JD Logistics brings its technology to California with “self-operating warehouse”

Supply chain and logistics service provider JD Logistics says it is replicating elements of its fulfillment operations in China and bringing those capabilities to its U.S. facilities, creating a “self-operating warehouse” in California.

The company, which is an arm of Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com, provides logistics services both for its parent company and for contract customers through JD.com’s “retail as a service” model. JD Logistics will now use some of that experience to address supply chain challenges in North America by providing greater flexibility, inventory optimization, and storage cost reduction to retailers, the company said Wednesday.

In combination with two other existing JD Logistics warehouses in California, the new warehouse will create more than 300 local jobs and grow JD.com’s footprint in the state to over 1.3 million square feet of warehousing space. The new facility will provide omnichannel fulfillment services for both online and offline orders, according to Gordon Lu, general manager of JD Logistics United States.

The system begins when goods are delivered to the warehouse by trucks, then offloaded onto a network of automated conveyors and swiftly scanned, sorted, and stored by fast-moving, self-operating robots. Meanwhile, warehouse employees wait in designated working stations while a container transport unit (CTU) robot system picks up and drops off goods. Image scanners check those packages in microseconds, while JD’s smart logistics system calculates where the packages should be dropped off. The packages are then grouped by region into larger bins, which are picked up by forklifts and brought to the corresponding trucks for delivery to their final destination.

The company did not disclose the site of the new facility or say whether those systems were provided by material handling systems contractors or designed by the company itself.

“Demand has shifted from the major e-commerce platforms to smaller independent operators, which has led to fragmented supply chains, adding further complexity and challenges to supply chain management,” Lu said in a release. “As more and more retailers are shifting from brick-and-mortar stores to e-commerce platforms, retailers continue to sell their products on multiple e-commerce platforms, which requires utilizing multiple warehouses to handle B2B and B2C orders, dramatically increasing their holding costs. This is a challenge JD Logistics is uniquely equipped to solve.”

In addition to its three California warehouses, JD Logistics United States also operates two warehouses in New Jersey and one in Georgia. The company says that in addition to warehousing, JD Logistics United States is among the few third-party logistics companies to provide transfer, last-mile delivery, aftersales and maintenance, cross-border transportation, and other services in one stop.

Worldwide, JD Logistics operates over 1,500 warehouses in China, and its international business operates approximately 90 bonded warehouses, international direct mail warehouses, and overseas warehouses globally, covering an aggregate gross floor area of approximately 9.7 million square feet.