Growing restaurant supplier, McDonald Paper & Restaurant Supplies, has introduced robotic automation into the company in a bid to keep up with rising demand and enable future growth.
McDonald Paper & Restaurant Supplies was founded in 1994 in Brooklyn, New York (USA) and has since supplied top-quality restaurant supplies to thousands of restaurants, bars, coffee shops and catering companies across the greater New York area and beyond. They have a long list of happy customers and partners that benefit from their vast array of quality products at affordable prices.
The Brief
McDonald Paper & Restaurant Supplies, a wholesale & e-commerce retailer, were experiencing high online order growth but weren’t able to reliably hit their daily target of fulfilled orders due to their current manual picker process. The company realised they needed to adapt new robotic technology into their processes to keep up with online order demand and enable future business growth.
The company previously used Amazon for their fulfilment. However, due to the pandemic, Amazon prioritised other products over their own which led to unexpected delays. McDonald Paper & Restaurant Supplies felt that on top of the delays, fulfilment costs were too high and as they were growing rapidly, they needed to find an alternative solution.
The Challenge
McDonald Paper & Restaurant Supplies, were having difficulty scaling in their space and hiring enough workers to meet the demand. Robotics was previously unattainable as they had no strong technical IT staff to offer development ideas or support.
Prime Robotics had to consider the customers’ requirement for the solution to integrate with SellerCloud so they could pick, pack and print shipping labels at the pick station. They also had to consider that the premises contained low ceilings and floors of poor condition.
The Solution
Prime Robotics solution was a MobileShelf goods-to-person robotic solution, compromising of MobileShelf MSU’s, AMR Robots (MS-1100), 2 pick stations, Prime Management Console and RCS. The system was installed in 2 phases and the company were able to process 1,000 orders a day in a matter of weeks.
The company were able to move all their inventory from Amazon Fulfilment and into their own warehouse. The floor had to be repaired and levelled but provided McDonald Paper & Restaurant Supplies with the ability to increase their e-commerce fulfilment and shipments by 600%. Additional warehouse space wasn’t immediately required as space was efficiently utilised by Prime Robotics’ solution.
In addition to improving efficiency and speed, the decision to introduce robotic automation allowed the company to reduce their fulfilment costs and eliminate the need to hire additional workers. Prime Robotics utilised the existing warehouse space efficiently meaning additional space to support future growth wasn’t immediately required.
“I leaned on the Prime team for the robot and software expertise they brought to the table – they are my automation partner for the long haul. I don’t have a large tech department or a robotics expert, so Prime Robotics’ live 24/7 customer support is critical – I know they’ve got my back,” says Eugene Khorosh, Founder and President of McDonald Paper & Restaurant Supplies.
About Prime Robotics
Prime Robotics are a leading-edge company in the area of versatile and agile AMR technology. Headquartered in Denver, Colorado (USA). Prime Robotics have partnered with UK manufacturer of conveyor systems and automation solutions, L-A-C Group, to offer their impressive robotic warehouse automation solutions into Europe for the first time.
For further information click here or contact sales@lacgroup.co.uk or 0115 975 3300.