Warehouse Automation Planning: When to Start Thinking About AMRs
Many warehouse operators begin thinking about automation only after operational pressure forces the conversation, or they see a solution. Labor costs spike. Throughput slows. Service levels start slipping. By that point, the decision often becomes reactive rather than strategic.
The reality is that automation works best when companies begin warehouse automation planning well before those breaking points arrive, but predicting the future is harder than ever, where uncertainty is the only certainty. But doing nothing is not an option.
For organizations navigating growth, the real question isn’t whether automation will eventually play a role; it’s how. It’s when leaders should begin thinking about it.
Early evaluation enables operations to start thinking about automation when speed, accuracy, labor availability, and training time are slipping out of tolerance, not only after they break.
Rushing Into Automation Rarely Works
Across retail, consumer goods, and 3PL environments, many automation projects begin only after operational pressure becomes impossible to ignore. Labor gets tighter. Throughput starts to slip. Service levels come under scrutiny. At that point, leaders start looking for technology to solve the problem.
We caught up with Royanna “Roy” Chappell, VP of Strategic Alliances and Business Development at Ocado Intelligent Automation, at Manifest. She shares a story of a consultant who had just met with a group of 13 retail organizations to discuss their automation efforts. As Roy recalled, “he said he was sitting in a room with 13 retailers and one out of the 13 had a positive automation experience.”
Roy believes the issue usually isn’t the technology itself. More often, the organization starts evaluating automation before clearly defining the problem it is trying to solve. Roy sees that pattern repeatedly and points out that success starts with clarity around “what you’re trying to do, and why.”
That clarity requires something many operations are still working toward: clean, trustworthy operational data. Without it, leaders struggle to understand true volume patterns, SKU behavior, and labor constraints well enough to model what automation should actually accomplish.
Encouragingly, readiness is improving. Roy noted that several years ago, most operations simply weren’t prepared to begin serious warehouse automation planning. Today, the picture is shifting. As she explains, “It used to be 60% of operations weren’t ready to start with automation. Now it’s about 40%.”
That progress reflects a broader shift across the industry. Operators are investing more time in understanding their data, defining success metrics, and aligning teams before evaluating technology.
Why Software Is the Real Engine Behind Automation
Walk through any supply chain technology event, and the robots draw the most attention. But the performance of those systems is determined long before anything moves on the floor.
As Roy explains, “we think of software being our magic sauce because that was where we started to then enable robotics. Hardware can’t move unless it talks to something.” With a strong orchestration layer, operators can control how orders are released, how labor and automation interact, and how the system adapts as demand shifts.
Whether it’s flexible AMRs like Chuck, pallet platforms like Porter, or high-density systems like Ocado’s grid-based OSRS, the underlying principle is the same. As Roy puts it, “it’s founded in that software… building that hardware around it to meet the ever-changing needs of the workflow.”
More importantly, software evolves. As Roy notes, “software changes through time… to drive different results on the floor.” That’s what allows an operation to improve performance without constantly rebuilding infrastructure.
Ocado Mobile Robot System (OMRS)
Case Study: Before Throughput Breaks, The Signals That Triggered Automation
In most facilities, the signal to start evaluating automation isn’t subtle. It shows up in throughput first. You hear it most clearly from operators who’ve already been through it. In a DC Velocity and Supply Chain Xchange webinar, Patrick O’Keefe, Director of Distribution at Designer Shoe Warehouse, walked through the exact moment their operation hit its limits.
O’Keefe explained, “We were a voice picking operation, but the speed at which we were looking for was just not there. And that’s where we started exploring opportunities…” The process itself wasn’t broken, but it couldn’t keep pace with the business’s demands. With e-commerce, “everyone’s kind of competing… in terms of how quickly you can get product from a fit-to-ship standpoint,” adds O’Keefe. This competition forces operations to move faster without sacrificing accuracy or consistency.
According to O’Keefe, labor only makes the gap harder to close. In competitive markets, “we are competing with all sorts of different work… so labor is always going to be a challenge,” especially when operations rely heavily on temporary staffing to handle peak demand.
What changed with the Chuck AMR wasn’t just speed. It was how the work adapted to the workforce. O’Keefe notes, “Previously, training was extremely difficult… a couple of days… until people were picking on standard.” And the rigidity of the old process started to disappear. Instead of locking an associate into a task, “Previously, if you started a cart, you had to finish a cart… that’s not the case anymore… You simply log out; the robots will go to a meeting point, and the next person picks it up.”
Examples like this help challenge the idea that only one in thirteen automation efforts succeed. When the problem is clearly defined and the operation is ready, success is very real, as seen across similar case studies.
Trust Operational Math to Drive Automation Decisions
Roy believes the key to successful deployments begins with a calculation. “I tell everybody it’s a math problem.” The key is resisting the temptation to pursue automation simply because the technology looks impressive. She advises, “Don’t be cool just to be cool.”
Organizations that approach automation with a long-term operational mindset tend to see stronger outcomes. They invest time in data preparation, workforce readiness, implementation, and warehouse automation planning before deploying new technology. For warehouse leaders evaluating automation today, the most important step may simply be starting the conversation earlier, before operational pressure forces the decision.
Book a full operations assessment with OIA here. To learn more about Chuck AMR & where you should start, book a meeting with their team at MODEX.
