Asics America Corp. is using autonomous drones to find misplaced merchandise at its primary North American distribution center, a move the company says is helping it curb the risk of unfulfilled orders.

The technology, developed by Corvus Robotics, is helping the sportswear brand recover misplaced inventory about 60% faster, according to a Nov. 10 announcement from the warehouse automation provider.

At Asics’ facility in Byhalia, Mississippi, drones now conduct inventory counts in two key storage areas every month, up from twice annually. The higher frequency lets Asics offer merchandise on online marketplaces that were previously withheld due to fulfillment concerns.

Asics America, based in Irvine, California, is the U.S. subsidiary of Japanese sportswear company Asics Corp.

Asics America use of a Corvus One drone in a distribution center in Byhalia, Mississippi | Image credit: Corvus Robotics press release

How Asics uses drones to count warehouse inventory

Asics’ 855,000-square-foot distribution center in Byhalia houses nearly 3 million units of footwear, apparel and accessories across roughly 44,000 stock-keeping units.

The facility fulfills ecommerce orders while also supplying Asics stores and wholesale customers. All three channels draw from the same inventory pool, and customer returns are processed there as well.

Asics is using Corvus One drones in two warehouse zones: a singles area that stores returned merchandise and individual pairs of shoes, and a case reserve area that holds full cartons.

The drones perform seven scheduled flights a night, starting at around 7 p.m., Corvus said. Using onboard computer vision and spatial reasoning, they navigate aisles less than 6 feet wide without needing additional warehouse infrastructure, such as markers or beacons.

During each flight, the drones scan universal product codes while also counting boxes stored at each location. Corvus said the system compares those counts with barcode scans, identifying inventory discrepancies. The following morning, a warehouse employee reviews the results using images and video captured during the flights.

“Now we can just look at the footage and we can tell exactly what’s going on with it in the locations before we have to send someone out,” Angela Williford, inventory control operations manager at Asics America, said in a Corvus video case study. “If it’s something that we can correct from the desk, we’ll correct it then.”

More frequent counts help Asics recover merchandise

During one three-month period, drones identified 26 misplaced cases containing more than 200 pairs of shoes. Without the additional counts, those items could have remained unavailable for sale until the next scheduled inventory review, Asics said.

Koestler estimated that Asics is recovering misplaced inventory roughly 60% faster than before the deployment.

“You don’t want to have to count a thousand locations to find the four or five that have problems,” he said in the video case study.

The automation has also shifted how warehouse employees spend their time. Rather than focusing on routine cycle counts, workers can dedicate more effort to inventory reconciliation, discrepancy investigations and wholesale-support projects, according to the companies.

Corvus also said the drones reduce the need for lift equipment during inventory counts, limiting traffic in the facility’s narrow aisles.

Asics makes more inventory available to marketplaces

The inventory gains have also influenced how Asics sells products through online marketplaces.

Before adopting the drone system, Asics withheld between 12 and 15 units out of every 100 from the inventory feeds it provided to marketplace partners, according to Corvus. The company did so because products shown as available might be missing or difficult to locate when orders arrived.

With monthly counts providing greater visibility into stock levels, Asics said it now publishes its full inventory availability feed.

Corvus said the change allows Asics to offer more merchandise at full price rather than potentially liquidating it at a discount. The companies did not disclose how much additional revenue the change has generated.

Other retailers expand warehouse automation

Asics is among a growing number of companies deploying inventory drones to improve warehouse operations.

After deploying Corvus’ technology, health and wellness retailer GNC increased inventory counts at its distribution centers in Indianapolis and Phoenix, according to a case study. Counts rose to as many as 10 to 12 times per year, up from two to four.

Likewise, Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits expanded its drone deployment to nine distribution centers. The beverage distributor reported a 100-basis-point improvement in cases handled per hour, Corvus said.

Other major retailers are investing in different forms of warehouse automation. Walmart Inc. recently announced plans to expand Symbotic automation technology across 25 U.S. regional distribution centers. The retailer said the rollout is designed to support inventory management, increase storage capacity and improve product flow throughout its supply chain.

Walmart ranks No. 2 in Digital Commerce 360’s Top 1000 Database. The database tracks North America’s largest online retailers, ranking them by annual ecommerce sales and more.

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