Go-Pak has introduced an AI-enabled warehouse robot to automate part of its inbound handling operation, cutting container unloading times and increasing throughput at its packaging distribution business.
The system, known internally as Stretch, photographs incoming goods, identifies dimensions, and places cases on to conveyors feeding a palletiser. Go-Pak said the change has reduced unloading time for heavy stock-keeping units from around 7.5 hours per container to roughly 2.5 hours, while the robot can handle up to 800 cases an hour and the palletising stage can reach 1,200 cases an hour.
The installation was delivered with support from parent company SCG Packaging and drew on external engineering and integration work involving Boston Dynamics, Kalyan Conveyors, WestRock, civil engineers, and Go-Pak’s own team. Rather than running as a stand-alone showcase, the robot has been built into the warehouse and IT environment around existing flows, which is usually where these projects either prove their value or become expensive theatre.
Ned Sweeney, Group Head of Project Management at Go-Pak, said the business wanted to increase pace and precision without trading away workforce development or service performance. That is a more credible argument when the labour shift is visible in the process itself: once the repetitive unloading work is removed, staff can be redeployed into quality control, exception handling, and operational problem-solving instead of simply chasing the same volume faster.
The wider market is moving in the same direction. Logistics remained the largest segment for professional service robots in 2024, and warehouse operators are increasingly targeting specific bottlenecks such as case handling, pallet movement, and trailer or container unloading rather than attempting full automation in a single step. Go-Pak’s move fits that pattern. It is less about building a lights-out warehouse than about removing a stubborn manual constraint in a busy packaging operation.
More information is available from Go-Pak Group.
