions – January 27, 2026 Update

Market Updates

Container Shipping Overcapacity & Rate Outlook 2026

Weekly Freight Updates

Greenland drama adds new dose of trade uncertainty – January 21, 2026 Update

Put the Data in Data-Backed Decision Making

Freightos Terminal helps tens of thousands of freight pros stay informed across all their ports and lanes

Book a Demo

The post Winter weather challenges, trade deals and more tariff threats – February 3, 2026 Update appeared first on Freightos.

Non classé

Microsoft and the Operationalization of AI: Why Platform Strategy Is Colliding with Execution Reality

Published

2 jours ago

2 février 2026

Microsoft And The Operationalization Of Ai: Why Platform Strategy Is Colliding With Execution Reality

Microsoft has positioned itself as one of the central platforms for enterprise AI. Through Azure, Copilot, Fabric, and a rapidly expanding ecosystem of AI services, the company is not merely offering tools, it is proposing an operating model for how intelligence should be embedded across enterprise workflows.

For supply chain and logistics leaders, the significance of Microsoft’s strategy is less about individual features and more about how platform decisions increasingly shape where AI lives, how it is governed, and which decisions it ultimately influences.

From Cloud Infrastructure to Operating Layer

Historically, Microsoft’s role in supply chain technology centered on infrastructure and productivity software. Azure provided scalable compute and storage, while Office and collaboration tools supported planning and coordination. That boundary has shifted.

Microsoft is now positioning AI as a horizontal operating layer that spans data management, analytics, decision support, and execution. Azure AI services, Microsoft Fabric, and Copilot are designed to work together, reducing friction between data ingestion, model development, and business consumption.

The implication for operations leaders is subtle but important: AI is no longer something added to systems; it is increasingly embedded into the platforms those systems rely on.

Copilot and the Question of Decision Proximity

Copilot has become a focal point of Microsoft’s AI narrative. Positioned as an assistive layer across applications, Copilot aims to surface insights, generate recommendations, and automate routine tasks.

For supply chain use cases, the key question is not whether Copilot can generate answers, but where those answers appear in the decision chain. Insights delivered inside productivity tools can improve awareness and coordination, but operational value depends on whether recommendations are connected to execution systems.

This highlights a broader pattern: AI that remains advisory improves efficiency; AI that is embedded into workflows influences outcomes. Microsoft’s challenge is bridging that gap consistently across heterogeneous enterprise environments.

Microsoft Fabric and the Data Foundation Problem

Microsoft Fabric represents an attempt to simplify and unify the enterprise data landscape. By combining data engineering, analytics, and governance into a single platform, Microsoft is addressing one of the most persistent barriers to AI adoption: fragmented and inconsistent data.

For supply chain organizations, Fabric’s value lies in its potential to standardize event data across planning, execution, and visibility systems. However, unification does not eliminate the need for data discipline. Event quality, latency, and ownership remain operational issues, not platform features.

Fabric reduces friction, but it does not resolve governance by itself.

Integration with Existing Enterprise Systems

Microsoft’s AI strategy assumes coexistence with existing ERP, WMS, TMS, and planning platforms. Integration, rather than replacement, is the dominant pattern.

This creates both opportunity and risk. On one hand, Microsoft can act as a connective tissue across systems that were never designed to work together. On the other, loosely coupled integration increases dependence on interface stability and data consistency.

In execution-heavy environments, even small integration failures can cascade quickly. As AI becomes more embedded, integration reliability becomes a strategic concern.

Where AI Is Delivering Value, and Where It Isn’t

AI deployments tend to deliver value fastest in areas such as demand sensing, scenario analysis, reporting automation, and exception identification. These use cases align well with Microsoft’s strengths in analytics, collaboration, and scalable infrastructure.

Where value is harder to realize is in autonomous execution. Closed-loop decision-making that directly triggers operational action requires tighter coupling with execution systems and clearer decision ownership.

This reinforces a recurring theme: platform AI accelerates insight, but execution still depends on operating model design.

Constraints That Still Apply

Despite the breadth of Microsoft’s AI portfolio, familiar constraints remain. Data quality, security, compliance, and organizational readiness continue to limit outcomes. AI platforms do not eliminate the need for process clarity or decision accountability.

In some cases, the ease of deploying AI services can outpace an organization’s ability to absorb them operationally. This creates a risk of insight saturation without action.

Why Microsoft Matters to Supply Chain Leaders

Microsoft’s relevance lies in its ability to shape the default environment in which enterprise AI operates. Platform decisions made today influence data architectures, governance models, and user expectations for years.

For supply chain leaders, the key takeaway is not to adopt Microsoft’s AI stack wholesale, but to understand how platform-level AI affects where intelligence sits, how it flows, and who ultimately acts on it.

The next phase of AI adoption will not be defined solely by model performance. It will be defined by how effectively platforms like Microsoft’s translate intelligence into operational decisions under real-world constraints.

The post Microsoft and the Operationalization of AI: Why Platform Strategy Is Colliding with Execution Reality appeared first on Logistics Viewpoints.