Walmart to Open Automated Fulfillment Center

Walmart plans to open a 925,000 square-foot automated fulfillment center in Fall 2022 to support its growing supply chain network and e-commerce business.

The new facility, located at 1015 Hixson Boulevard in Lebanon, TN, will create up to 300 full-time jobs. Walmart’s high-tech fulfillment center (FC) will include a combination of associates, AI-software and automated robots that work together to ship orders to customers faster. Walmart said "the new fulfillment center marks the retailer’s first in the state of Tennessee." In addition to the upcoming high-tech FC, Walmart also operates three distribution centers, 150 retail stores and employs 42,500-plus associates in the state.

“We’re thrilled to be bringing a new high-tech fulfillment center to the community of Lebanon,” said David Guggina, senior vice president, automation and innovation at Walmart U.S. “This facility will include game changing automation technology that’s radically disrupting the supply chain, improving the customer experience and saving time for associates.”

The high-tech fulfillment center supports an initiative the retailer shared earlier this year to build additional supply chain capacity using automation to stay ahead of demand, improve the customer experience and increase productivity. It will store millions of items from Walmart’s merchandise to be shipped directly to customers as soon as next-day. Once an online order is placed, a fleet of automated robots navigate a compact storage system to retrieve products and bring them to associates for packing. The order is then shipped directly to the customer, with speed.

[See also: Walmart Adding Supply Chain Automation to 25 Distribution Centers]

“Walmart’s fulfillment center in Wilson County will play an important role in our broader supply chain network, focused on fulfilling Walmart.com orders and supporting our promise of free next-day and two-day shipping,” said Steve Miller, senior vice president of supply chain operations, Walmart U.S. “We’re thrilled to be opening our newest fulfillment center in the great state of Tennessee and look forward to a long relationship with the community of Lebanon.”

The fulfillment center is currently hiring full-time positions, including the following leadership positions: General Manager, Human Resource Manager, Maintenance Manager and Environmental Health and Safety Operations Manager. Candidates can search open positions and complete applications online at careers.walmart.com.