Robotic Depalletizng at GNC Live Well

Customer

GNC Live well

Industry

Intralogistics – Retail & E-commerce

Application

RODE – robotic depalletzing (of random-mixed packages)

Product of customer

Cardboard boxes & shrink-wrapped items

Location

Indianapolis, Indiana, USA

Challenges Faced by GNC

Global health and wellness retailer GNC faced significant congestion inside its Indianapolis distribution center. With 15,000–28,000 product units arriving daily, manual depalletization became a bottleneck and an ergonomic burden.

Ergonomically demanding manual labor. Daily depalletizing was physically strenuous and posed ergonomic risks for employees.
High labor requirements. Between six and eight associates were required to manually depalletize incoming products every day.
Inconsistent and sporadic product flow. The high and fluctuating volume created inefficiencies and unpredictable throughput.
Operational congestion. The manual process created congestion, limiting the facility’s overall productivity.
Hesitation toward automation. GNC had previously been held back by uncertainty regarding the adoption of robotic systems and how they would integrate with existing workflows.

Solution: Robotic Depalletizer for random-mixed packages

GNC partnered with AWL to design and implement a turnkey robotic depalletization solution. Two FANUC R-2000iC/125L industrial robots—affectionately named Astro and Blitz by GNC associates—were deployed to automate manual depalletizing, allowing employees to focus on higher-value tasks with better customer touch-points.

Equipment

FANUC R-2000iC/125L industrial robots for high-payload pallet handling
Custom end-of-arm tooling engineered by AWL for
- mixed-case handling
- multi-picking
- picking of shrink-wrapped items
- Slip sheet and empty tray removal
AI-guided vision system to identify and handle varying product types
Automatic labelling system that labels on two sides
Automatic pallet stacker
Operator interface with call-signal system, enabling staff to direct robots to the correct zone

Key features

Consistent and reliable product flow throughout the facility
Ergonomically safe alternative to heavy, repetitive labor
Modular and scalable design for future volume increases
Seamless integration with existing warehouse operations
Improved labor allocation to higher-value, less strenuous tasks

Results

“We’re still learning and the team is still getting more comfortable with it, but at the end of the day, we really starting to see the productivity, the consistency of it and some of the benefits that we were expecting.”