Runner-up · Distribution infrastructure · Automated storage
Cutter & Buck opens 32-robot Texas fulfillment center.
Cutter & Buck has opened a Grand Prairie distribution center built around 32 AutoStore robots, 50,502 bins and software linking automated picking to downstream fulfillment.
Cutter & Buck has opened a new distribution center in Grand Prairie, Texas, centered on an AutoStore goods-to-person system designed and integrated by Kardex. The installation includes 50,502 storage bins, 32 R5 Pro robots, 13 inbound and outbound ports and Kardex FulfillX software coordinating the automated workflow.
Conveyors connect picking to embroidery, routing, print-and-apply and shipping so the site can handle both blank and decorated apparel. Cutter & Buck used operating data from its earlier Renton, Washington, AutoStore rather than copying that layout. The Texas system is designed for 1,256 bin presentations per hour, while simulation averaged 1,284; neither figure is measured live throughput. Kardex has not disclosed uptime, staffing change, order-cycle improvement or project economics.
Read original story ↗01
What changed
Cutter & Buck's Texas automation had been planned earlier in 2026. The October opening moves it into a completed physical facility and discloses the final robot, bin, port, software and downstream-process configuration.
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Why it matters
Automated storage projects often optimize the grid while leaving decoration, packing or shipping as separate bottlenecks. Cutter & Buck designed the Texas site around the full fulfillment path and reused operating knowledge from an earlier installation, a more credible scaling model than duplicating a template. The system also shows how warehouse software can coordinate robots with value-added production steps such as embroidery. The remaining question is performance under real demand: design simulations do not establish live throughput, uptime, labor productivity or order accuracy.
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What to watch
Watch measured bin presentations per hour, order-cycle time, robot and port utilization, availability, embroidery and shipping constraints, staffing change, accuracy, peak-season performance and expansion of robots or ports.
Why it was a runner-up
The new physical facility and detailed automation scope are credible, but its 1,256-bin-per-hour figure is a design target rather than measured production performance.
Impact: 86/100 · Confidence: 94/100
Kardex provides the opening date and detailed system configuration, while New Equipment Digest and Supply Chain Dive independently corroborate the facility and distinguish simulated from measured throughput. Confidence is high in the deployment and lower in unreported operating results.
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