Robots welcomed into the Scentsy Warehouse

See the new shipping automation process at our Meridian distribution center!

Do you like sci-fi? Do you dream of a futuristic world straight from the silver screen, a world filled with sleek machines and cool gadgets? If so, you’ll love what’s happening at our distribution center in Meridian, Idaho! We’ve rolled out a new shipping automation process that will improve efficiency and increase storage capacity. Come with us on a tour of our distribution center!

Here’s the rundown

The new addition to our distribution center is called an automated storage and retrieval system, or ASRS for short. This ASRS is designed by AutoStore — take a look at their video below to get an idea of how the system works!

Inside the ASRS are stacks of storage bins arranged in a grid pattern. If you looked at the ASRS from above, it would look like a huge chessboard, but instead of pawns, queens and rooks, you’d see little boxy robots running along the top of the grid. These robots — 100 in total — roll on tracks to grab bins filled with Scentsy products. They then drop the bins down chutes to our human employees stationed under the ASRS.

These employees, called pickers, pull items from the bins and place them on a picking cart. At this point, the process is very similar to what our pickers did previously — except with two important improvements.

First, instead of the pickers walking up and down warehouse aisles to retrieve products from shelves, the robots bring products to the pickers. Second, a computer determines the most efficient batches of orders, so pickers can now fill six times as many orders in the same amount of time!

Automation increases efficiency …

Our top leaders wanted to find the best answer to some puzzling problems: how to store our ever-growing inventory, and how to steadily meet increasing shipping expectations.

Each season, the number of products on our warehouse shelves increases, thanks in part to Scentsy Club’s star perk, Always Get My Bar. We love offering this perk to Scentsy fans, but it means that some Scentsy Bar fragrances must always be available on our warehouse shelves, which doesn’t leave much room for new products. Now, thanks to the ASRS, we have a plethora of storage space, and since the system is modular, we can expand when needed. (So go ahead, add that bar to your Scentsy Club!)

The new ASRS also helps us maintain a steady processing time, whether we’re in a slower month or the busy holiday season. Since robots don’t clock off at the end of the day, they can keep running at night, rearranging bins into the optimal position for the next day’s orders.

… without reducing workforce

Unlike some automation machinery, which replaces human workers, this ASRS complements our existing workforce by increasing their efficiency (and saving their shoe leather). There’s still plenty of tasks for our extremely hard-working employees, including filling the ASRS with products, hand-picking products that don’t fit in the storage bins, packing orders and more. And some of our warehouse operators have had the chance to become machine technicians (i.e. robot wranglers).

Fun facts:

• A beautiful behemoth, the ASRS is 125 feet long, 88 feet wide and 17 feet tall.
• We just had to customize the ASRS with our signature Scentsy flair — hence its lovely purple hue!
•  Since order information is mainly accessed by computer instead of a printed “pick ticket,” we estimate around 200 pine trees worth of paper will be saved per year.
• We love to name our machines at Scentsy! The ASRS doesn’t have a nickname yet, but we’re working on one. And someday, we might name each of the 100 robots!

Do you have any name suggestions for our new robots? Drop them in the comments!