ASICS warehouse drones quickly find misplaced inventory

Sportswear company ASICS is recovering misplaced products nearly 60% faster at its Byhalia, Mississippi, distribution center since it began conducting nightly flights of high-risk storage areas with autonomous inventory drones.

The drones, manufactured by Corvus Robotics, have increased counting frequency six-fold compared to the normal practice of counting inventory twice a year. The data collected each night is aggregated and now analyzed on a monthly basis, allowing orders to ship on time and at full price. The new system has saved about 200 hours of monthly counting labor, which ASICS has redirected into inventory research and exception management, the companies said Tuesday.

The ASICS facility holds close to 3 million units — 2.3 million pairs of footwear and 700,000 pieces of apparel and accessories — across roughly 44,000 stock keeping units, all managed in a Manhattan Associates warehouse management system. It fills e-commerce orders and ships to wholesale accounts, along with ASICS full price and outlet retail stores.

Corvus drones provide surveillance in the areas that tend to produce the most discrepancies — the singles area, where returned and single pair products get stored and picked, and case reserve. Both were counted twice a year under ASICS cycle count policy.

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