Making the Right Investments in Automated Warehouse Technology

Warehouse Automation

Warehouse automation is fundamental across all players in the supply chain.

It's easy to see why, as well-implemented automation is essential to reduce costs, manage labor, meet customer demands, and future-proof automation.

Warehouse Automation Investment

The issue is that warehouse automation requires investment and lots of it.

Significant up-front capital expenditure combines with multi-year infrastructure projects and concerns around future demand and technological relevance.

This makes warehouse automation investment decisions difficult, balancing enormously significant promises and benefits on one side with questions about ROI and risk appetite on the other.

Executives and senior managers have good reasons to be cautious - but they still need to deliver.

There’s a lot at stake, from operational efficiencies and cost optimization to delivering better customer experiences and outcomes.

Warehouse Automation - Promises and Risks

At the heart of this is the tension between promises and risks - what automation could deliver, versus the direct and indirect costs of investment. One of the many topics covered in his guide is a proposal for asolution to these challenges - shifting the risks by moving towards true, end-to-end third-party logistics (3PL) providers who are leading the field in automation investments.

Topics Covered:

• An overview of warehouse automation, including the current state of play, key technologies, and the critical factors driving decision-making.
• The benefits of investing in automation, include labor optimization, cost savings, supply chain management, and customer satisfaction.
• A deeper dive into four critical decision factors: Labor cost and availability, scalability and future planning, consumer-focused service levels, and future-proofing.
• The challenges of investing in warehouse automation and the key uncertainties and risks that supply chain executives are dealing with.
• How the shift to a 3PL solution can minimize the risks of investment.

We hope this provides a useful starting point and additional context for your warehouse automation investment decisions.