Hy-Tek and Hai Robotics to automate NAPA Auto Parts flow centres
Hy-Tek Intralogistics and Hai Robotics have been awarded a warehouse automation contract with NAPA Auto Parts, one of the United States' largest automotive parts distributors. The project will deploy a multi-robot automated storage and retrieval system (AS/RS) across NAPA's flow centre operations, with Hy-Tek acting as systems integrator and Hai Robotics supplying its HaiPick platform.
The release does not disclose the contract value, the number of sites in scope, or the expected go-live date. NAPA operates a nationwide distribution network supported by approximately 800,000 SKUs, giving some indication of the scale of the integration challenge.
The project
Hy-Tek's role centres on system design and integration rather than hardware manufacture. Early in the engagement, NAPA evaluated the proposed Hai Robotics technology inside Hy-Tek's Innovation Lab, a live warehouse test environment the integrator uses to validate system performance before committing to full deployment. The lab-based pilot is a relatively common risk-mitigation step for large AS/RS projects, where rework costs after go-live can be substantial.
Tyler Park, Senior Director in Design Engineering at NAPA, said the project was "about designing the right solution for the way we operate today while giving us the flexibility to adapt as our network evolves," adding that the lab evaluation gave the team confidence before implementation began.
Derek Miller, Vice President of Sales at Hy-Tek, framed the engagement as advisory-led rather than a straightforward technology sale. "Our focus was on helping NAPA identify the right solution for its long-term operational goals, not simply implementing automation," he said.
The solution is designed to increase storage density, improve order accuracy and accelerate throughput, claims the company. No specific performance benchmarks or throughput figures were provided in the announcement.
Market context
Warehouse automation is experiencing sustained investment across retail, automotive and third-party logistics sectors, driven by labour cost pressures, e-commerce fulfilment speed expectations and post-pandemic supply chain restructuring. AS/RS technology, in particular, has attracted attention as a way to extract greater capacity from existing floor space rather than building new facilities.
Hai Robotics competes in a crowded AS/RS market alongside AutoStore, Kardex, Swisslog and a number of well-funded newer entrants. Systems integrators such as Hy-Tek sit in a structurally important position: they are vendor-agnostic in principle but tend to develop preferred-partner relationships with robotics suppliers, which shapes which platforms get recommended to end customers.
For NAPA, the move towards automated flow centres reflects a broader trend among large parts distributors to reduce pick error rates and improve same-day fulfilment capability as competition with online parts retailers intensifies. With nearly 6,000 US stores drawing stock from centralised distribution, even modest improvements in throughput speed and accuracy translate into material service-level gains across the network.
The project also highlights growing interest in pre-deployment testing environments. As automation systems become more complex and capital-intensive, buyers are increasingly seeking low-risk ways to validate technology choices before committing to full-scale rollout, a dynamic that could become a differentiator for integrators that maintain physical lab infrastructure.