GNC streamlines inventory management with drones
A leading health and wellness specialty retailer is bringing drones inside its distribution centers.
GNC had been experiencing issues with its manual inventory counting process, which required large teams to audit 40,000 locations across two distribution centers. The cycle counting process took place daily, sometimes during weekends, and required external audits twice a year.
Specific difficulties GNC faced included the need to divert material handling equipment for cycle counting, reducing availability for other tasks. In addition, its high volume of inventory movement led to misplaced products and errors, and the company only had resources to conduct full cycle counts two to four times per year.
In addition, with no downtime in its Indianapolis facility, GNC found it difficult to allocate lift trucks and staff for cycle counting without affecting operations. To address these issues, GNC implemented the drone-based Corvus One autonomous inventory management system to more accurately and efficiently track and store inventory in its distribution centers in Indiana and Arizona.
The drones operate throughout the day during business hours to keep up with GNC’s high order volume. According to the retailer, the drones have improved inventory accuracy, reduced shrinkage, and minimized human errors.
By automating daily cycle counts, GNC says the drones also have freed up labor and material handling equipment, enabling faster order fulfillment and more efficient warehouse operations.
“I like the Corvus Robotics drones because they are out of sight, out of mind," said Bill Monk, VP of distribution, GNC. "They’re doing things that there’s really not a lot of value to an individual on, but to the business, it’s priceless."
Other benefits of the Corvus One drones include the ability to count pallets and cases, batch scan multiple SKUs in the same location, and provide a volumetric analysis of a slot's storage capacity.
Facility-wide inventory counts now occur 10–12 times per year, and GNC has been able to reduce inventory control staff from 20 to 13, with redeployed employees working on other projects.
Drones operate independently and perform seven to eight warehouse flights per day, each lasting approximately 30 minutes, providing real-time inventory data. This implementation marks an expansion of GNC’s usage of drones in its enterprise, as the retailer began partnering with drone technology provider Zipline to offer a fully electric drone delivery option in select markets in the U.S. in 2023.
[READ MORE: GNC to launch drone delivery]
Based in Pittsburgh, GNC operates more than 3,000 stores in the U.S. and Canada.
