Automation Can’t Fix a Bad Warehouse Process: Insights from Newcastle Systems
Welcome to this episode of The New Warehouse Podcast. Kevin Lawton speaks with Newcastle Systems’ Karen Maria, sales director, and Kevin Ledversis, head of sales. The mobile workstation company joins a conversation about labor, process design, and where automation actually fits.
When a $120,000 Robot Sits Idle
Before joining New Castle Systems, Maria worked with industrial floor-cleaning equipment, including autonomous scrubbers. In her experience, company leaders were very interested in autonomous solutions. However, employees who would actually use the machines weren’t always included in the conversation.
She remembers returning to facilities a month after implementation and finding “that $120,000 robotic automated cleaner would be sitting in the corner, and they’d be using the old push behind.”
Maria also recalls an airport during COVID where autonomous cleaning made more sense. Employees cleaned floors while also disinfecting handrails and other high-touch surfaces. “They couldn’t hire enough people to do that while also cleaning the floors,” she explains. An autonomous scrubber allowed the existing crew to focus on the additional cleaning requirements.
The Hidden Costs of Walking and Workarounds
At a receiving dock, Ledversis watched an employee repeatedly return to a stationary printer to print pallet labels. He suggested a mobile workstation and told the employee, “Go to where the work has to happen.” The change saved two hours, he says.
Other customers had eliminated entire overtime shifts after reducing unnecessary walking. But wasted travel also encouraged shortcuts. Rather than make repeated trips, employees printed labels in batches. Similar-looking labels could then be mixed up and applied to the wrong shipments.
“And so those defects occurred not necessarily because of human neglect, but because you didn’t give them a process and a tool to do it right where they’re supposed to be.”
Ledversis also recalled a produce operation facing approximately $500,000 annually in fines from mislabeling organic and inorganic vegetables. These examples show how problems that begin on the warehouse floor can eventually become expensive customer service and compliance issues.
A Billion-Dollar Warehouse Without a Conveyor
In Pennsylvania, Ledversis visited an auto parts operation that challenged his expectations. “They shipped $1 billion a year out of this place with no conveyor in this building.”
Some employees had been picking for 18 years. Supervisors knew their teams, employees participated in process discussions, and IT helped refine picking routes. As Ledversis recalls, “The people believed in the process; it’s not like you telling me how to do this. It’s we decided this is the best way, so we’re all in.” That experience shaped his approach to process improvement.
Ledversis says warehouses can sometimes eliminate 50% of walking through layout changes alone. High-volume SKUs can be positioned closer to shipping, reducing unnecessary travel.
Key Takeaways
- Employee buy-in matters – A robot is worthless if nobody uses it.
- Walking adds up – Unnecessary travel can lead to costly errors and wasted movement.
- Small changes pay off – Moving a printer recovered two hours of productivity.
- People drive improvement – A warehouse shipped $1 billion annually without a conveyor.
Listen to the episode below and leave your thoughts in the comments.
Guest Information
For more information on Newcastle Systems, click here.
To connect with Kevin Ledversis on LinkedIn, click here.
To connect with Karen Maria on LinkedIn, click here.
For more information about warehouse process improvements, check out the podcasts below.
Warehouse Automation Has Raised the Technical Ceiling. What About the Brownfield Floor?
The New Warehouse Amazon List: 7 Rules for Smarter Warehouse Automation
