Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

Forward Thinking

Rise of warehouse automation changes site selection plans for e-commerce DCs

Fully autonomous logistics still decades away, but robots are already changing warehouse floor plans, ceiling heights, Cushman and Wakefield says.

Rising demand for same-day delivery is changing the face of industrial real estate, requiring last-mile DCs to be located in urban locations and forcing distribution hubs to be built with the high ceilings and very flat floors needed for warehouse robotics, a new report says.

With the adoption of disruptive supply chain technologies forecast to double in the next five years, commercial real estate (CRE) for logistics will increasingly be built for both people and robots, according to the Chicago-based realty firm Cushman and Wakefield.


More specifically, the adoption of industrial robots and collaborative robotics (cobots) are expected to double by 2021, which has major implications for the 60 percent of U.S. logistics real estate inventory that's more than 20 years old, according to the Aug. 13 report "Tech Disruptors and the Supply Chain: Robots, Drones, and Autonomous Vehicles."

Bar chart: U.S. Supply of Industrial Robots

U.S. supply of industrial robots
Diagram: Design considerations for large warehouses to mitigate risk of obsolescence

Design considerations for large warehouses to mitigate risk of obsolescence

At the same time, technology is also swiftly changing the practice of last-mile delivery services outside the four walls of the warehouse, with remote logistics locations benefitting from an increasingly autonomous logistics strategy of self-driving trucks and platooning vehicles that automatically follow each other down the highway, the report found.

While fully autonomous logistics is still decades away, these changes will affect the speed, accuracy, and cost of delivery of products, Cushman and Wakefield said. In turn, those sinking transportation costs will make remote warehouse locations more attractive, boosting real estate demand in secondary and tertiary markets in comparison to major port markets such as Los Angeles and Inland Empire, those close to large population centers like New Jersey, and in major distribution hubs including Chicago and Atlanta.

As those changes play out, the logistics map will be redrawn to some extent, the report found. For example, over half of the total industrial inventory in the U.S. has indoor clearance heights below 28 feet, even as some technologies—such as advanced automation/robotics—require higher ceilings of 32 to 36 feet.

However, closer to urban cores, warehouse/distribution facilities will be smaller and less automated than the regional distribution centers which focus on labels, stocking, and picking. In fact, infill locations will more than likely need to maintain lower ceiling heights for high-velocity goods, Cushman and Wakefield said.

At the same time, robots will have a rising profile in last-mile delivery. While drones get more attention, there will likely be quicker and wider adoption of rolling, ground-based, final-delivery "bots," the firm said. That transition will boost demand for urban warehousing for high-velocity goods, and likely encourage tenants to mitigate the costs of expensive urban locations by exploring multi-tenancy and asset sharing.

While supply chain automation will undoubtedly result in some job losses, the sector is actually suffering from a skills shortage, featuring forecasted labor shortages in trucking (174,000 by 2026) and manufacturing (2.4 million by 2028), the firm said. Robots will make up for that shortfall and improve efficiencies, particularly for those jobs with safety issues, repetitive tasks, or as augmented decision making tools. Any remaining job losses will be offset by some workers being retrained for the right skills and completely new jobs being created in which people and robots collaborate, so-called "cobots," according to the report.

Recent

More Stories

ATRI releases annual list of nation’s top truck bottlenecks

ATRI releases annual list of nation’s top truck bottlenecks

New Jersey is home to the most congested freight bottleneck in the country for the seventh straight year, according to research from the American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI), released today.

ATRI’s annual list of the Top 100 Truck Bottlenecks aims to highlight the nation’s most congested highways and help local, state, and federal governments target funding to areas most in need of relief. The data show ways to reduce chokepoints, lower emissions, and drive economic growth, according to the researchers.

Keep ReadingShow less

Featured

chart of warehouse rents

Colliers: warehouse construction rates return to pre-pandemic levels

It’s getting a little easier to find warehouse space in the U.S., as the frantic construction pace of recent years declined to pre-pandemic levels in the fourth quarter of 2024, in line with rising vacancies, according to a report from real estate firm Colliers.

Those trends played out as the gap between new building supply and tenants’ demand narrowed during 2024, the firm said in its “U.S. Industrial Market Outlook Report / Q4 2024.” By the numbers, developers delivered 400 million square feet for the year, 34% below the record 607 million square feet completed in 2023. And net absorption, a key measure of demand, declined by 27%, to 168 million square feet.

Keep ReadingShow less
chart of trucking costs per mile

Uber Freight: Trump tariffs will likely be avoided after pause ends in March

As U.S. businesses count down the days until the expiration of the Trump Administration’s monthlong pause of tariffs on Canada and Mexico, a report from Uber Freight says the tariffs will likely be avoided through an extended agreement, since the potential for damaging consequences would be so severe for all parties.

If the tariffs occurred, they could push U.S. inflation higher, adding $1,000 to $1,200 to the average person's cost of living. And relief from interest rates would likely not come to the rescue, since inflation is already above the Fed's target, delaying further rate cuts.

Keep ReadingShow less
chart of container imports at US ports

Descartes: U.S. container imports reached a record for the month of January

Against a backdrop of tariff volatility and uncertain business conditions, U.S. container imports reached a record for the month of January at 2,487,470 TEUs (twenty foot equivalent units), according to a report from supply chain software vendor Descartes.

The surge comes as the U.S. imposed a new 10% tariff on Chinese goods as of February 4, while pausing a more aggressive 25% tariffs on imports from Mexico and Canada until March, Descartes said in its “February Global Shipping Report.”

Keep ReadingShow less
supply chain pro using multiple screens

Cofactr acquires Factor.io to speed procurement for hardware manufacturers

Supply chain software vendor Cofactr said Thursday that it has acquired the AI-based solution provider Factor.io in a move it said will enable faster procurement and reduce logistical delays for its clients.

According to Cofactr, Factor.io automates the ordering and tracking of manufacturers’ complete list of materials, components and parts—across the hundreds of suppliers that produce and assemble them—so they can more efficiently move from sourcing and shipping to finished goods.

Keep ReadingShow less