Distribution centers (DCs) everywhere are feeling the need for speed—and their leaders are turning to automated warehouse technology to meet the challenge, especially when it comes to picking.
This is largely in response to accelerating shipment volumes and rising demand for same-day order fulfillment. Globally, package deliveries increased by more than 50% between 2018 and 2020, and they have been steadily growing ever since, reaching an estimated 380 billion last year on their way to nearly 500 billion packages shipped in 2028, according to a 2024 Capital One Shopping research report. Same-day delivery is booming as well: The global market for same-day delivery services was nearly $10 billion in 2024 and is expected to rise to more than $23 billion by 2029, according to a January report from consultancy The Business Research Co.
Adopting technologies that can boost DC throughput rates while improving accuracy and efficiency can go a long way toward helping companies keep up with those changes. Two recent projects reveal how both simple and more complex systems are answering the call for higher-velocity operations in DCs of all types and sizes.
FROM PAPER TO VOICE
Pickers at European fruit and vegetable wholesaler Gebr. Gentile AG are working faster and making fewer errors in getting fresh produce out the door after a pick-by-voice solution was installed at the wholesaler's Näfels, Switzerland, logistics center in 2023. Company leaders implemented Lydia Voice from logistics technology vendor Erhardt + Partner Group, allowing the wholesaler to move from a paper-based picking system to an automated one that has streamlined the process and is helping workers get the thousands of shipments that move through the nearly 10,000-square-foot refrigerated facility each day out the door quickly.
"The products stay in our warehouse for an average of 0.7 days, meaning the goods that come in are immediately shipped out again," Renato Häfliger, managing director at Gentile AG, said in a statement describing the project late last year. "We handle approximately 80 to 100 tons of goods daily. Ideally, our inventory rotates quickly, ensuring maximum product freshness."
In all, the Näfels facility handles between 200 and 300 different items for roughly 200 customers.
"On average, this corresponds to 6,000 to 10,000 shipping units that our pickers must process daily," Häfliger adds. "Each order involves about 20 to 60 picks. Using paper lists made this process challenging, as employees never had both hands free. This led to errors and noticeably slowed down the workflow."
Häfliger and his colleagues wanted a hands-free solution that would speed up the picking process—but they couldn't afford the downtime of a complex IT project or the added time to train both regular and seasonal workers on a new system. The beauty of the voice-picking system was that it could be used by any worker without prior training—regardless of gender, accent, or dialect—and could be installed and up and running quickly. That's because the system uses deep neural networks—technology that simulates human brain activity, particularly pattern recognition—to learn and understand language instantly. The software acts as a voice assistant, guiding workers through the picking process via a headset and wearable computer—leaving workers' hands and eyes free for picking tasks. The technology can be integrated into any enterprise resource planning (ERP) system or warehouse management system (WMS) so that work flows seamlessly to the pickers on the floor.
Häfliger says the system proved to be "very easy and intuitive to use during testing, so it [was] ready to go immediately. This was one of the main reasons why we quickly decided on this system, as we employ many seasonal workers in addition to our core team. Long training periods are simply not an option for us."
Today, workers are picking faster, with fewer errors, and orders are moving more swiftly through the Näfels DC—Häfliger cites a double-digit increase in efficiency since switching from paper to voice.
ROBOTS TO THE RESCUE
Sometimes, DC operations call for even more automation to best respond to their picking challenges.
That was the case for contract logistics services specialist DHL Supply Chain when business leaders there were looking for a way to improve warehouse operations in the company's health-care fulfillment business.
Workers supporting one of DHL's health care-focused clients were using a manual, cart-based picking system that simply wasn't allowing them to keep up with the fast-paced facility's fulfillment demands. Pushing heavy carts long distances throughout the warehouse left associates fatigued at the end of the day, slowed the overall fulfillment process, and opened the door to errors. DHL Supply Chain leaders needed a system that would alleviate the physical strain on workers, cut cycle times, and improve quality. They turned to warehouse automation vendor Locus Robotics to solve the problem, ultimately deploying 100 autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) to boost picking operations.
Today, the AMRs work alongside pickers, directing them to bin locations throughout the warehouse via the most efficient path—eliminating the need for pickers to push those heavy carts long distances and allowing for hands-free picking directly into shipping boxes. The AMRs then deliver completed orders to the next stage of the process on their own.
DHL Supply Chain has been reaping big rewards since launching the AMR system in 2018. The "pick-to-box" approach has helped reduce errors by 50% and has boosted efficiency by eliminating the need for a separate packing area in the warehouse. Cycle time for orders has fallen by 60%, worker training time has decreased by 90%, and pickers are feeling less fatigued.
"By replacing carts with AMRs, DHL saw increased consistency in warehouse associate output, as the physical demands of walking long distances with heavy loads were minimized," leaders at Locus Robotics explained in a case study about the project. "By integrating [AMRs], DHL improved order quality, reduced operational touchpoints, and enabled rapid cycle times—all essential for a health care-focused supply chain."
Demand for AMRs and similar automated material handling equipment is unlikely to slow in the years ahead: The global market for logistics automation was valued at $34 billion last year and was projected to reach more than $37 billion this year, rising to an expected $81.5 billion in 2033, according to data published last fall by Straits Research. Hardware—which includes AMRs, automated storage and retrieval systems (AS/RS), automated sorting systems, and the like—is the driving force behind that market growth, according to the research.
Such anticipated demand circles back to those accelerating shipment volumes: The Straits research also found that more than a third of material handling executives said their primary need for implementing DC automation is to fill more orders—faster and at a lower cost.
