Conveyors, sorters, and mobile automation find their sweet spot
Experts from the conveyor, sortation, and robotics industries weigh in on the benefits of these technologies and how they can be successfully deployed in distribution operations.
David Maloney has been a journalist for more than 35 years and is currently the group editorial director for DC Velocity and Supply Chain Quarterly magazines. In this role, he is responsible for the editorial content of both brands of Agile Business Media. Dave joined DC Velocity in April of 2004. Prior to that, he was a senior editor for Modern Materials Handling magazine. Dave also has extensive experience as a broadcast journalist. Before writing for supply chain publications, he was a journalist, television producer and director in Pittsburgh. Dave combines a background of reporting on logistics with his video production experience to bring new opportunities to DC Velocity readers, including web videos highlighting top distribution and logistics facilities, webcasts and other cross-media projects. He continues to live and work in the Pittsburgh area.
Automation has been a game-changer for distribution centers. Conveyors transport products from point to point efficiently. Sortation systems redirect products to various destinations. And automated mobile load carriers, such as automated guided vehicles (AGVs) and autonomous mobile robots (AMRs), transport products and reduce steps for workers who perform tasks like order picking. As labor continues to be difficult, if not impossible, to find, these systems will play an even greater role in distribution operations.
DC Velocity Group Editorial Director David Maloney recently gathered four experts who are members of MHI’s Conveyor and Sortation Solutions Group (CSS) and Mobile Automation Group (MAG) to discuss the advantages of these technologies and how they can work together to reduce labor, boost productivity, and speed products on their journey. What follows are some excerpts from their discussion.
Q: When somebody asks you what’s the best type of system for their operation, what do you tell them?
Gil Leyba – logistics consultant: That is easy: It depends. These are highly bespoke systems, with different operations, products, dimensions, weights, and characteristics. It could be a greenfield facility or a brownfield facility. Even your execution plan can totally change depending on the specifics.
So, what system is going to work best for you? It requires guys like us asking you the right questions. That is the only way to design systems that solve not just the problems that customers are facing today, but also whatever problems the future could conceivably hold.
Q: How do you know which technology provider to choose out of the many within the market?
John Hayes – Balyo:The really important thing is to look at what your vendor has done in the past. It is very easy for a vendor to say that it can do something and it typically can, given enough time and money. Do a little due diligence up front and take a look at a company that has done what you are looking to do. It eliminates an awful lot of risk on the back side. I think one of the true benefits of MHI is that you have a group of people who have done these things for ages.
Q: Customers obviously want longevity with any system they install—they don’t want it to become obsolete tomorrow or the next day. Given how fast things change, how long do they want to keep that system running before they replace it?
Chris Woodall - Hytrol:The first question you really need to ask is “Are you going to have maintenance staff and are you going to do preventative maintenance?” Many companies no longer have the staff to do preventative maintenance or even routine maintenance on their equipment. They are going to hire it all out. That can actually change which type of equipment they need because some equipment is easier to work on than others, and with some, the downtime is less. Conveyors are easily going to last 20 years as long as you take care of them. We’ve got some that have run longer than that—25, 30 years.
Q: How knowledgeable are customers when they come to you looking for automation?
Kai Beckhaus – MCJ: The bigger customers have internal innovation groups. They are typically very well informed and know a lot about the technology and different vendors. They understand the difference between a startup technology that drives the adoption of automation versus the more reliable, more established, more customized, and purpose-fit applications.
The smaller customer, by contrast, comes to us because it has a need and is attracted by marketing. Those can require a little bit more education on what the technology really can do—what the advantages are in deploying an automatic guided vehicle versus an autonomous mobile robot, or even differences between using conveyors and AGVs.
Q: What are the criteria used for choosing the best conveyor for a particular application?
Chris Woodall – Hytrol: The first thing we are always going to ask is what are the products to be conveyed and what are their specifications. Not only does it matter what the min, max, and average is, but what is your end rate? What is your final rate of sortation at the shipping sorter? That is what most people focus on, but we need to know about every single area in the operation. What throughput are you trying to get? Are the products to be conveyed polybags, envelopes, or totes? Are their bottoms flat, concave, or convex?
If you don’t have those details, you are just kind of throwing darts at a board and hoping something sticks. It always comes down to the product. That is where you start making the selections.
Q: What are some of the reasons for deploying an AGV in lieu of a forklift or even a conveyor?
Kai Beckhaus – MCJ: A main criterion is repetitive transport in a defined environment. From there, the technology selection process is very similar to what we just heard from the conveyor side. It is more about describing the challenge: I have this many pallets that need to be transferred.
We hear a lot of customers say they have three forklifts manually operating and want three AGVs to do the same thing. But that is the wrong approach because there are a lot of differences between forklifts and AGVs.
It is about looking at the application, something that is repetitive, that has a clear environment, and then your vendor will suggest how many and what type—whatever type of automation is best suited for the job.
Q: Are AGVs as fast as people operating forklifts? If not, does that mean you need more AGVs to move the same amount of volume?
