BENTONVILLE, AR - Walmart announced it will debut a first for its supply chain this July: a 340,000-square-foot high-tech consolidation center designed to revolutionize the way the company receives, sorts, and ships freight. The retailer has selected Colton, California, as the site for this automated facility that will enable three times more volume to flow and increase shipping accuracy.

“We’re going to make the regional distribution centers more efficient,” said Geno Bell, Senior Director of the Consolidation Center Network. “With this new technology, we can be surgical and responsive in getting merchandise into stores.”

According to a press release, the center, which will open with 150 full-time associates and scale up to more than 600 associates by 2021, can move three times as many cases as its counterparts. Walmart said this will be the most efficient consolidation center in its supply chain.

If you don’t know what an automated consolidation center is, you’re not alone! While Walmart has consolidation centers today, the process has been manual up to this point. Currently, suppliers must create and ship 42 separate orders and forward each to one of 42 regional distribution centers. The new system, according to Walmart, will enable suppliers to fill one massive order instead. The new software automatically and immediately scans and counts the product when it arrives and documents the information in Walmart’s systems, allowing the retailer to be nimble when order-filling issues arise.

And because the new center is also a warehouse, Walmart will be able to react quickly and move product faster. The retailer offers the example of, if there were to be an unexpected blizzard in the Northeast U.S., items like extra space heaters could be sent quickly from Minnesota to New England—potentially before a storm hits.

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Walmart