JD com : Robotic Arm Sounds JDL’s HKEX Listing Gong

by Yuchuan Wang

JD Logistics (JDL) listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEx) on May 28 at 9:30 am Beijing time with the ticker 2618.HK. Among the representatives ringing the gong was a six-axis robotic arm from JD's warehouse, which sounded the gong together with JDL's client representative Willie Tan, the executive officer of Skechers Greater China, Southeast Asia and South Korea.

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The six-axis robot is one of dozens of different kinds of robots utilized by JDL. It is based on AI technologies including deep learning, image recognition and more for automated picking up, sorting and stacking. Robots play a significant role in securing the fast and agile fulfillment of hundreds of millions of orders across more than 1,000 warehouses nationwide. JDL's Shanghai Asia No.1 logistics park is able to handle as many as 1.3 million orders a day thanks to the application of advanced robots and automation technology.

The core of achieving such high efficiency is the execution of the concept of 'human-machine synergy,' enabling employees to handle tasks smartly and swiftly.

In JD's Beijing Asia No.1 logistics park, 330 AGVs (automated ground vehicles) work collaboratively to pick up consumers' orders. Utilizing QR codes on the ground to guide their routes, the little robots automatically recognize and plan their route.

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AGVs inside JD's warehouse

JD's 'picker' employees can stay on the working platform and wait for the AGVs to come to them, enabling individual pickers to each pick about 250 orders per hour, which is three times the efficiency of a traditional picking approach where the warehouse worker would have to walk to the shelf, get the goods themselves and then go back to the packing area.

In Changshu, Jiangsu province, nearly a hundred autonomous delivery vehicles are delivering JD.com's parcels to consumers' homes. The application of such vehicles enables local couriers deliver 1.5 times more parcels a day, helping to increase their daily earning potential.

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JD's autonomous delivery vehicle

Logistics technology including robots and automation have offered huge potential to help employees develop and leave the hardest and most boring jobs to technology to handle. As early as 2016, JD launched a 'cloud ladder plan' to equip staff members with technical abilities. Now, many front-line workers in JD's warehouses and delivery stations have become professionals with technical abilities.

According to JDL's prospectus, the company has invested nearly RMB 5.3 billion yuan in technology in the past three years. By the end of 2020, JDL was entitled to over 4,400 patents and computer software copyrights (including applications thereof), of which over 2,500 are related to its automation and unmanned technologies.

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