Warehouse Automation and Control

This Warehouse Automation and Control market research delivers current market analysis plus a five-year market and technology forecast. The study is available in multiple editions including worldwide, all regions, and most major countries. 

​Booming Post-pandemic Warehouse Automation Growth Followed by Uncertainty

ARC Advisory Group’s research on the warehouse automation market shows once again that the fulfillment requirements from the ongoing, widespread growth in e-commerce continues to be the most prevalent factor stimulating growth in demand for warehouse automation and control systems. Select market segments experienced unparalleled growth from 2019 – 2021. Select project cancellations and currency translation effects are expected to hinder 2022 growth, as measured in US dollars. However, project backlogs and currency stabilization are expected to enable the global warehouse automation market to return to longer-term growth rates in 2023. Shuttle systems, AutoStore implementations, AGVs/AMR, and palletizing are some of the subsystems experiencing rapid growth and adoption.

Warehouse Automation and Control Market Strategic Issues

In addition to providing a five-year market forecast, the Warehouse Automation and Control market research provides detailed quantitative current market data and addresses key strategic issues as follows.

Develop a Thorough Business Case

Warehouse automation and control projects can require substantial capital investment.  Organizations often require quantifiable investment returns for approval.  When developing a business case, warehouse automation buyers should consider hard savings such as reduction in variable costs, performance enhancements such as throughput increases and reliability improvements, soft savings such as reduced return rates from order accuracy improvements, and periodic cost savings such as ease of system adaptability.  In addition, the value of the option to scale up or down should be considered.  This value is difficult to quantify but is essential for incremental revenue increases during expansions and marginal cost savings during downturns.

Exploit Suppliers' Desire to Gain Market Share

A number of warehouse automation suppliers are attempting to gain market share at the temporary expense of profit margins. The recent wave of acquisitions within the warehouse automation market has shifted the competitive landscape and provided certain suppliers with a new opportunity to sell into a given region or end user industry. In addition, the ability of these firms to sell multiple complementary products provides them with economies of scale and buyers with potential opportunity for cost savings. Buyers should consider the current dynamics within the market and enquire about opportunities to reduce their costs if they can provide a given supplier with a much-needed project win.

Single Supplier vs. Hardware Agnostic Options

Many of the largest warehouse automation providers are both warehouse system integrators (SIs) and material handling subsystem manufacturers. The vertically integrated providers that serve as general contractors/SIs as well as manufacturers can also serve as a one-stop shop to deliver an end-to-end solution. This has benefits such as native system integration and homogeneity across subsystems. However, it is possible that subsystems from such an end-to-end provider may be suboptimal. In contrast, some suppliers that serve as general contractors will source subsystems from a number of providers and integrate the disparate subsystems. This approach may provide greater freedom in subsystem selection, but has risks, including low priority status for subsystem suppliers (a concern in growth cycles with order backlogs) and potential maintenance concerns with heterogeneous subsystems from different suppliers. Buyers should consider these factors when evaluating various suppliers and also understand that very often a subsystem such as a shuttle system may be an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) product that can be sourced from a number of different suppliers.