FedEx Ground, a subsidiary of FedEx Corp., has implemented Berkshire Grey’s Robotic Product Sortation and Identification (RPSi) systems at its station in Queens, N.Y.
Berkshire Grey, a developer of Intelligent Enterprise Robotics solutions, executed the RPSi systems to robotically sort the thousands of small packages that arrive daily in bulk into containers bound for other specific hubs and stations across the FedEx Ground network. FedEx Ground said it plans to install additional Berkshire Grey RPSi systems at sortation facilities in Las Vegas and Columbus, Ohio, in the coming months.
RPSi has been engineered to autonomously process–pick, identify, sort, collect and containerize–individual polybags, tubes, padded mailers and other small packages that traditionally are sorted manually. This installation is the latest investment made by FedEx Ground to help accommodate the rapid growth of e-commerce through the use of automation and robotics.
“We are encouraged by the initial package handling and processing accuracy of Berkshire Grey’s RPSi system in our Queens facility,” Ted Dengel, managing director of operations technology and innovation at FedEx Ground, said. “As an industry leader in technology and automation, we see the significant benefits that next generation innovation brings in terms of enabling increased safety and productivity, enhancing customer service and improving flexibility to adjust to changing package volumes and sizes.”
This technology was developed and installed as a direct response to the exponential growth of e-commerce, which has accelerated the demand for reliable automated solutions throughout all stages of the supply chain. FedEx Ground believes that continued innovation and automation will improve safety, efficiency and productivity for its team members as they continue to keep the e-commerce supply chain moving.
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“Our RPSi system is engineered from the ground up to automatically handle high volumes of small packages in small spaces with limited worker intervention, which significantly reduces labor challenges, streamlines sorting processes and increases the efficiency of carrier operations across their networks,” said Jessica Moran, senior vice president of parcels and 3PL businesses at Berkshire Grey. “More importantly, our system is uniquely able to address a core challenge in the traditional package sortation process–requiring package labels to be manually adjusted so they can be scanned properly. With our patented HyperScanner optical identification modules, barcodes can be read from any angle in milliseconds, all without manual intervention.”
FedEx Ground, headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pa., transported more than 12 million packages a day in its latest fiscal quarter. The company reported annual revenue of $30.5 billion in fiscal year 2021.