Swisslog AutoStore for Kuwait’s first fully automated robotics-fulfillment center for Raha
The region’s newest e-grocery platform features fully automated robotics-fulfillment center and one of the first centers of the kind globally with a chilled warehouse capability.
Kuwait, 31 March 2022 – With the launch of Raha, an innovative homegrown concept, set to redefine Kuwait’s grocery experience – Swisslog has implemented Kuwait’s first fully-automated robotics-fulfillment center, and one of the first centers of the kind globally with a chilled warehouse capability.
The technological infrastructure developed by global warehouse automation specialist, Swisslog, serves as the core foundation of Raha’s technology-driven operational model and fully automated, data-driven intralogistics system – featuring the AutoStore solution; an innovative automated material handling solution that uses robots on top of an aluminum grid system to store and locate goods, efficiently delivering them to pick stations for processing.
Conceived as a digital operation first and foremost, Raha is making a huge investment in its technological infrastructure and completely self-serving operational model, including the robot-led fulfillment team and in-house preparation of all fresh items. Raha’s easy-to-navigate smart platform leverages users’ data and insights to provide a personalized customer journey unlike any other in the market, with made-to-order items, easy step-by-step customization, tailored recipes, and an impressively wide range of varieties across all product segments.
With a core commitment to hit quality and freshness benchmarks across every order, Raha employs a completely temperature-controlled and precise process. The full cycle of logistics - from procurement to last-mile delivery - is systematic and precisely controlled. Dedicated areas for the in-house preparation of meats, poultry, fish, and deli items offer consumers unparalleled freshness when coupled with Raha’s unique indoor dispatch area. Their trained fleet carry out the last-mile delivery that is route-optimized and time-efficient to complete the full cycle, seamlessly inserting Raha’s redefined grocery experience into the online commerce space that users are increasingly migrating to today.
David Dronfield, General Manager of Swisslog Middle East, noted: “The micro-fulfilment center designed for Raha is the first automated micro-fulfilment center (MFC) implemented in Kuwait, with a system designed in such a way that order capacity per day can be effectively doubled through the ease of expansion our solution provides.”
Customers are offered unparalleled flexibility and convenience by building a system that not only caters to both chilled and ambient products but that is designed to execute both express and scheduled delivery. Evidently, the pandemic present at the time of the envisage and conceptualization of the partnership played a role in the final desired outcomes and vision. Though Kuwait was under lock down, a tremendous work ethic and solid collaboration between Swisslog and Raha made possible the timely and successful implementation of the system, overcoming the pandemic barriers through our joint efforts.
