Viettel Post (VTPost) has become the first Vietnamese logistics company to adopt fully automated robot-based parcel sortation technology with the installation of 160 LiBiao ‘Mini Yellow’ autonomous guided robots at its storage and distribution hub in Hanoi.
The new sorting system provides VTPost with the capacity to process around 6,000 parcels of various sizes, weights and shapes every hour at the multi-client site.
By automating its sorting system with the robots, VTPost has more than doubled its order throughput speed and brought the error rate down to almost zero. It has also enabled the operator to redeploy staff to more profitable areas of the business.
One worker is required to feed parcels on to the waiting sorting robots at each of the system’s induction stations. Once a parcel has been placed on to a robot, a communications port captures order information data contained on the parcel’s label before LiBiao’s control and scheduling software issues instructions to guide each robot to the appropriate sorting bin, or destination chute, via the safest and most time-efficient route.
The system has more than 1,000 destination chutes and, on reaching the assigned chute, robots stop running and deposit their parcel before returning to an induction station, collecting another order and beginning the process over again.
Le Tuan Anh, deputy director general of VTPost, said, “We are excited to be the first Vietnamese company to install this sophisticated sortation technology. But this is just the beginning. It is VTPost’s aim to continue to build the business by automating key operational processes at our storage and distribution hubs throughout Vietnam.”