John Hayes – Balyo: AGVs are not quite as fast because of the safety standards the industry adheres to. In order to be as safe as possible, we typically all cap our speeds at somewhere between two and three meters per second. So, a rule of thumb is that it takes 1.3 to 1.5 AGVs per forklift operator.
It starts to make [more economic] sense if you take one forklift and replace it with one AGV and then you work two shifts, because even though you replace one motive piece of equipment (a forklift), you replace two operators. When you go to three shifts, you replace three operators, and the return on investment makes even more sense.
So, no, it is not a one-for-one replacement, which is why the paradigm has always benefited two- or three-shift operations for AGVs. That is the sweet spot, but it is getting better. Prices are coming down. Labor rates are going up. That is why we design a system around throughput, not the number of vehicles.
Q: How are these systems supported after installation? Are warranties and maintenance packages available?
Gil Leyba – logistics consultant: Yes, that is fairly standard within our industry because these are capital investments that are expected to last years. In the case of conveyor sortation systems, it could be over 10 or even 20 years depending on how it is maintained. The better it is maintained, the longer life it is going to give you. We design a system around that ability to maintain it, whether it is us offering the maintenance packages after the sale or training the customer and giving them the tools, materials, the spares, and access to remote support they need to do it themselves. This is what customers expect and demand.
Editor’s note: MHI’s Conveyor and Sortation Systems Industry Group (CSS) and Mobile Automations Group (MAG) are independent authorities for end-users and suppliers on market trends, technology developments, and applications. For more information on the groups’ work and a list of CSS and MAG members, visit www.mhi.org.
Warehouse automation orders declined by 3% in 2024, according to a February report from market research firm Interact Analysis. The company said the decline was due to economic, political, and market-specific challenges, including persistently high interest rates in many regions and the residual effects of an oversupply of warehouses built during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The research also found that increasing competition from Chinese vendors is expected to drive down prices and slow revenue growth over the report’s forecast period to 2030.
Global macro-economic factors such as high interest rates, political uncertainty around elections, and the Chinese real estate crisis have “significantly impacted sales cycles, slowing the pace of orders,” according to the report.
Despite the decline, analysts said growth is expected to pick up from 2025, which they said they anticipate will mark a year of slow recovery for the sector. Pre-pandemic growth levels are expected to return in 2026, with long-term expansion projected at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8% between 2024 and 2030.
The analysis also found two market segments that are bucking the trend: durable manufacturing and food & beverage industries continued to spend on automation during the downturn. Warehouse automation revenues in food & beverage, in particular, were bolstered by cold-chain automation, as well as by large-scale projects from consumer-packaged goods (CPG) manufacturers. The sectors registered the highest growth in warehouse automation revenues between 2022 and 2024, with increases of 11% (durable manufacturing) and 10% (food & beverage), according to the research.
The Swedish supply chain software company Kodiak Hub is expanding into the U.S. market, backed by a $6 million venture capital boost for its supplier relationship management (SRM) platform.
The Stockholm-based company says its move could help U.S. companies build resilient, sustainable supply chains amid growing pressure from regulatory changes, emerging tariffs, and increasing demands for supply chain transparency.
According to the company, its platform gives procurement teams a 360-degree view of supplier risk, resiliency, and performance, helping them to make smarter decisions faster. Kodiak Hub says its artificial intelligence (AI) based tech has helped users to reduce supplier onboarding times by 80%, improve supplier engagement by 90%, achieve 7-10% cost savings on total spend, and save approximately 10 hours per week by automating certain SRM tasks.
The Swedish venture capital firm Oxx had a similar message when it announced in November that it would back Kodiak Hub with new funding. Oxx says that Kodiak Hub is a better tool for chief procurement officers (CPOs) and strategic sourcing managers than existing software platforms like Excel sheets, enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, or Procure-to-Pay suites.
“As demand for transparency and fair-trade practices grows, organizations must strengthen their supply chains to protect their reputation, profitability, and long-term trust,” Malin Schmidt, founder & CEO of Kodiak Hub, said in a release. “By embedding AI-driven insights directly into procurement workflows, our platform helps procurement teams anticipate these risks and unlock major opportunities for growth.”
Here's our monthly roundup of some of the charitable works and donations by companies in the material handling and logistics space.
For the sixth consecutive year, dedicated contract carriage and freight management services provider Transervice Logistics Inc. collected books, CDs, DVDs, and magazines for Book Fairies, a nonprofit book donation organization in the New York Tri-State area. Transervice employees broke their own in-house record last year by donating 13 boxes of print and video assets to children in under-resourced communities on Long Island and the five boroughs of New York City.
Logistics real estate investment and development firm Dermody Properties has recognized eight community organizations in markets where it operates with its 2024 Annual Thanksgiving Capstone awards. The organizations, which included food banks and disaster relief agencies, received a combined $85,000 in awards ranging from $5,000 to $25,000.
