E-commerce Fulfillment Center: Inbound to Outbound
Even with sorters and automated storage in place, truck unloading, depalletizing, putaway, picking, sorter induction, truck loading, and returns still rely on people. The big advantage: AMRs, robot arms, and humanoids can be added at today's manual workstations while existing racks and conveyors stay as they are.
7道工序、21项作业可由机器人替代。
工序流程
点击工序可跳转到对应作业。
工序来源：STOCKCREW「EC物流の基礎知識」（6 工程） / LNEWS 佐川グローバルロジスティクス EC Logi Tokyo（2019-05） / マイナビ 佐川グローバルロジスティクス EC Logi Tokyo 取材（2024-10）
各工序的替代作业
按工序列出人工作业中已有机器人承担实例的项目，可从右侧链接查看候选机型与导入实绩。
- 可机器人化
Inbound: truck & container unloading
Unload floor-loaded cases one by one from the back of the trailer onto a conveyor; palletized freight comes off by forklift.
- Unloading mixed cases from trailers and shipping containers onto a conveyor
DHL Supply Chain (North America), Boston Dynamics Stretch: first commercial deployment Jan 2023; 7-axis arm moves mixed cases onto a flexible conveyor, with rollout to more warehouses planned.
- Unloading import containers and floor-loaded trailers (physical-AI unloader)
Pickle Robot (US): six distributors (footwear, apparel, power tools, toys) ordered 30+ units in Q3 2024 for H1 2025; over 10 million lb unloaded since summer 2023.
- Unloading robot that docks to an existing telescoping conveyor (cases up to 22 kg, 1,000 cases/hour)
Mujin TruckBot (announced Aug 2023): reaches 15 m into a container; sold first in the US to unnamed major retailers and logistics firms, with a Japan version to follow.
- Unloading palletized trucks with autonomous forklifts
NEXT Logistics Japan Sagamihara center (in operation since Jul 2023): two Toyota Industries autonomous forklifts unload both sides of a wing-body truck at once, with Aisin AMRs for transport.
- 可机器人化
Depalletizing & case induction
Lift cases one by one off inbound pallets onto the receiving conveyor or automated storage, sorting mixed pallets by SKU as they come down.
- Lifting cases off pallets onto a conveyor (mixed loads, no pre-registration)
ASKUL Logi PARK Yokohama (Jul 2021): one Mujin depalletizing robot replacing manual induction of about 6,000 cases a day. Kyowa Shiko 2nd logistics center (Ehime, Mar 2023): two depalletizers handle 1,000+ cases/hour, lifting shipping capacity by up to 70%.
- Linking depalletizing, palletizing, and AGV replenishment by SKU to warehouse control
Nippon Unyu Ota Inter office (Gunma, announced Mar 2026): MujinOS coordinates depalletizing/palletizing robots and AGV replenishment by SKU across 97 products in a parts-supply warehouse (adjacent case: automotive parts).
- 由人承担
Receiving inspection & registration
Check outer packaging and quantities and register receipts in the WMS; content checks and dimension/weight capture vary by product.
Count reconciliation and damage judgment stay with people and WMS terminals; automatic dimensioning is measuring equipment, and no public robot case was confirmed.
- 可机器人化
Putaway & storage
Put products into storage racks or bins; in goods-to-person systems the shelves or totes come to the worker.
- Bringing mobile shelves to workstations so staff no longer walk for putaway and picking (shelf-carrying AMRs)
Alpen East Japan Fulfillment Center (Inzai, Chiba, Dec 2021): 216 Geek+ EVE P800R units, storage ×2 and outbound capacity ×3. ASKUL Miyoshi center (Jul 2021): 116 EVE P800R.
- Robotizing putaway, storage, and picking at a mail-order site handling large items (up to 100×100×200 cm)
Nitori Home Logistics West Japan e-commerce center (Ibaraki, Osaka, autumn 2017): 79 GreyOrange Butler units; AI re-slots stock by outbound frequency.
来源：ネットショップ担当者フォーラム (2017-01-27) / 共同通信 PR ワイヤー GreyOrange (2017-03-03)
- Stowing items into the top rows of storage pods and picking from them (arm with tactile sensing)
Amazon Vulcan (2025): stows and picks the top rows of pods, where staff needed step ladders, at GEG1 Spokane (US) and Hamburg (Germany); covers about 75% of item types at human-comparable speed, with wider rollout in Europe and the US.
来源：About Amazon
- 可机器人化
Picking
Collect items per order from racks or bins, either by walking or with goods-to-person systems; case picks come out of automated storage for packing.
- Pick-assist AMRs that follow workers, removing walking and searching to raise outbound productivity
Nippon Express NX Komaki DC (Oct 2025), Rapyuta PA-AMR: outbound productivity about 2.5× in three months (42.9 → 110.8 lines/hour). Nippon Express Shinagawa (Daikin parts, Aug 2020): 10 AMRs. STOCKCREW Sugito Dock (Saitama, Jun 2022): 6 Syrius FlexComet + 4 FlexSwift on subscription.
