While warehouse automation is maturing, there is still plenty of opportunity for innovation. Lucas Systems Inc. this week said it has partnered with Carnegie Mellon University, or CMU, on new data analysis research to help warehouse supervisors make accurate and productive workforce decisions.
“Warehouse managers are drowning in data but starving for insight. They’re making million-dollar decisions based on experience and gut feel because the data they have isn’t organized in a way that tells them what to do next,” stated Kent Szalla, vice president of software engineering and customer success at Lucas Systems.
“What excites me about this research is that it points toward a future where the system surfaces the right signal for planning at the right moment,” he added. “Supervisors aren’t guessing; they’re deciding.”
Founded in 1998, Lucas Systems said its warehousing software is designed to advance distribution centers‘ ability to compete in ever-changing market conditions. The Wexford, Pa.-based company said its customers can harness the power of data with AI, machine learning, and optimization models for operational agility and improved performance.
Lucas Systems works on data analytics, predictive models
Despite an overabundance of warehouse data, operators still lack the tools necessary to fully use data insights to manage labor and tasks efficiently, according to Lucas Systems.
“The landscape is so complex and requires such constant observation that it becomes impossible to rely on human decision making,” said the company. “Modern problems require a more sophisticated approach that only smart technologies can provide.”
Lucas Systems said its research with the university could have significant commercial impact for thousands of companies in the logistics industry. As part of the project, master’s level students in the Spring 2026 cohort of CMU’s Master of Science in Applied Data Science provided prediction models after studying hundreds of data attributes related to warehouse users and behaviors.
“They collaborated with us on the very complicated math,” said André Lessa, director of research and development at Lucas Systems. “As a result, we have a strong foundation to realize our vision.”
Lucas Systems data scientists and software engineers said that using these perspectives “could be a game-changing leap forward in an industry still overly reliant on guesswork and tribal knowledge when it comes to planning.”
CMU continues warehouse research
The joint project was just one of a number of ongoing collaborations between Lucas Systems and Pittsburgh-based CMU.
“The partnership with Lucas Systems is extremely valuable to us,” said Nynke Niezink, associate professor in the Department of Statistics and Data Science at CMU.
“Our master’s students are trained to tackle challenging problems, but doing so in a real-world context, translating very large data into practical solutions, is something they can only practice in collaboration with industry partners,” she said. “In our capstone projects with Lucas Systems, we harness the power of data to understand and improve warehouse productivity.”