In July, Shanghai is scorching hot. The Hema Shanghai Supply Chain Operation Center, located in Haitou Town, Pudong District, is bustling with activity. As the fresh food supply hub of Hema in Shanghai, Hema Shanghai Supply Chain Operation Center not only directly serves hundreds of different types of stores in the Shanghai area, but also radiates to the entire East China region including Nanjing, Suzhou, Hangzhou, and Hefei.

However, unlike the bustling and sweaty scenes in typical logistics and warehousing parks, the employees here are noticeably more relaxed. The reason is that automation helps to alleviate the pressure on employees and improve efficiency.?

The Center was fully operational in July. This is not only the largest area, highest technological content, and largest investment project ever undertaken by Hema, but also the first fully automated park for Hema.

To improve supply chain efficiency and ensure efficient delivery to stores, Hema has partnered with Cainiao Logistics Technology and others to deploy a series of logistics automation equipment. WCS automated control system, intelligent AI algorithms, AGV intelligent robots, robotic arms, and cross-belt sorting machines are all used in this center. By combining technologies such as 5G, IoT, and blockchain, the entire process has been automated and digitized.

On site, AGV intelligent robots carrying material boxes automatically deliver goods to the warehouse sorting station, where workers can complete the picking work. Xie Lingling, a staff member of Cainiao Logistics Technology, said that Cainiao Logistics Technology has provided a total of 200 AGV intelligent robots for Hema Shanghai Supply Chain Operation Center, upgrading the product picking mode from “people finding goods” to “goods finding people”.

“In traditional work modes, pickers often need to hold picking lists and search for goods back and forth in the warehouse. A picker can walk up to 10,000 to 20,000 steps in a day. Now, AGV intelligent robots automatically deliver goods to the pickers, greatly reducing the pressure on personnel. According to Xie Lingling, in terms of scale, the deployment of 200 AGV intelligent robots at once has ranked among the top in the industry”.

To ensure the orderly operation of such a large number of AGV intelligent robots in a 3000-square-meter sorting site, a “smart brain” is needed to command and dispatch. In this regard, Cainiao WCS automation control system and intelligent AI algorithm (RCS3.0) have played an important role.

It is reported that Cainiao WCS automation control system has the ability to integrate and control mainstream manufacturers and mainstream types of equipment in a unified scheduling system. It can control more than 20 types of automation equipment and has the ability to schedule over 1,000 AGVs in a single warehouse. It can effectively solve the difficulties of multiple devices, multiple manufacturers, complex coordination, and high management difficulty in automation applications.

The intelligent AI algorithm (RCS3.0) with functions such as task balancing, dynamic cancellation and reassignment of tasks, MAPF optimization, queue area organization, and topology map optimization can plan the optimal vehicle route, enabling smooth and efficient coordination between people, vehicles, and goods.

Relying on products and project implementation experience, including WCS, Cainiao Logistics Technology continues to export automation solutions to domestic and international customers, creating good social and economic value through relevant cooperation.

Taking the Shanghai supply chain center of Hema as an example, AGV intelligent robots, mechanical arms, cross-belt sorting machines, and other automated equipment work together, while leveraging the computing power of Alibaba Cloud, to achieve a daily sorting capacity of over 2.8 million orders, effectively promoting the full automation of Hema's warehousing and operations management.