Ben Ames has spent 20 years as a journalist since starting out as a daily newspaper reporter in Pennsylvania in 1995. From 1999 forward, he has focused on business and technology reporting for a number of trade journals, beginning when he joined Design News and Modern Materials Handling magazines. Ames is author of the trail guide "Hiking Massachusetts" and is a graduate of the Columbia School of Journalism.
Following the deal, Magazino will continue to operate as an independent company within the Jungheinrich Group, taking advantage of its new parent company’s global sales and service network. The firm will remain under the management of both its co-founders, Frederik Brantner and Lukas Zanger, as well as its chief technology officer, Moritz Tenorth.
Jungheinrich said the merger is an ideal addition as part of the expansion of its business with automated and autonomous vehicles. In June, Jungheinrich launched a joint venture with Mitsubishi Logisnext Americas, creating a company called Rocrich AGV Solutions that will provide mobile automation solutions in North America.
The takeover of Magazino marks another strategically important step towards strengthening that automation expertise, the company said. Founded in 2014, Magazino employs around 130 people and has one of the largest mobile robotics development teams in Europe. The company’s technology platform enables logistics robots to operate in a mixed human-machine environment, navigating in the warehouse as well as selectively picking up and transporting needed objects. Magazino's software system and robots are currently in use in the warehouses of various industrial customers, online retailers, and logistics service providers.
2024 has been a bumpy ride for many parts of the material handling equipment industry. It’s not necessarily that orders have been weak; it’s just that they aren’t up to the levels seen during the heyday of the pandemic-induced warehouse expansions. One of the brighter spots has been the robotics and automation sector, which has benefited from warehouse leaders’ continuing struggles with worker shortages and increased labor costs—both of which can be addressed through the judicious application of automated systems.
As we do every year, we recently gathered experts from the robotics and automation industry to weigh in on both the challenges facing the market and the opportunities that lie ahead. Here’s what they said.
Participants (in alphabetical order):
BART CERA President & Chief Executive Officer Vargo
Q: WHAT DOES 2025 LOOK LIKE FOR THE AUTOMATION INDUSTRY?
Stanislas Normand – Exotec: I expect to see growth in automation investments in 2025 relative to 2024. The reality is that, despite the challenging economic environment, the underlying pressure to automate is still there. Businesses are still challenged by the overreliance on manual labor and growing customer expectations. For many, it is becoming a bottleneck for growth that can no longer be ignored. While it’s true that a lot of 2024 projects ended up being pushed [out], the need for automation is still very high, and we are currently seeing a really strong pipeline of projects in 2025.
Bart Cera – Vargo: 2024 was a “weird” year in that many companies struggled to make decisions to proceed with their investment plans even though the stock market was doing well and corporate earnings were generally up, with positive forecasts for the future. I think the looming inflationary pressures and uncertainty around monetary policy [and] changes to interest rates left a lot of folks sitting on cash and on the sidelines. It’s not too different from the consumer side—it is tough to buy when prices are up, and borrowing is expensive. With inflation softening and seemingly under control and the Fed’s recent interest rate cut, which should be expansionary, our industry should see a significant uptick in automation and larger CapEx project spends for 2025.
Andrea Pongolini – E80: We are seeing robust growth fueled by a strong foundation of repeat customers who continue to trust and rely on our solutions. One of the most prominent trends is the increasing demand for fully integrated end-to-end automation solutions. This demand is not just a North American phenomenon; it is also gaining traction across Europe and other markets. Companies are looking for ways to enhance their supply chain resilience, improve efficiency, and reduce environmental impact—and automation is at the core of these efforts.
Q: HOW WILL LOWER INTEREST RATES HELP SPUR INVESTMENTS IN AUTOMATION?
Ben Gaegauf – Agilox: This will surely help, though it’s not necessarily at the core of our conversations. Productivity, safety, and predictability are still the main conversation drivers. Of course, lower interest rates will help speed up the payback time for capital investments. And overall, just as with most other industries, we expect to benefit from a more favorable business environment in general, which should drive the economy higher.
Robert Humphrey – Element Logic: With the reduced cost of borrowing, we expect more companies will leverage and continue leveraging financing for these investments. Even with higher-than-average interest rates, we’ve still observed a large percentage of companies leveraging financing on automation projects to help preserve capital for investment in other areas of their business to maintain growth.
Chris Coote – Dexory: When interest rates are lower, businesses generally feel more confident about the economy and future profitability. This encourages firms to take on projects such as automation, which are designed to improve operational efficiencies.
