[ INSIGHT ] ROBOTICS
by Richard (Rik) Schrader Chief Revenue Officer, GreyOrange rik.s@greyorange.com | 833-997-6268
You Diversified Your Suppliers, But What About Your Robots?
We often think about supply chain risk as something that happens upstream: an extreme weather event delaying a shipment from a single-source supplier or a carrier battling a data breach. That’s no longer the whole picture here. There are risks just as serious much closer to home.
2. Leverage your network in the off-season. Talk to your network about how to make orchestration more efficient next peak season. Get out of the vendor pitch cycle and ask other operators how they solved similar problems. 3. Use scenario modeling. Run simulations to find out how your forms of automation handle different use cases. See where a lack of orchestration could slow down operations. 4. Ask vendors these questions before you buy: • How do you accommodate four or more forms of automation within a site? Show me examples of how you work with different systems. • Can you orchestrate across my environment, or do you specialize in going point-to-point? If you don’t own orchestration holistically, how do you mitigate risk? • What’s your product roadmap as warehouse automation evolves? What do you think orchestration looks like five and 10 years from now? Sourcing the right suppliers will always be critical in building resilient supply chains. But as warehouses become increasingly automated, the ability to update, change, or scale hardware and software without disrupting ongoing operations will be the true marker of future-proofed fulfillment.
on the dock. A robot needs to load a pallet into a truck when it hits the end of the line. Without a warehouse orchestration system to reroute workflows, replacing or adding a vendor in one zone can delay downstream tasks and upset productivity. Someone has to own orchestration across the whole environment to make the warehouse hum. A robotics vendor might sync into your WMS for master data and tasking, but that’s a point-to-point integration. As you add more forms of automation to your growing stack of layer pickers, palletizers, and forklifts, operators wonder: How does all of this get tied together? You don’t need to rebuild your warehouse to make your tech stack more adaptable. Use the window right after peak season, while it’s still fresh, to make a few smart moves towards swap-ability. 1. Start with a peak season post-mortem. How did you handle disruptions? Where did handoffs between systems slow you down? What exceptions weren’t you prepared for?
Robotics is a prime example. Once you deploy robotic automation systems, they’re part of your risk vector. And they can become a single point of failure. Diversifying your supply chain extends all the way to diversifying your robots. A mixed technology set provides the best insurance against a vendor going defunct, raising prices prohibitively, or not playing well with others. PROTECTING THROUGHPUT Robotic automation is sticky once it’s embedded into a facility. You don’t just buy a new ASRS, you rewrite SOPs. You adjust operational layouts. You train people. You integrate it with other forms of automation. The practical goal for operators is swap- ability: being able to change technologies or vendors without disrupting throughput or retraining the workforce. But swap-ability takes orchestration. A conveyor needs to move product from point A to point B to meet dispatch times
34 Inbound Logistics • April 2026
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