Annual research shines light through the clouds

I love research. There’s no better way to understand the state of a market than to reach out to a large group of practitioners and ask them specific questions. This month in Modern, we put context around two of our most important pieces of annual research—our Warehouse & DC Operations Survey and our Salary Survey.

As long-time readers are aware, our annual Warehouse & DC Operations Survey encapsulates where we are on the warehouse/DC design evolutionary timeline. We see the profile of today’s DC network; understand current best practices; and, most importantly, we take a deep dive into how software, robotics and automation is being applied to meet today’s challenges.

Our Annual Salary Survey brings us up to date on average compensation and bonus numbers, educational levels, and career aspirations of today’s materials handling professionals. It’s the most comprehensive study of its kind in the materials handling market, and it’s consistently one of the best-read stories we publish.

Considering the current climate, senior editor Roberto Michel reports some encouraging news coming out of our operations survey. The 2023 findings reveal increasing use of automation “as a means of gaining efficiencies” and a rise in the use of productivity metrics. While we found a slight decrease in average capital expenditure (capex) budgets for equipment and technology, it wasn’t enough to raise concern.

“I thought it was encouraging to see the capex budgets held just about steady and use levels were up for technology like mobile robots, voice-directed solutions and several other types of automation and software,” says Michel. “At the same time, respondents are under pressure to manage operations more effectively, and for that, they should assess how to better leverage the data generated by their systems.”

Michel and our team at Peerless Research Group (PRG) partnered again this year with Norm Saenz Jr., managing director and a partner with St. Onge Co., and Don Derewecki, a senior consultant with St. Onge Co., on the development and the review of the findings.

“We saw increased use of automation, including autonomous vehicles to control labor costs in addition to making jobs easier and safer,” says Derewecki.

According to Saenz, it’s good to see the majority of readers continuing to evaluate new technologies and automation to increase labor productivity and reduce reliance on labor. “Overall, companies are increasing their focus on key performance metrics and how to best measure labor productivity to provide quality feedback, competitive pay and increase retention—that all points to a brighter future.”

Those rays of light continue in the findings of our 16th-Annual Salary Survey. As editor at large Bridget McCrea reports (page 28), 67% of readers say they saw their base salary increase, while 75% expect to receive a bonus, commission or additional form of income in 2023.

“Those are impressive numbers, considering the first nine-month period of 2023 was the second-worst stretch of layoffs across the U.S. since 2009,” says McCrea. “And to top off the rosy figures, 90% of 2023 respondents tell us that they would recommend the career to others—a figure that’s consistent with past years and one that readers should be happy to hear.”