Cutter & Buck, Kardex, and AutoStore: Why the Second Automated Warehouse May Matter More Than the First

Warehouse automation announcements tend to celebrate the beginning. A new distribution center opens. Robots arrive. An automated storage and retrieval system goes live. Executives talk about throughput, labor savings, and future growth. But perhaps the more revealing warehouse automation story begins several years later, when a company decides whether to do it again. That is what makes the latest development involving Cutter & Buck, Kardex, and AutoStore particularly interesting.

Cutter & Buck, the apparel company, recently opened a new distribution center in Grand Prairie, Texas, featuring its second AutoStore goods-to-person system implemented by Kardex. The system includes 50,502 storage bins, 32 R5 Pro robots, and 13 ports, with Kardex FulfillX warehouse execution software coordinating the operation. It is designed for 1,256 bin presentations per hour, with simulation results averaging 1,284.

Those numbers are interesting. But the more important number may be two. This is not Cutter & Buck’s first attempt at warehouse automation. And that changes the story.

Cutter & Buck began its earlier automation journey at its Renton, Washington, distribution center, where a Kardex-deployed AutoStore system went live in July 2023 with more than 34,000 bins and 54 robots. As the operation grew, the company later added another 9,962 storage bins along with additional ports and infrastructure. That evolution matters because the Texas facility was not designed simply by copying Renton.

This story was originally published by Logistics Viewpoints. Read the full story at Logistics Viewpoints →