Swiss Plant Goes 100-Robot Skypod Leap

Over 100 Skypod robots are live at Luterbach—nothing moves like it.

Dosenbach-Ochsner, the Swiss sportswear and equipment retailer owned by the Deichmann Group, has turned its Luterbach site in the canton of Solothurn into a high-density intralogistics showcase. The Exotec Skypod system, acclaimed for its scalable, carousel-like towers of autonomous pickers, is now supplying picking and packing stations across a large portion of the facility. Production data shows the system’s go-live was relatively rapid for a project of this scale, and integration teams report the deployment is being watched closely as a benchmark for Swiss warehousing modernization.

One hundred-plus robots is not a trivial installation. Exotec positions Skypod as a space-efficient solution that can punch above its weight in high-throughput environments, and Dosenbach-Ochsner’s decision to scale to triple digits signals a willingness to treat automation as a core production line, not a pilot. Floor supervisors confirm the layout was redesigned to accommodate the pods and their charging infrastructure, while IT teams prepared a robust network to manage coordinated picking tasks and exception handling. The deployment aligns with a broader push in European commerce to shorten order cycles for fast-moving consumer goods and apparel, even as staff levels remain essential for non-standard tasks.

From a practitioner lens, this scale raises several realities. Integration teams report that moving from a handful of cobots to more than a hundred Skypods requires careful floor-space planning and dedicated power provisioning, plus a disciplined approach to operator training and change management. Humans still handle tasks that demand nuanced judgment—exception handling, product verification in cases of damaged items, and the occasional manual assist for oversized orders. The system’s efficiency gains depend on clean data flows and stable interfaces with ERP and WMS layers; any misalignment can ripple into delays, even in a highly automated setting.

Hidden costs, vendors rarely enumerate up front, come into sharper focus at this scale. Beyond initial capex, maintenance contracts, software subscriptions, and routine downtime for software updates can influence the total cost of ownership. As with any large deployment, a portion of budget must also cover ongoing training, spare parts, and the integration of new SKUs without disrupting ongoing operations. Operators note that the value of the system hinges on continuous monitoring, not a one-off install—especially when demand spikes or seasonal shifts demand rapid reconfiguration.

The Swiss deployment at Luterbach underscores a broader industry pattern: when a well-known brand commits to a multi-hundred-robot intralogistics system, the implicit signaling is that autonomous warehouses are not a distant prospect but a growing reality for European distribution networks. Yet the absence of publicly disclosed ROI or payback metrics for this particular project means finance executives will want independent validation before committing to similarly scaled bets. ROI documentation reveals the likely payback hinges on sustained throughput gains, stable maintenance costs, and the ability to absorb higher initial capex without sacrificing flexibility.

In the near term, the Dosenbach-Ochsner project will be watched for the durability of the system under Swiss labor and regulatory conditions, the reliability of continuous picking with variable product mixes, and the speed with which staff can be retrained to handle the “orchestrator” role that binds hundreds of robots to a single, efficient workflow. If the 100+ Skypods keep humming without major disruption, the next question isn’t whether automation works, but how quickly manufacturers can scale it to match peak demand without breaking the bank.

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Dosenbach-Ochsner installs more than 100 Exotec Skypod robots to modernize Swiss warehouse