For businesses that have already started their automation journeys, lower borrowing costs mean that businesses are able to scale their projects further and look at other areas they can invest in. This can include things like bringing in hardware and software solutions that enhance overall productivity. These projects are easier for businesses to initiate as cheaper debt financing becomes available.
Q: HOW CAN WAREHOUSE LEADERS SELL THEIR COMPANY’S DECISION-MAKERS ON THE ADVANTAGES OF ROBOTIC SOLUTIONS?
Nathan Richter – Movu: The key to convincing decision-makers lies in showing how warehouse automation directly addresses labor shortages and operational bottlenecks, and can thereby increase warehouse performance. With robotics solutions, companies can streamline material handling, improve order accuracy, and scale their operations. A clear ROI [return on investment] analysis that highlights faster throughput, reduced labor costs, and the ability to meet growing demand often seals the deal.
Rick DeFiesta – GeekPlus: When it comes to whether or not to automate, the real question posed to decision-makers should be, “What if we continue to carry on as we have?” You will still continue to struggle with [a shortage of] labor, and the cost of labor will continue to go up. So how will you get products to customers rapidly without making some investments that will offset the lack of labor and higher labor costs?
Ben Gaegauf – Agilox: The market is already well aware of the industry’s shift toward automation and robotics. Our challenge lies in showing customers that they can benefit from participating in this trend now—“What’s in it for me today rather than tomorrow?" We believe that at its core, there are essentially two main drivers that support robotics adoption: increased productivity (operational and financial) and risk reduction (predictability, safety, etc.). Robotic solutions help on both fronts, and the latest technological developments have made it much easier to demonstrate that to the customer.
Q: WHAT DO YOUR CUSTOMERS CONSIDER TO BE AN ACCEPTABLE ROI, AND DOES THAT VARY BY THE TYPE OF PROJECT?
Cody Upp – Zebra Robotics: Our automation solutions are quick to implement and scale as your needs evolve, delivering ROI. They allow you to achieve real-time visibility into workflow progress across your facility, optimizing operations, identifying bottlenecks, and driving continuous improvements—all guided by advanced insights and reporting.
It’s also important to note that for companies opting for the Robots-as-a-Service (RaaS) model, customers should not solely focus on traditional ROI metrics. Instead, they should consider how much free cash flow the investment is creating. The goal is to maximize their internal rates of return, ensuring that the investment contributes positively to their overall financial health and operational efficiency.
Chris Coote – Dexory: ROI can mean different things to people at different levels of the organization. Those in the C-suite might be looking at ROI from the point of view of cost savings, while those working on the warehouse floor might look at it from the perspective of time saved or accuracy improvements. Generally, each ROI case is as unique as each business is. Where the issues they are looking to solve through automation might be similar, the end goals and objectives of each business are going to be vastly different.
Rick DeFiesta – GeekPlus: Today, customers are not as rigid in their thinking about the ROI aspect of a project—meaning they’re not using strictly headcount or using metrics like, say, a two-year payback. They are considering many other factors, like being able to deliver to their growing ranks of customers and to meet their expectations. And in this day and age, if customers don’t receive a product in two days, they’re buying someplace else. So really, it’s a matter of meeting customer demand more than a justification for pure ROI.
Q: FOR A COMPANY WITHOUT ANY ROBOTS, UNDER WHAT CONDITIONS DOES IT MAKE SENSE TO INVEST IN ROBOTICS, AND WHAT IS A GOOD ENTRY POINT?
Robert Humphrey – Element Logic: In most cases, the conditions that make sense for robotics are factors such as labor shortages, high order volumes, the need for improving accuracy, etc. For the robotics systems we offer, we usually find that any company that has at least 5,000 storage locations and at least seven associates working as pickers in their warehouse is large enough to benefit from automation.
Chris Coote – Dexory: An entry point is entirely dependent on the business and its objectives. Generally, we would advise businesses to start by ensuring that they have the necessary intelligence available to them from their warehouses. This can include things like inventory accuracy all the way to optimizing warehouse layout. If you start to deploy picking robots in the first instance but they are going to the wrong locations because of discrepancies in the system, you may have deployed robotics but the solution is unlikely to have the desired impact if you failed to first address the visibility challenges in your operation.
