TOKYO – 7-Eleven Japan on Sept 9 began testing robots to handle tasks such as restocking shelves with drinks and cleaning windows and floors at a store in Tokyo.
Over the next three months, the company will assess how effective the robots are at saving labour and may expand their use to other stores.
The trial is under way at the company-operated Arakawa Nishiogu 7-chome store in Tokyo’s Arakawa ward.
A monitor installed beside the self-checkout register enables remote customer service staff to answer inquiries and recommend products. Multilingual support is also available for foreign customers.
7-Eleven estimates that employees currently spend an average of one to two hours per day transporting beverages from storage to shelves for display.
The company expect to see employee workload reduced by about 30 per cent through the use of robots during this experiment.
Mr Hiroki Takei, head of operations at the company, said: “We aim to increase productivity and create an environment where we can challenge ourselves to create new product assortments and services.”
In response to rising labour costs and labour shortages, major convenience store chains are expanding their use of digital technology.
FamilyMart has begun using floor-cleaning robots in more than 1,000 stores, while Lawson is using automated cooking robots and other technological solutions. THE JAPAN NEWS/ASIA NEWS NETWORK
AloJapan.com