来源：LNEWS (2025-10-01) / LNEWS (2020-08-26) / ECのミカタ (2022-06)
- Robots climb 3-D racks to retrieve bins and bring them to picking stations (high-density goods-to-person)
Yodobashi Camera × Exotec Skypod (announced Dec 2022, multiple warehouses); Exotec also partnered with Fast Retailing in 2019 and had 1,000+ robots running in Japan as of Dec 2022.
- Piece picking of consumer goods (suction-plus-finger gripper, no item pre-registration)
PALTAC RDC Saitama (Sugito, operating from late 2019): Japan's first RightHand Robotics RightPick installation with multiple units; unit count and results not published.
- Case picking the required quantity from pallets out of automated storage (auto-measured dimensions and weight, no master data)
PALTAC RDC Saitama (Jul 2024): eight Okura Yusoki AI case-picking robots; recognize mixed cases at 99.9%+, eliminating measurement and registration work and human error.
- Transferring totes delivered by AMRs onto conveyors (humanoid)
GXO Logistics fulfillment center for SPANX (US, Jun 2024): Agility Robotics Digit under a multi-year RaaS agreement, moving totes from cobots and AMRs onto conveyors; unit count undisclosed.
- 专用设备
Packing & labeling
Box the items with dunnage and the packing slip, seal, and apply the shipping label; in e-commerce the high-mix, small-lot packing is often the bottleneck.
Handled by automatic packing machines: Carton Wrap at Sagawa Global Logistics EC Logi Tokyo measures the item, cuts the carton, seals it, and applies the label at 800 cases/hour (since Apr 2020). No confirmed robot case for the box-filling itself.
- 可机器人化
Sorting & induction
Sort parcels by destination and route; people remain for sorter induction, orienting labels for scanning, and moving the large or irregular items that sorters cannot take.
- Destination sorting with small sorting robots, in a compact layout that can be reconfigured
Sagawa Global Logistics Higashimatsuyama SRC (Saitama, Aug 2021): 35 Plus Automation t-Sort units for 400 destinations; shipping throughput +32%, staff −27%, returns throughput +343%, training time −70%.
- Moving large and irregular parcels that the sorter cannot take to their destinations by AMR instead of carts
Sagawa Express X Frontier hub (Koto, Tokyo, Dec 2022): 12 Plus Automation JUC-S800R (1F, up to 800 kg) and 12 LexxPluss Hybrid-AMR (3F); the sorter handles 90% of parcels, and the rest is now automated.
- Grasping parcels, turning the label face-up, and inducting them one by one onto the conveyor or sorter (humanoid induction)
Robotera × China Post Shenzhen Longgang hub (on site from Nov 2025, PoC completed May 2026): 100 parcels/hour at first, 1,200/hour by late May 2026, about 90% of a human sorter; partnership with SF Express signed Jan 2026. Figure AI showed Figure 02 moving parcels between conveyors and orienting labels (Feb 2025, customer undisclosed).
- 可机器人化
Outbound: palletizing & truck loading
Stack outbound cases onto pallets or roll cages and load them into trucks; people still decide mixed-load positions and work inside the trailer.
- Palletizing outbound cases onto pallets, roll cages, and cart racks (stacking positions computed from size and weight)
PALTAC RDC Saitama (from Nov 2019): multiple Mujin AI case-palletizing robots. AS ONE Smart DC (Prologis Park Chiba 1, Jul 2020): two Mujin case palletizers, one tote palletizer, one depalletizer; about 70% automated.
- Loading pallets into trucks with autonomous forklifts that cope with truck parking offsets
Kao Toyohashi plant next-generation warehouse (live Jul 2024, full operation Oct 2024): Toyota Industries autonomous forklifts detect the truck with 3D LiDAR; first real-shipment use in Japan per Toyota Industries. Adjacent case (manufacturer warehouse).
- Truck-loading (vanning) robot that stacks cases inside the trailer
Sagawa Express × Dexterity × Sumitomo Corporation (Dec 2023): AI loading robot developed and trialed for Sagawa's loading sites, a first in Japan. Kawasaki × Dexterity Mech (May 2025): two 8-axis arms (30 kg each) on a mobile base, in trials at an international logistics company.
- 可机器人化
Returns processing
Unpack returned items, judge their condition for resale, disposal, or clearance, repack, and return them to stock; packaging and condition vary, so the work is hard to standardize.
- Grasping, identifying, and sorting returned fashion items (dual-arm robot that handles unseen items)
CEVA Logistics × Sereact at Zalando fulfillment centers (Greven, Germany and Świebodzin, Poland, announced Oct 2026): dual-arm robots grasp, identify, and sort returns without per-item training, on a RaaS model; unit count and results undisclosed.
