Woodman’s Markets adding robots to monitor inventory on its store shelves

Woodman's store in Oak Creek. Photo from Google.
Woodman's store in Oak Creek. Photo from Google.

Janesville-based Woodman’s Markets, which has stores in Menomonee Falls, Waukesha, Oak Creek and Kenosha, plans to add robots to all of its stores to keep tabs on the thousands of products on its shelves.

The robots will monitor product availability, verify prices and deliver location data for more than 100,000 items at each store, according to a news release.

The robots are being provided by Nicholasville, Kentucky-based Badger Technologies, a division of St. Petersburg, Florida-based Jabil Inc.

“Most Woodman’s stores are over 240,000 square feet, nearly six times larger than the grocery industry average,” said Tim Rowland, chief executive officer of Badger Technologies. “Not only can our robots perform shelf scans in hours instead of days, but they collect and connect critical data with the Woodman’s mobile shopping app to take customer experiences to the next level.”

Deployments of the robots at Woodman’s grocery stores are underway.

These robots will be deployed at all Woodman’s stores to monitor product availability, verify prices and deliver location data.

Badger Technologies says imaging tools and neural networks enable their robots to detect out-of-stock items with more than 95 percent accuracy. Incorrect and mispriced products are identified with over 90 percent accuracy, the company says.

“Woodman’s is committed to having the widest variety of groceries at the best prices, unlike other superstores that sell everything from bikes to bananas,” said Clint Woodman, president of Woodman’s Markets. “Badger’s robots are helping us fulfill this mission with real-time inventory visibility that yields analytics and actionable data insights to inform our business decisions.”

The ability to automate storewide shelf scans for out-of-stock items and price compliance will eliminate arduous manual tasks, Badger Technologies said in a news release. The robots will enable Woodman’s to take advantage of trending data to better forecast and manage commodities and vendors with frequent stock issues, the company said.

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Andrew Weiland
Andrew is the editor of BizTimes Milwaukee. He joined BizTimes in 2003, serving as managing editor and real estate reporter for 11 years. A University of Wisconsin-Madison graduate, he is a lifelong resident of the state. He lives in Muskego with his wife, Seng, their son, Zach, and their dog, Hokey. He is an avid sports fan and is a member of the Muskego Athletic Association board of directors.

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