Walmarts multibillion-dollar push to replace workers with robots hits snags on dog food, cardboard boxes: report

Walmart’s multibillion-dollar push to replace human workers with robots is reportedly hitting snags as the machinery struggles to carry dog food and Thanksgiving turkeys or handle cardboard boxes.A simple task called “breakpack” – when workers remove items from cardboard boxes to ship out individually – is easy for Walmart’s more than 140,000 warehouse workers, who also unload trucks, operate forklifts, sort and store goods on shelves, and send out shipments.But it’s a challenge for the new warehouse robots, which are too small to carry and unload the same cardboard boxes, according to a Wall Street Journal report.It might sound like a simple fix – replace the boxes.And that’s what Walmart is planning to do.

But the largest retail chain in the world has been using the same cardboard boxes for more than two decades, urging workers to reuse the boxes to save on costs. Now Walmart is planning to throw all those boxes – which cost an average of $1 each – in the trash, replacing them with new ones that are 1 ½ inches shorter and need to be taped closed, a new step that will cost more money, the report said. Philip McIlrath, the manager of an Indiana apparel warehouse using the new boxes, told the Journal it’s “a small change,” but for workers, “it’s changing their daily routine quite a bit.” He argued the new boxes will eventually reduce stocking time, which will lower labor costs.Walmart did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.The small robots, which move on wheels through the warehouses using motion sensors, struggle to hold oversized or heavy items, like turkeys – a problem that emerged a few years ago just ahead of the Thanksgiving rush, the report said. Workers in a newly-automated grocery warehouse in California noticed that the machine’s robotic arms fumbled large frozen turkeys.It required a shift to nearby grocery warehouses, which helped with turkey shipments to physical stores.The Brooksville ...