McCoy’s Building Supply deploys robots to monitor shelves

A regional Southwest building supply retailer is leveraging the power of robotics to prevent out-of-stocks and incorrect prices in its stores.

Texas-based McCoy’s Building Supply is rolling out in-store robots from Badger Technologies, a product division of Jabil Inc., to detect out-of-stock (OOS) and incorrectly priced products on the shelves.

McCoy’s is able to obtain daily updates on product availability and pricing for up to 50,000 SKUs per location. The robots complete inventory shelf scans in two hours each day, freeing associates from manual shelf inspections which previously took up to 50 hours per week.

This represents a 72% reduction in time required each week to conduct product and price checks. According to Badger Technologies, the robots also enable the retailer to identify OOS items on shelves with more than 95% accuracy, while helping to decrease OOS products by up to 50% and improving price tag accuracy by more than 97%.

The collection and correlation of sell-through and pricing-trend data, along with OOS duration and frequency, enables McCoy’s to prioritize product replenishment. In addition, the robots help McCoy’s keep track of product locations, which can speed re-stocking of the most popular products while assisting merchandise forecasting, commodity management, and planogram compliance.

“We continually seek innovative ways to elevate customer service while removing operational obstacles for store associates,” said Waylon Walker, senior VP, operations & merchandising for McCoy’s Building Supply. “With Badger Technologies robots, we can eliminate manual, time-consuming inventory checks and attain real-time data to better address customer preferences and buying trends.”

“Our multipurpose autonomous robots offer retailers much-needed relief by extending staff operations and providing critical data to increase efficiencies and improve shopping experiences,” said William “B.J.” Santiago, CEO of Badger Technologies. “The robots deployed by McCoy’s are making a major impact in increasing customer satisfaction, improving storewide operations, and boosting retail revenues.”

[Read more: Busy Beaver ensures shelf compliance with robots]

Based in San Marcos, Texas, McCoy’s Building Supply is one of the nation’s largest, privately held building supply retailers with 85 stores throughout Texas, New Mexico, and Oklahoma.