Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

Forward Thinking

Mobility, partial automation dominate in the warehouse

By 2024, six out of 10 companies will use warehouse automation to enhance the human element, not replace it, Zebra Technologies study shows.

Warehouses and distribution centers will focus on worker mobility and partial automation strategies as they work to enhance facility efficiency over the next five years, according to a Zebra Technologies Warehousing Vision Studyreleased this week.

Three-quarters of the logistics IT and operations professionals the technology firm surveyed said that human interaction remains a key part of their "optimal operation balance," noting that automation strategies that require some human involvement or that augment worker performance by equipping them with mobile devices is the preferred way forward.


Mark Wheeler, Zebra's director of supply chain solutions, pointed to the use of robotics and automation to reduce transportation and non-value-added walk time in the warehouse as one example, adding that the use of sensor technology and intelligent automation to enhance worker performance will also grow in the years ahead.

"The hard stuff, for the most part, is still being done by human labor," Wheeler said, emphasizing the need for flexible, scalable technology that can help accomplish complex warehousing and distribution tasks. "It's more critical than ever [that workers] have the right technology to do those jobs."

Although the study revealed a clear understanding of the need to automate in the warehouse and DC, it also showed that many professionals in manufacturing, transportation and logistics, retail, post and parcel delivery, and wholesale distribution markets don't know where to begin. Study findings showed that:

  • More than three-quarters (77 percent) of respondents agree that augmenting workers with technology is the best way to introduce automation in the warehouse, but only 35 percent said they have a clear understanding of where to start automating;
  • By 2024, 61 percent of decision makers plan to enable partial automation or labor augmentation with technology in the warehouse;
  • Three-quarters of respondents said they believe human interaction is part of their optimal operational balance, with 39 percent citing partial automation (some human involvement) and 34 percent citing augmentation (equipping workers with devices) as their preference;
  • Decision makers said they anticipate using robotics/bots for inbound inventory management (24 percent), outbound packing (22 packing), and goods in/receiving (20 percent) by 2024.

Respondents also emphasized the need to modernize and rethink their warehouse fulfillment strategies, with most saying they will expand their facilities and their facility network over the next five years. Study findings showed that:

  • Eighty-seven percent of decision makers said they are currently in the process of or planning to expand the size of their warehouses by 2024, with 82 percent anticipating an increase in the number of warehouses during this timeframe;
  • Fifty-nine percent of respondents cited capacity utilization as a significant expected challenge and said they plan to address it by expanding the size of their warehouse;
  • Sixty percent of organizations cited labor recruitment and/or labor efficiency and productivity among their top challenges, with 63 percent noting an immediate focus on individual or team productivity outcomes;
  • IT/technology utilization was identified both as the most anticipated operational challenge (61 percent) of the next five years and a desired long-term outcome for increased asset visibility, real-time guidance, and data-driven performance.  

Zebra Technologies surveyed 1,400 IT and operations professionals globally across the manufacturing, transportation and logistics, retail, post and parcel delivery, and wholesale distribution markets for its Warehousing Vision Study.

Recent

More Stories

fuel cell truck EPA port grant zero emissions

EPA awards $3 billion through Clean Ports Program

Port authorities across the country will get help in purchasing zero-emission equipment thanks to $3 billion in federal funding to decarbonize their operations, the American Association of Port Authorities (AAPA) said today.

Provided by the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Clean Ports Program, the money will flow through 55 grants across 27 states and territories.

Keep ReadingShow less

Featured

person shopping for relex holiday trends survey

Survey: retailers face a “highly challenging” holiday season

The majority of American consumers (86%) plan to reduce their holiday shopping budgets this year, with nearly half (47%) expecting to cut spending by more than 50% compared to last year, according to consumer research from Relex Solutions.

The forecast runs against some other studies that predict the upcoming holiday shopping season will be stronger than last year, with higher sales and earlier shopping than 2023.

Keep ReadingShow less
An GenAI illustration of a cargo plane taking off into a sunlit sky over a port with containers piled high and cranes an cargo ships. In the sky there is an illustration of connected dots of light like a circuit board.

The East and Gulf Coast Port strike as well as an increase in imports from offshore e-commerce retailers helped to boost demand for airfreight in the second half of 2024.

happysunstock courtesy of Adobe Stock

Airfreight: Flying high

Like much of the transportation industry, the pace of change in the air cargo sector remains uncharacteristically high. Disruptions in other freight markets and emerging business models have added new demand for airfreight. The result for shippers has been more variability in rates, capacity availability, and service offerings than we saw last year.

Airfreight capacity levels have risen to historical highs this year in large part due to a growth in air passenger travel, which has opened up more belly-hold capacity for freight. As Boeing reports in its 2024 Commercial Market Outlook, air passenger demand has recovered from the pandemic and has returned to the long-term growth trend that Boeing had projected 20 years ago in 2004.

Keep ReadingShow less
chart of trucking business conditions

Trucking sector ticked up slightly in August, but still negative

Buoyed by a return to consistent decreases in fuel prices, business conditions in the trucking sector improved slightly in August but remain negative overall, according to a measure from transportation analysis group FTR.

FTR’s Trucking Conditions Index improved in August to -1.39 from the reading of -5.59 in July. The Bloomington, Indiana-based firm forecasts that its TCI readings will remain mostly negative-to-neutral through the beginning of 2025.

Keep ReadingShow less
Logistics services continue to “go green”

Logistics services continue to “go green”

The market for environmentally friendly logistics services is expected to grow by nearly 8% between now and 2033, reaching a value of $2.8 billion, according to research from Custom Market Insights (CMI), released earlier this year.

The “green logistics services market” encompasses environmentally sustainable logistics practices aimed at reducing carbon emissions, minimizing waste, and improving energy efficiency throughout the supply chain, according to CMI. The market involves the use of eco-friendly transportation methods—such as electric and hybrid vehicles—as well as renewable energy-powered warehouses, and advanced technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT) and artificial intelligence (AI) for optimizing logistics operations.

Keep ReadingShow less