January 9, 2020 – Tompkins Robotics ,a business unit of Tompkins International, has teamed up with Nordstrom to design and deploy parcel sortation systems to help streamline the fashion retailer’s distribution operations at a few sites throughout the U.S. The robotic solution utilizes Tompkins Robotics’ t-Sort autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) to support e-commerce and retail replenishment needs.
Designed for small to large distribution operations, t-Sort is a portable, scalable robotic sortation system that operates similar to a tilt tray or crossbelt sorter without a fixed track, consisting of free moving robots along the shortest route possible to sort items and packages by shipping order, destination or service level. While automation can sometimes require a large upfront investment, the t-Sort system is fully modular and additional robots can be added or removed instantaneously without any interruption or downtime, enabling Nordstrom to ramp up for peak seasons.
Nordstrom is utilizing Tompkins Robotics’ t-Sort system to handle unit and item sortation of e-commerce and store fulfillment orders as well as the provider’s larger t-Sort Plus robots for parcel and carton shipping sortation to outbound carriers and modes. The retailer is currently using the t-Sort robotic solution to fulfill west coast beauty orders.