Radial, a global third-party logistics provider, or 3PL, that partners with some of the world’s top retail brands, recently gave insight into its deployments with Locus Robotics Corp.
When the King of Prussia, Pa.-based 3PL first explored warehouse automation, its team focused on speed, but its primary objective was quality. “Getting first-pass quality through the door on your first attempt is key for us,” explained David Welsh, vice president of fulfillment services delivery at Radial.
That meant reducing errors in picking, ensuring order visibility, and tightening control over fulfillment processes. Service improvements were the company‘s next priority in delivering orders faster and more predictably while keeping customers delighted.
Locus Robotics emerged as a strong fit for both objectives, Radial said.
Radial expands robotics deployment
Radial’s first deployment focused on outbound and inbound fulfillment, but the company quickly learned lessons that shaped its second rollout. One key insight was around allocation and involved understanding how many autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) were needed and what functions they should serve.
With those insights, Radial rethought its approach for the second site, which expanded automation to include replenishment, putaway, and returns. Associates no longer worked as single-function pickers. Instead, they became zone managers that were capable of running multiple workflows at once. The result was a more versatile workforce and a more resilient operation.
The next frontier for warehouse automation at Radial is cosmetics and beauty fulfillment, where it said it expects to double peak capacity while creating more predictable off-peak operations. The smaller product form factors and a need for micro-peak handling inherent in beauty and cosmetics fulfillment make automation even more valuable, said the company.
This progression shows how Radial balances consistency with customization. The company replicated its key pillars of training, quality, and time-to-serve across all implementations, while tailoring workflows to each vertical’s requirements.
Collaboration is key to success
Welsh noted that technology alone doesn’t drive success, and the collaboration between Radial, Locus Robotics, and other technology partners such as WMS provider Logiwa has been critical.
“There are project managers on our side, on the tech side, and on the Locus side, and they’re all working in concert,” Welsh said.
Weekly site visits and real-time optimizations keep implementations on track, and even details like adjusting waypoints or queueing processes are approached as joint decisions, he said. That shared ownership is what turns warehouse automation from a pilot into a scalable strategy, according to Locus.
Wilmington, Mass.-based Locus won a 2025 RBR50 Robotics Innovation Award, its eighth, for marking 4 billion robot-assisted picks. Earlier this year, the company surpassed 5 billion picks across its worldwide deployments.
Save the date for the 2026 Robotics SummitRadial sees workforce improvements with Locus
By enhancing pick accuracy and streamlining replenishment and putaway, warehouse automation allowed Radial to improve the fundamentals of quality while setting the stage for more consistent service.
The operational gains of automation were clear, but what surprised Welsh most was the effect robots had on the workforce. Traditional picker training often takes weeks, but with Locus, training time dropped to hours instead of days, thanks to an intuitive graphical interface.
“We were down to minutes and hours to train and onboard associates effectively at the same productivity and quality expectations we had,” Welsh recalled. “That was the most evident and clear differentiator that I saw immediately.”
This usability advantage has been carried forward with each AMR implementation, making adoption smoother and improving productivity from Day 1, he said.
In addition, at Radial’s site in Brownsburg, Ind., many associates are Haitian Creole speakers, and the multi-language capability of the LocusONE system helped improve workforce adoption with faster buy-in and stronger engagement.
Beyond accessibility, gamification features also play a role as dashboards show associates their productivity and quality in real time, benchmarked against peers.
“Whether it’s bragging rights in the break room or personal pride, that visibility resonates,” Welsh said.
Don’t confuse labor, machine metrics
Welsh said it’s important for fulfillment leaders not to confuse labor metrics with machine metrics.
“Units per labor hour isn’t the same as a unit per machine hour,” cautioned Welsh. “Your robot utilization is key.”
Matching labor to machine uptime and then feeding lessons learned back into planning cycles is essential for maximizing efficiency, he added.
For Welsh, the bigger picture is about enabling clients to thrive. Whether supporting apparel, cosmetics, or other industries, Radial sees automation as a way to deliver both scale and service without sacrificing quality.
“We’re here to help our customers delight their customers,” Welsh said. “Automation will have a part to play in our future and our strategy.”
Locus said Radial’s journey demonstrates that scaling automation is as much about people and process as it is about robots. By focusing on quality, training, and collaboration, the 3PL is creating a repeatable model that can flex across industries and sites.
