- Cobot Spotlight Newsletter
- Posts
- Product Packing Takes Too Much Time? This Logistics Company Got a 500% Productivity Boost And 3-Month ROI!
Product Packing Takes Too Much Time? This Logistics Company Got a 500% Productivity Boost And 3-Month ROI!
In a tight labor market, finding a way to run fulfillment centers at scale with lower costs is extremely difficult. Yet, DCL Logistics did it anyway, with 50% labor savings, absolute accuracy, and 500% efficiency boost.
Catherine Bernier
July 02, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 6 minutes
Did someone forward this newsletter to you? Subscribe to our weekly Cobot Spotlight newsletter where we analyze success stories just like this one!
DCL Logistics is a US-based third-party logistics (3PL) company working with fast-growing electronics and medical brands. They’ve been crushing it in direct-to-consumer fulfillment.
But with explosive growth (20% year over year!), rising labor costs, and seasonal spikes where 40% of orders happen in just two months…
They needed help. Fast.
“Our need to do direct-to-consumer fulfillment faster, at scale and cheaper has become increasingly more important.”
However, it took some trial and error until they found their game-changing solution.
On the road for automated flexibility… DCL Logistics hit many dead ends. But once they tried collaborative robotics, things moved in the right direction.
DCL Logistics actually integrated the Universal Robots’ UR10e cobot themselves with relative ease, resulting in massive savings and a productivity boost for their fulfillment center.
Cobot Brand | Supplier | Application |
|---|---|---|
Universal Robots | Universal Robots | Machine tending, Product handling |
The Key Problems | How the Cobot Was Implemented | The Results |
Manual fulfillment couldn’t keep up with growth and seasonality. Other automation options were too expensive or inflexible. | UR10e cobot with UR+ gripper and camera picks, verifies, and packs items into boxes 24/7, and uses DCL’s conveyor system. | 500% productivity increase, 50% labor savings, 100% order accuracy, 3-month ROI. Scalable and safe automation for growing demand. |
What Drove DCL Logistics To Seek Automation
While DCL Logistics’ business is booming… With growth comes pain, especially during seasonal spikes like Black Friday.
Labor costs kept rising. Seasonal workers were hard to find. And the manual picking process was getting out of hand. This is the point where most similar businesses get stuck. It becomes impossible to keep up, let alone scale.
DCL looked at several robotic picking and fulfillment systems, but none were ideal.
“They were either too expensive, the ROI wasn’t there, or the application didn’t work for the customers that we service, and it didn’t have the flexibility that we were looking for. So we thought, ‘Hey, why don’t we try to build it ourselves,’” said Dave Tu president at DCL Logistics.
Why Collaborative Robots And Why The UR10e Was Perfect For Them
Automating often isn’t enough. Unless you squeeze every bit of your investment, why pursue it in the first place?
DCL didn’t just look for plain solutions. They wanted to tick every box:
Flexibility
Sufficient reach
Easy programming
Seamless integration into their existing workflows
Something that worked safely with their current staff
And that’s what they were able to do with the UR10e cobot from Universal Robots, especially thanks to a wide range of UR+ certified products and UR software.
UR 10e cobot with the piCobot gripper and DataLogic camera picking a shelfed product before placing it into a box on a conveyor belt. Image source.
Effortless Integration
DCL were even able to use the cobot as a controller, eliminate the need for a PLC, and develop a system where the cobot controls the conveyor without excessive hassle.
“Universal Robots provided a solution that fit our needs. Also, it’s modular, so we could scale slowly and understand what we need. Number two, it was flexible in the way it was programmed so we can build and integrate into our systems very easily. And number three, it could work alongside our current workforce, and that was really important to us: making sure that the robots would augment what we’re currently doing,” said Brian.
Image of the URCap software on the teach pendant with integrated controls for various components of the system. Image source.
UR+ certified gripper by piCobot allowed seamless integration, including the URCap software operating the gripper through the teach pendant.
Likewise, DCL chose the DataLogic camera (also UR+ certified peripheral). The camera scans multiple barcodes simultaneously, part numbers, and serial numbers, allowing them to pick and verify boxed items.
24/7 Fulfillment, No Breaks Needed
The setup is clean and smart:
Conveyor brings in boxes.
UR10e picks an item every 6 seconds.
It scans and verifies the item.
Then drops it into the right box.
If something’s off, it tosses the item into a reject bin. No production stop.
“We designed the application using the Universal Robot, so it can run 24 hours, seven days a week without any human interaction,”
Found this newsletter valuable? Share it with your peers to amplify the impact of cobots in our lives!
One Robot. 5x the Output.
Before automation, DCL needed five people to manage one manual picking line.
50% labor savings
500% productivity
No new hires for seasonal surges
Staff redeployed to higher-value roles
100% order accuracy (up from 99.5%)
All this while achieving just a 3-month ROI… And passing the savings to their customers.
This is one of those astonishing stories where a business gets the most out of a cobot integration. DCL Logistics is a prime example of what you can achieve too, as long as you match the right cobot system with your process requirements. Learn more about their success below:
Do you have a success story to share? Send us an email! We want to hear about it!
Enjoy your week!
The Cobot Spotlight Team