Cody Upp – Zebra Robotics: It makes sense when you can create monthly free cash flow using a more efficient labor force as a saving category on the investment when robotics are used to drive labor efficiency and cost savings. Our automation enables you to achieve real-time visibility across your facility, connect isolated islands of automation, and [free up] employees to perform higher-value tasks, all with the flexibility to automate however you need.
Q: HOW HAS THE ADVENT OF THE ROBOTS-AS-A-SERVICE BUSINESS MODEL AFFECTED ROBOTICS ADOPTION?
Bart Cera – Vargo: One of the major ways RaaS has affected robotics adoption is by reducing the required capital purchase entry point and providing a bundled cost of use. In addition, many RaaS subscription providers offer flexibility to scale robotic operations up or down based on demand, whereas a traditional CapEx robotic purchase would require overinvestment to handle short-term peak operating demand or the deployment of some other work process to [handle the overflow]. Another positive that comes to mind is the ability to conduct an in-facility pilot to prove out the robots’ functionality. And because the robots tend to be quick to deploy, you can realize the benefits of the technology sooner.
Stanislas Normand – Exotec: I think that overall, RaaS will benefit the adoption of robotics. The model effectively brings down the financial barriers to trying out robotics, which can be particularly appealing to smaller or risk-averse organizations. We have even started seeing some early signs that RaaS can help move prospects toward higher-performance CapEx solutions.
Robert Humphrey – Element Logic: RaaS has drastically increased adoption of robotics systems for the industry as a whole. It allows the end-user to greatly improve the ROI timing because it [eliminates the need for a large upfront capital investment] yet typically provides immediate benefits. It has greatly reduced the barrier to entry for many companies. It also provides a flexible approach, which makes growing and/or changing the system to align with the underlying business needs easier.
Q: WHAT CAN TODAY’S ROBOTICS SYSTEMS DO THAT PREPANDEMIC SYSTEMS COULD NOT?
Rick DeFiesta – GeekPlus: Industrial automation is the fastest-growing segment technology-wise. Robotics companies were pushed to solve problems to meet demand at a much faster rate than if the pandemic hadn’t happened. As customer demand for speedier deliveries continues to increase, robotics companies are always working to create smarter and faster automated warehouses.
Nathan Richter – Movu: Postpandemic robotics systems are far more advanced in terms of flexibility, scalability, and intelligence. Today’s robots can integrate seamlessly with warehouse management systems, work alongside human workers in collaborative environments, and adapt to changing workflows in real time. Our robots can now handle a broader range of tasks, from pallet and bin storage, to pallet transport, to bin/eaches picking.
Andrea Pongolini – E80: The capabilities of robotic systems have evolved significantly since the prepandemic era. Today, robotic systems offer advanced integration with digital infrastructures, providing real-time data analysis that enhances decision-making and operational efficiency. They now handle more complex tasks with precision, such as using vision systems for intricate product handling. In addition, modern systems are more adaptable and scalable, allowing businesses to respond to sudden fluctuations in demand more effectively.
Q: HOW WILL ADVANCES IN ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI) AFFECT TOMORROW’S ROBOTICS?
Nathan Richter – Movu: AI will enhance warehouse robotics by making systems more adaptive, predictive, and efficient. Our company is already exploring AI-driven optimization in our robots, enabling smarter decision-making, such as dynamic route planning and predictive maintenance. These advancements will allow tomorrow’s warehouses to operate with even greater efficiency and minimal downtime, driving further innovation in the sector.
Cody Upp – Zebra Robotics: We look for advancements in AI to enable the use of machine learning instead of algorithmic decision-making around order allocation.
Bart Cera – Vargo: Wow, that is a great question—and one that’s hard to answer given the significant AI advances we’ve seen in a relatively short time. I think robotics (with the help of continued increases in computing power) will continue to make stair-step increases in performance speed and the ability to perceive the environment around them, while further expanding their autonomy and possibly even increasing their cognitive abilities to apply reason, plan, and solve problems. Hopefully, it stops, though, before they become self-aware and take over the world (ha ha).
Q: WHAT ONE PROBLEM DO CUSTOMERS MOST WISH TO SOLVE WITH ROBOTICS?
Ben Gaegauf – Agilox: Our customers want to improve their ability to serve their own customers while at the same time improving their productivity and profitability. Efficiency is the name of the game. Our customers want predictability, improved workplace safety, traceability, and, above all, the flexibility to adapt to changes in the market quickly, easily, and independently.
