In this week’s Logistics Insights podcast, a preview of a new survey and report on distribution technologies. 

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Full Transcript:  

With what appears to be growing interest in automation in distribution, driven by severe labor issues for many shippers and more, Softeon commissioned a survey and report on a variety of topics relevant to materials handling systems and warehouse software.

The report is largely based on survey data from 187 respondents from a wide variety of business sectors, led by retailers and consumer goods companies of all sorts, but many other industry sectors as well.

The full report will be available soon, but here’s a little preview on Logistics Insights.

We asked respondents to identify their current level of DC automation. Just about half, 48.8%, said they ran mostly manual operations. Another 45% they had a modest level of automation. Just 6.2% described their operations as being heavily automated.

But those results are not indicative of where many companies would like to be headed in terms of automation.

30.5% of respondents said they will look at or continue light levels of automation. 39.5% will look at or continue modest levels of automation.
But many have bigger ambitions. The survey found 25.5% of companies will look at or continue significant levels of automation. Another 4.3% said they intend to pursue extremely high levels of DC automation.

So together, about 30% of companies plan on investing in either significant or extreme DC automation.  Compare that to the just 6.2% said they are heavily automated today.

So as we will also detail in other areas of the report it looks like good times are headed for material handling companies – and here at Softeon we expect for warehouse management and warehouse execution software system providers as well.

It’s interesting data for sure. We will be back in a few weeks here on Logistics Insights when the report is released and let you know how you can download a copy. We promise you will find it of interest.