Insights from 3PL Value Creation Summit this week in Chicago

Warehousing customers are still weighing the arbitrage between labor and automation; many are hesitant to invest in expensive robotics because they think the cost will come down significantly in the next few years. But Brian Smith, president and chief executive officer of Kansas City-based Wagner Logistics, said that companies offering warehouse robotics have gotten creative with financing. Low-cost, short-term leases are becoming more common.

But it appears there are still gaps in the kinds of warehouse robots that are available. Russell Leo, the president and CEO of RLS Logistics said:

“in frozen facilities robotics goes out the window.” Instead, to free up capacity and increase throughput, RLS has implemented mobile racks that can slide together or come apart to give workers access to SKUs when they’re needed