一览
| 工序 | 可由机器人承担的作业 | 阶段 | 机器人类型 | 应用指南 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Inbound: truck & container unloading | Unloading mixed cases from trailers and shipping containers onto a conveyor | 海外有实绩 | 机械臂自主移动搬运机器人 | Truck Loading & Unloading |
| 1. Inbound: truck & container unloading | Unloading import containers and floor-loaded trailers (physical-AI unloader) | 海外有实绩 | 机械臂 | Truck Loading & Unloading |
| 1. Inbound: truck & container unloading | Unloading robot that docks to an existing telescoping conveyor (cases up to 22 kg, 1,000 cases/hour) | 已有产品 | 机械臂 | Truck Loading & Unloading |
| 1. Inbound: truck & container unloading | Unloading palletized trucks with autonomous forklifts | 日本已导入 | 自主移动搬运机器人 | Warehouse Transport |
| 2. Depalletizing & case induction | Lifting cases off pallets onto a conveyor (mixed loads, no pre-registration) | 日本已导入 | 机械臂 | Packing & Palletizing |
| 2. Depalletizing & case induction | Linking depalletizing, palletizing, and AGV replenishment by SKU to warehouse control | 日本已导入 | 机械臂自主移动搬运机器人 | Packing & Palletizing |
| 4. Putaway & storage | Bringing mobile shelves to workstations so staff no longer walk for putaway and picking (shelf-carrying AMRs) | 日本已导入 | 自主移动搬运机器人 | Warehouse Transport |
| 4. Putaway & storage | Robotizing putaway, storage, and picking at a mail-order site handling large items (up to 100×100×200 cm) | 日本已导入 | 自主移动搬运机器人 | Warehouse Transport |
| 4. Putaway & storage | Stowing items into the top rows of storage pods and picking from them (arm with tactile sensing) | 海外有实绩 | 机械臂 | Picking |
| 5. Picking | Pick-assist AMRs that follow workers, removing walking and searching to raise outbound productivity | 日本已导入 | 自主移动搬运机器人 | Picking |
| 5. Picking | Robots climb 3-D racks to retrieve bins and bring them to picking stations (high-density goods-to-person) | 日本已导入 | 自主移动搬运机器人 | Picking |
| 5. Picking | Piece picking of consumer goods (suction-plus-finger gripper, no item pre-registration) | 日本已导入 | 机械臂机械手 | Picking |
| 5. Picking | Case picking the required quantity from pallets out of automated storage (auto-measured dimensions and weight, no master data) | 日本已导入 | 机械臂 | Picking |
| 5. Picking | Transferring totes delivered by AMRs onto conveyors (humanoid) | 海外有实绩 | 人形 | Warehouse Transport |
| 7. Sorting & induction | Destination sorting with small sorting robots, in a compact layout that can be reconfigured | 日本已导入 | 自主移动搬运机器人 | Sorting & Induction |
| 7. Sorting & induction | Moving large and irregular parcels that the sorter cannot take to their destinations by AMR instead of carts | 日本已导入 | 自主移动搬运机器人 | Warehouse Transport |
| 7. Sorting & induction | Grasping parcels, turning the label face-up, and inducting them one by one onto the conveyor or sorter (humanoid induction) | PoC阶段 | 人形 | Sorting & Induction |
| 8. Outbound: palletizing & truck loading | Palletizing outbound cases onto pallets, roll cages, and cart racks (stacking positions computed from size and weight) | 日本已导入 | 机械臂 | Packing & Palletizing |
| 8. Outbound: palletizing & truck loading | Loading pallets into trucks with autonomous forklifts that cope with truck parking offsets | 日本已导入 | 自主移动搬运机器人 | Warehouse Transport |
| 8. Outbound: palletizing & truck loading | Truck-loading (vanning) robot that stacks cases inside the trailer | PoC阶段 | 机械臂自主移动搬运机器人 | Truck Loading & Unloading |
| 9. Returns processing | Grasping, identifying, and sorting returned fashion items (dual-arm robot that handles unseen items) | 海外有实绩 | 机械臂 | Sorting & Induction |
导入前的确认点
- Load profile: floor-loaded versus palletized freight decides the unloading and loading robot; check case weight limits (about 22 kg for Stretch and TruckBot) and trailer depth.
- Dock conditions: telescoping conveyor availability, wing-body versus van trucks, and truck parking offsets; autonomous forklifts correct for position, but check the existing dock first.
- Master data needs: some depalletizing and case-picking systems work master-less by recognizing size and placement; for piece picking, check SKU count and the share of items the robot can handle (about 75% for Vulcan).
- WMS/WES integration and phasing: shelf AMR fleets have grown from 56 to 216 units, and some sites started on subscription (RaaS); plan peak-season scaling and the WMS changes up front.
- Items the sorter cannot take: automated sorters handle about 90% of parcels; plan AMR transport or humanoid induction for the large, irregular, and soft remainder, and measure the throughput gap versus people.
- Start humanoids and physical-AI systems as a PoC: induction and truck loading are still in trials, and one site took months to reach about 90% of human speed; set the evaluation period and KPIs (parcels/hour, interventions) first.
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