WAREHOUSE SUCCESS: SPEED UP, SPEND LESS
WAREHOUSE WAKE-UP CALL: AUTOMATE OR FALL BEHIND Frontline warehouse workers report rising concerns with injuries on the warehouse floor, and stress about meeting business goals if warehouse leaders don’t embrace intelligent automation. Those are among the findings of Zebra Technologies Corporation’s latest warehousing vision study, Elevating Every Move: The Formula for High-Performance Warehousing . According to the study, 63% of warehouse leaders plan to implement artificial intelligence (AI) software and augmented reality (AR) within five years. In addition, 64% plan to increase spending on warehouse modernization in the next five years, and 63% have already accelerated their modernization timelines or plan to do so by 2029.
Robots from Locus Robotics support TQG’s picking, sorting, and internal transport processes.
FLEX, FUEL, FULFILL: POWERING A HEALTHY SUPPLY CHAIN The Quality Group (TQG), which offers protein powders and bars and other nutrition products, handles up to 12 inbound trucks per day at its warehouses. Each year, the warehouses manage fulfillment for more than six million boxes, says Selim Tansug, COO with the Hamburg, Germany-based company. As order volumes surged, TQG needed to scale operations efficiently while maintaining speed and accuracy. “Robotics became a natural solution to meet these growing demands,” Tansug says. Robots from Locus Robotics currently support TQG’s picking, sorting, and internal transport processes. “They help optimize repetitive tasks, reduce physical strain on staff, and ensure a more streamlined material flow throughout the warehouse,” Tansug says. The robots helped TQG accelerate picking speed by 25%, improve order accuracy, and reduce labor costs per unit shipped. Starting with 40 robots that operated within a specific warehouse zone and handled a select number of SKUs, TQG has since ramped up to 125 robots, says Denis Niezgoda, chief commercial officer, international, with Locus Robotics. These are on track to fulfill thousands of orders per day. “For us, robotics aren’t just about automation—they’re about enabling agility,” Tansug says. “They’ve been instrumental in enhancing our performance during peak seasons and are a critical part of future-proofing our operations.” n
As global warehouse expansion continues and daily order volumes increase, frontline workers share feedback suggesting that warehouse leaders need to move faster to expand workforce capacity: • 85% of associates say, “if my employer does not invest in technology to improve warehouse operations, we will not meet business objectives.” • 74% of associates are concerned they spend too much time on tasks that could be automated. • 72% of associates are concerned about safety on the (increasingly busy) warehouse floor, with 70% specifically worried about injuries. • 69% of associates report a lack of qualified staff on the warehouse floor and express concerns about fatigue and physical exhaustion. Even warehouse leaders admit they find it challenging to maintain the fill rates (51%) and prepare orders (47%) outlined in their service level agreements, with order accuracy and outbound processes cited as the top two operational challenges in the Zebra study. Increased ecommerce activity also makes “faster delivery to the end-customer” a top challenge for warehouse teams, even as technology use is on the rise. Given the disparity between customers’ growing expectations and warehouse operators’ limited hiring capacity, warehouse associates say it’s important that warehouses use collaborative robots, ergonomic mobile devices, communications applications, and task management tools to help solve workplace issues. The increased availability of automation and mobile technologies would help attract and retain more warehouse associates, agree 93% of associates, while 89% say they feel more valued by their employers when provided with technology tools and automation designed to help them.
36 Inbound Logistics • May 2025
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