GNC Uses Drones to Elevate Inventory Management

Global health and wellness leader GNC is always searching for ways to streamline its operations and better serve its customers. The retailer provides a wide variety of science-based products and solutions through company-owned retail locations, domestic and international franchise locations, digital commerce, and strong wholesale and retail partnerships across the globe.

In 2024, GNC began looking for technology to help it tackle inventory management in two of its distribution centers (DCs). The DCs faced the following challenges:

• Inventory counting was a labor-intensive process that required large teams to manually audit 40,000 locations across two DCs.
• The time-intensive cycle counting process was conducted daily, sometimes over weekends, and needed external audits twice a year.
• When material handling equipment was deployed for cycle counting, it was unavailable for other tasks.
• Because it required so many resources, inventory audit counts were completed only two to four times a year.
• With many individuals involved and a high volume of inventory movement, misplaced products and errors were common.
• With no downtime in the Indianapolis facility, it was difficult to allocate lift trucks and staff for cycle counting without affecting operations.

In the face of these inventory management constraints, GNC implemented the Corvus One™ Autonomous Inventory Management System from Corvus Robotics in both its Whitestown, Indiana, and Phoenix, Arizona distribution centers.

Related story: The Evolution of Same-Day Delivery: How E-Commerce Brands Are Meeting Instant Gratification Needs

Here’s How it Works

What makes Corvus One stand out is its unique, infrastructure-free autonomy. Instead of relying on stickers, reflectors or beacons for localization and navigation, the drones use embodied artificial intelligence composed of neural networks, machine learning and computer vision. This means the drones can operate without requiring any changes to the warehouse. Facility layouts, racks and barcodes remain untouched, making deployment fast, affordable and hassle-free.

Once implemented, the Corvus One system operates free from human involvement. The drones take off, fly, land, charge, and transfer data completely autonomously. This, coupled with its advanced navigation capabilities, make the Corvus One system adaptable to virtually any scenario, including in lights-out environments, helping businesses save on labor and energy costs without ever needing to overhaul their infrastructure.

The Implementation

GNC installed four landing pads in its Whitestown DC to support three drones, which verify and count 31,000 locations a month.

The drones operate throughout the day during business hours to keep up with GNC’s high order volume, improving inventory accuracy, reducing shrinkage, and minimizing human errors. By automating daily cycle counts, the drones have freed up labor and material handling equipment, enabling faster order fulfillment and more efficient warehouse operations.

Bill Monk, vice president of distribution at GNC, began seeing results as soon as the Corvus One drones started flying. In particular, the drones increased the accuracy and efficiency of tracking and storing products in the DC.

The Corvus One system is also identifying problems with GNC's inventory data. For instance, an associate may have typed in a wrong number that says an item is one-inch tall instead of 10-inches tall. The Corvus One system offers an opportunity to correct that data, and do it quickly.

Additional benefits include:

• Eliminates need for manual cycle counts, which are often error-prone, labor- and time-intensive, and costly. With real-time data capture and integration with existing warehouse management systems (WMS), GNC gets up-to-date inventory insights without disrupting operations. This allows the retailer to quickly resolve discrepancies, reduce shrinkage, and make smarter decisions about stock levels.
• Optimizes slot and space utilization by using volumetric estimates to suggest better ways to consolidate and organize inventory, and provides valuable data that can be leveraged to lower storage costs. Additionally, the system captures photos and videos of every scanned location, creating a historical record that helps operations teams track changes and resolve issues over time.
• Addresses workforce challenges by automating repetitive tasks like cycle counting and physical inventory audits. This frees up employees to focus on higher-value work, which is especially critical in an industry fraught with labor shortages and absenteeism. By reducing audit times and improving accuracy, it helps businesses save time and money while boosting operational productivity.

“I think the big differentiator for Corvus Robotics is that not only can it verify but it can count,” said Monk. “I like the Corvus Robotics drones because they are out of sight, out of mind. And they're doing things that there’s really not a lot of value to an individual on. But to the business, it’s priceless.”

Andrew Burer is the head of marketing at Corvus Robotics, a provider of autonomous warehouse inventory drones.