Andrea Pongolini – E80: I’d say the one problem our customers most wish to solve with robotics is improving operational efficiency while reducing costs. Across industries, companies are constantly looking for ways to streamline their production processes, increase throughput, and optimize resource utilization—all without compromising quality or safety. Robotics plays a critical role in addressing these challenges by automating repetitive tasks, improving accuracy, and minimizing the inefficiencies associated with manual work.
Stanislas Normand – Exotec: I would say it’s a blend of two problems: reaching a high level of performance while maintaining operational flexibility. Traditionally, warehouse automation focused purely on performance, which is why many legacy automation solutions leveraged monolithic systems optimized for high throughput. The problem with these systems is that you need to have the ability to accurately forecast your needs years in advance because once these systems are installed, there is no easy way to scale them up or down. This means that most of these projects either overshoot or undershoot with respect to capacity.
That’s where robotics fits in. Because robotic systems are generally lighter weight, have shorter installation times, and can scale after the initial installation, they offer the best of both worlds in terms of their ability to reach high performance without sacrificing the flexibility to grow your operations down the line.
Sometimes, all you need is the right partner to solve your logistics problems.
In 2021, global paint supplier Sherwin Williams faced driver and hazardous material (hazmat) capacity constraints: There simply weren’t enough hazmat drivers available in its fleet to maintain the company’s 90% fleet utilization rate expectations for key partner store deliveries while also meeting growing demand for service. Those challenges threatened to become even more acute in the future, as a competing paint supply company began to scale back its operations in the Pacific Northwest, leaving Sherwin Williams with an opportunity to fill the gap.
The paint supplier needed a logistics partner that could help it overcome the shortage of hazmat drivers while also helping to manage its West Coast trailer pools, out-of-region runs, and ad-hoc freight. It also needed a solution that would meet quarterly and annual fleet budgets.
SCALING UP
Enter ITS Logistics, a third-party logistics service provider (3PL) that offers supply chain solutions for drayage, network transportation, distribution, and fulfillment across North America. ITS proposed a combined owned-asset and asset-light approach that would provide Sherwin Williams with the equivalent of 21 additional drivers. The 3PL would leverage its carrier network to overcome the shortage of hazmat capacity while also certifying its own drivers via a three-month process. Further, ITS would help manage Sherwin Williams’ trailer pools and coordinate carriers, providing the paint company with a single point of contact for transportation.
The project would address cost concerns as well: “ITS Logistics aligned its solution with Sherwin Williams’ budgetary cadence and offered a quarterly business review to align on price structure, adding a level of transparency and trust to the relationship,” according to a case study the partners released earlier this year.
The companies soon sealed the deal and launched the program.
Not long after that, Sherwin Williams began to feel the effects of the anticipated challenges in the Pacific Northwest—but the company was prepared. When the competing paint supply company shuttered its operations, causing demand for Sherwin Williams’ products to spike, ITS injected a blend of owned trailers and carrier power to alleviate equipment challenges, cover all locations and regions, and help the paint supplier scale to meet volume.
CLOSING THE GAPS
The project has helped Sherwin Williams rapidly scale its capacity, meet fleet utilization requirements, manage trailer pools, coordinate carriers, and flex to meet spikes in regional demand.
And the results speak for themselves.
“ITS integrating themselves into our fleet was instrumental in helping increase our outbound volume by 18.4 million pounds [year over year] in the last seven months of 2023,” said Ted Taxon, regional transportation manager at Sherwin Williams, in the case study. “This equated to approximately 460 truckloads of extra freight, a large portion of which ITS [handled] on an ad-hoc basis with no operational constraints or quality issues.”
The partnership also helped Sherwin Williams maintain a 90% fleet utilization rate with big box retailers—an increase from less than 70% prior to the partnership’s launch.
The trucking industry faces a range of challenges these days, particularly when it comes to load planning—a resource-intensive task that often results in suboptimal decisions, unnecessary empty miles, late deliveries, and inefficient asset utilization. What’s more, delays in decision-making due to a lack of real-time insights can hinder operational efficiency, making cost management a constant struggle.
Truckload carrier Paper Transport Inc. (PTI) experienced this firsthand when the company sought to expand its over the-road (OTR), intermodal, and brokerage offerings to include dedicated fleet services for high-volume shippers—adding a layer of complexity to the business. The additional personnel required for such a move would be extremely costly, leading PTI to investigate technology solutions that could help close the gap.
Enter Freight Science and its intelligent decision-recommendation and automation platform.