Prime Inc. truck driver Dee Sova has donated $5,000 to Harmony House, an organization that provides shelter and support services to domestic violence survivors in Springfield, Missouri. The donation follows Sova's selection as the 2024 recipient of the Trucking Cares Foundation's John Lex Premier Achievement Award, which was accompanied by a $5,000 check to be given in her name to a charity of her choice.
Employees of dedicated contract carrier Lily Transportation donated dog food and supplies to a local animal shelter at a holiday event held at the company's Fort Worth, Texas, location. The event, which benefited City of Saginaw (Texas) Animal Services, was coordinated by "Lily Paws," a dedicated committee within Lily Transportation that focuses on improving the lives of shelter dogs nationwide.
Freight transportation conglomerate Averitt has continued its support of military service members by participating in the "10,000 for the Troops" card collection program organized by radio station New Country 96.3 KSCS in Dallas/Fort Worth. In 2024, Averitt associates collected and shipped more than 18,000 holiday cards to troops overseas. Contributions included cards from 17 different Averitt facilities, primarily in Texas, along with 4,000 cards from the company's corporate office in Cookeville, Tennessee.
Electric vehicle (EV) sales have seen slow and steady growth, as the vehicles continue to gain converts among consumers and delivery fleet operators alike. But a consistent frustration for drivers has been pulling up to a charging station only to find that the charger has been intentionally broken or disabled.
To address that threat, the EV charging solution provider ChargePoint has launched two products to combat charger vandalism.
The first is a cut-resistant charging cable that's designed to deter theft. The cable, which incorporates what the manufacturer calls "novel cut-resistant materials," is substantially more difficult for would-be vandals to cut but is still flexible enough for drivers to maneuver comfortably, the California firm said. ChargePoint intends to make its cut-resistant cables available for all of its commercial and fleet charging stations, and, starting in the middle of the year, will license the cable design to other charging station manufacturers as part of an industrywide effort to combat cable theft and vandalism.
The second product, ChargePoint Protect, is an alarm system that detects charging cable tampering in real time and literally sounds the alarm using the charger's existing speakers, screens, and lighting system. It also sends SMS or email messages to ChargePoint customers notifying them that the system's alarm has been triggered.
ChargePoint says it expects these two new solutions, when combined, will benefit charging station owners by reducing station repair costs associated with vandalism and EV drivers by ensuring they can trust charging stations to work when and where they need them.
New Jersey is home to the most congested freight bottleneck in the country for the seventh straight year, according to research from the American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI), released today.
ATRI’s annual list of the Top 100 Truck Bottlenecks aims to highlight the nation’s most congested highways and help local, state, and federal governments target funding to areas most in need of relief. The data show ways to reduce chokepoints, lower emissions, and drive economic growth, according to the researchers.
The 2025 Top Truck Bottleneck List measures the level of truck-involved congestion at more than 325 locations on the national highway system. The analysis is based on an extensive database of freight truck GPS data and uses several customized software applications and analysis methods, along with terabytes of data from trucking operations, to produce a congestion impact ranking for each location. The bottleneck locations detailed in the latest ATRI list represent the top 100 congested locations, although ATRI continuously monitors more than 325 freight-critical locations, the group said.
For the seventh straight year, the intersection of I-95 and State Route 4 near the George Washington Bridge in Fort Lee, New Jersey, is the top freight bottleneck in the country. The remaining top 10 bottlenecks include: Chicago, I-294 at I-290/I-88; Houston, I-45 at I-69/US 59; Atlanta, I-285 at I-85 (North); Nashville: I-24/I-40 at I-440 (East); Atlanta: I-75 at I-285 (North); Los Angeles, SR 60 at SR 57; Cincinnati, I-71 at I-75; Houston, I-10 at I-45; and Atlanta, I-20 at I-285 (West).
ATRI’s analysis, which utilized data from 2024, found that traffic conditions continue to deteriorate from recent years, partly due to work zones resulting from increased infrastructure investment. Average rush hour truck speeds were 34.2 miles per hour (MPH), down 3% from the previous year. Among the top 10 locations, average rush hour truck speeds were 29.7 MPH.
In addition to squandering time and money, these delays also waste fuel—with trucks burning an estimated 6.4 billion gallons of diesel fuel and producing more than 65 million metric tons of additional carbon emissions while stuck in traffic jams, according to ATRI.
On a positive note, ATRI said its analysis helps quantify the value of infrastructure investment, pointing to improvements at Chicago’s Jane Byrne Interchange as an example. Once the number one truck bottleneck in the country for three years in a row, the recently constructed interchange saw rush hour truck speeds improve by nearly 25% after construction was completed, according to the report.
“Delays inflicted on truckers by congestion are the equivalent of 436,000 drivers sitting idle for an entire year,” ATRI President and COO Rebecca Brewster said in a statement announcing the findings. “These metrics are getting worse, but the good news is that states do not need to accept the status quo. Illinois was once home to the top bottleneck in the country, but following a sustained effort to expand capacity, the Jane Byrne Interchange in Chicago no longer ranks in the top 10. This data gives policymakers a road map to reduce chokepoints, lower emissions, and drive economic growth.”