Mobile Warehouse Robotics

The Mobile Warehouse Robotics market research study delivers current market analysis plus a five year market and technology forecast. The study is available in multiple editions including worldwide, all regions, and most major countries.

Mobile Warehouse Robotics Continue Rapid and Widespread Growth

ARC Advisory Group’s new research on the mobile warehouse robotics market shows that it is one of the fastest growing technology markets and indicates that this exceptional growth will continue. Mobile robotics offer flexible, scalable automation to warehouses operating in a time of heightened uncertainty, increasing throughput volumes, and labor constraints. Mobile robotics offer capabilities that ideally fit the requirements of high-volume e-commerce fulfillment operations, allowing for collaboration with warehouse workers and the ability to travel along dynamic routes to increase productivity in dynamic environments. The advanced capabilities of mobile robotics also provide the foundation for productivity improvements in heavy load operations, enabling more rapid implementations and reconfigurations, as well as safety improvements.

Mobile Warehouse Robotics Strategic Issues and Market Trends

In addition to providing a five-year market forecast, the Mobile Warehouse Robotics market research report provides detailed quantitative current market data and addresses key strategic issues as follows.

Buy Functional Capabilities

Mobile warehouse robotics buyers should focus on their specific operational requirements and operating context. Although there is great overlap between the requirements of various warehouse operations, each also has its own specific needs and priorities, especially when considering the broader operating context. Many robotics providers are focused on developing market share and are therefore flexible with respect to contractual structure. Buyers should evaluate robotics according to their own specific operational and financial priorities and direct contract negotiations toward meeting the performance metrics that best capture those priorities. Doing so will align provider efforts with customer priorities, direct those efforts through the relationship, and provide financial remedy in the case of missed obligations. Furthermore, those providers that meet performance metrics will earn the confidence of their customers and develop a reputation for delivering on promises.

Evaluate Dynamic, Long-Term Performance

Buyers should evaluate robotics solutions from a dynamic, long-term perspective. A longer-term perspective will incorporate factors such as time and cost of implementation and ramp up, operator training, mechatronic maintenance and reliability, system integration, ability and cost to scale or modify, and other critical factors. A dynamic perspective will consider the value of adaptability and flexibility. We recommend incorporating an options approach during the evaluation. This perspective was codified in the 1995 Harvard Business Review article “The Options Approach to Capital Investment.” This article explicitly outlined what we know intuitively–that circumstances change and that there is value in making a choice that allows you to adjust in the future as your environment evolves. They introduce the concept of unknown opportunity costs (i.e., an alternative investment option turns out to be better than the one you chose due to changing circumstances) and the creation of additional options from acting now (i.e., being set up to take advantage of an opportunity when it arises in the future). Mobile warehouse robotics support fulfillment resiliency by providing the capability to meet current needs along with the option to readily meet changing requirements or capture future opportunities as they arise. Adding the value of options to one’s evaluation is likely to add overall value to flexible solutions like mobile warehouse robotics.