PTI implemented Freight Science’s artificial intelligence (AI)-driven load planning optimization solution earlier this year, giving the carrier a high-tech advantage as it launched the new service.
“As PTI tried to diversify … we found that we needed a technological solution that would allow us to process [information] faster,” explains Jared Stedl, chief commercial officer for PTI, emphasizing the high volume of outbound shipments and unique freight characteristics of its targeted dedicated-fleet customers.
The Freight Science platform allowed PTI to apply its signature high-quality service to those needs, all while handling the daily challenges of managing drivers and navigating route disruptions.
STREAMLINING PROCESSES
Dedicated fleets face challenges that evolve from day to day and minute to minute, including truck breakdowns, drivers calling in sick, and rescheduled appointment times. PTI needed a tool that allowed for a real-time view of the fleet, ultimately enabling its team to adjust truck and driver allocation to meet those challenges.
The Freight Science solution filled the bill. The platform uses advanced analytics and algorithms to give carriers better visibility into operations while automating the decision-making process. By combining streaming data, a carrier’s transportation management system (TMS), machine learning, and decision science, the solution allows carriers to deploy their fleets more efficiently while accurately forecasting future needs, according to Freight Science.
In PTI’s case, Freight Science’s software integrates with the carrier’s TMS, real-time electronic logging device (ELD) data, and other external data, feeding an AI model that generates an optimized load plan for the planner.
“We’re an integrated data analytics company for trucking companies,” explains Matt Foster, Freight Science’s president and CEO. “We’re talking about AI.”
The benefits of the real-time data are difficult to overstate.
“We’ve been able to execute in the toughest of situations because we’ve got real, live data on how long each event is actually going to take and a system to aid and even automate the decision-making process,” says Chad Borley, PTI’s operations manager. “From what traffic patterns we are battling in the morning and evening with rush hour and things like that, to the impact of additional miles to a route, or even location-specific dwell times, it’s been a huge differentiator for us.”
REALIZING RESULTS
A case in point: the collapse of Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge in March. PTI was scheduled to go live with a new dedicated account in the area just days after the collapse, which would mean rerouting and the potential for longer transit times. Instead of recalculating based on assumptions or latent data, PTI was able to reroute freight based on real-time information and analytics to give the customer timely updates.
“With the bridge going out, that changed our ability to make as many turns a day as the customer would expect,” Stedl explains. “But one of the things Freight Science could do [was to] quickly [assess] how much of an impact that traffic would have [and] what the turns [would] be based on what’s happening on the ground.
“So we were able to go back to the customer and readjust expectations in a real way that made sense, using data. Now expectations can be reset¾we’re not asking for forgiveness when there’s no reason for it.”
The system’s advanced algorithms make load planning more cost-effective and scalable as well. The platform allows PTI to monitor trucks, trailers, and driver hours in real time, recommending additional loads with remaining driver hours that would otherwise be wasted.
And they’re doing it all with much less. Stedl says tasks that used to require five people and hours of work can now be accomplished by one person in mere minutes, improving productivity and profitability while reducing labor and operational costs.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Aptean said the move will add new capabilities to its warehouse management and supply chain management offerings for manufacturers, wholesalers, distributors, retailers, and 3PLs. Aptean currently provides enterprise resource planning (ERP), transportation management systems (TMS), and product lifecycle management (PLM) platforms.
Founded in 1980 and headquartered in Durham, U.K., Indigo Software provides software designed for mid-market organizations, giving users real-time visibility and management from the initial receipt of stock all the way through to final dispatch of the finished product. That enables organizations to optimize an array of warehouse operations including receiving, storage, picking, packing, and shipping, the firm says.
Specific sectors served by Indigo Software include the food and beverage, fashion and apparel, fast moving consumer goods, automotive, manufacturing, 3PL, chemicals, and wholesale / distribution verticals.
Schneider says its FreightPower platform now offers owner-operators significantly more access to Schneider’s range of freight options. That can help drivers to generate revenue and strengthen their business through: increased access to freight, high drop and hook rates of over 95% of loads, and a trip planning feature that calculates road miles.
“Collaborating with owner-operators is an important component in the success of our business and the reliable service we can provide customers, which is why the network has grown tremendously in the last 25 years,” Schneider Senior Vice President and General Manager of Truckload and Mexico John Bozec said in a release. "We want to invest in tools that support owner-operators in running and growing their businesses. With Schneider FreightPower, they gain access to better load management, increasing their productivity and revenue potential.”