MUSTANG, Okla. (KFOR) – The Walmart in Mustang, Okla., is using advanced robotics technology to prepare online orders faster.
The company’s new Market Fulfillment Center (MFC) is the first fully operational center in all of Oklahoma and one of only a few nationwide.
“In layman’s terms, think of it as a six-story vending machine,” says MFC Store Leader Chris Roan.
About 90 robots are housed in a six-story building in a 35,000-square-foot facility connected to the Walmart Supercenter in Mustang off SH-152. They process around 550 online orders per day, with the main goal of filling more orders in less time.
“We feel like we’ve done a great job increasing our capacity and improving the customer experience,” said store manager Scott Langston.
Here’s how it works: When a customer orders online, the system determines whether it is available at her MFC. If applicable, employees will use technology to identify it.
“Choose room temperature, refrigerated or frozen,” Roan said. “We’ll do all three rooms here.”
From there, a robot within the structure goes to retrieve it. Rohn said the majority of MFC’s items are typically the most purchased items.
“The idea is that the total time from ordering to selecting the item, preparing it and shipping it is 10 to 12 minutes,” Rohn said.
Once everything is organized, our employees will bring it directly to your car. Rohn said this saves five to eight minutes of time. He added that this could increase further as customers are typically sifting through products and foot traffic in-store. Like Langston, other tech workers say technology has made their lives easier.
“I think it also increases the experience for our employees by reducing friction and making their jobs a lot easier,” he said.
The next fully operational MFC in Oklahoma is scheduled to be installed in Broken Arrow later this month.