In addition to increasing productivity and accuracy, automation promises to make warehouse operations safer. In its “2025 Industry Trend Report: The Human Element — Elevating Warehouse Safety and Ergonomics,” Newcastle Systems examined how new technologies can address current challenges and empower teams rather than replace them.
The Amesbury, Mass.-based company provides mobile computer workstations and printer carts. Newcastle Systems surveyed its customer base of warehouse operators and industrial engineers for the report.
“The rise of AI is interesting, but there will always be a human element inside the warehouse making decisions,” said Kevin Ledversis, vice president of sales at Newcastle Systems. “Our product has a screen that is tied into the warehouse management system [WMS] or enterprise resource planning [ERP] system. Highly skilled workers are thinking and acting upon the data they see.”
“That’s versus someone who’s driving around a fork truck all day and could be displaced at some point,” he told Automated Warehouse. “Labor is expensive, and picking is 50% of it. That’s why autonomous mobile robot [AMR] companies like Locus have been growing like crazy. You can flex up and down as needed or handle tasks like taking trash out where there’s not much value for people to do them.”
Data is a constant as returns rise, finds Newcastle Systems
The next generation of AI and robotics needs a steady stream of high-quality, near-real-time data, observed Ledversis.
“There’s so much data being collected. Just take RF [radio frequency] scanning and barcodes,” he said. “Billions of packages are scanned each day, and e-commerce is expected to grow from $5 trillion to $30 trillion.”
“The humble barcode is not going anywhere, but right now, doing something with all that data requires some programming,” Ledversis asserted. “Right now, AI is telling pickers where to go next, but imagine if it was guiding them based on what it sees rather than what’s expected.”
Advances in machine vision, AI, and mobile manipulation could also streamline returns processes, he said. Ledversis cited a major hardware retailer that had to manage 80 trucks of returns per week in one building.
“They can range from a screwdriver to something the size of a refrigerator,” he said. “It’s so random what comes in, there’s no predictability and it’s difficult to automate.”
Adding automation won’t fix a bad process, Newcastle notes
While humans, who work best in bursts, can be a bottleneck in product flow, adding robots isn’t necessarily the solution, said Ledversis.
“If the process is bad, adding automation will just accelerate it,” he said. “For example, if you have robots doing a massive number of picks but the packing stations are slow, things will just pile up. Thoughtful integrators are now mapping out processes, as 80% of warehouses are not yet automated.”
“There’s a lot of low-hanging fruit, like the placement of picking zones,” Ledversis said. “Are people bending over? Are things as close to receiving or the shipping dock as they should be? If companies can figure out how to improve their manual processes, they can then supplement them with automation.”
Demographics is destiny for warehouse automation
“Labor is going to be a challenge forever,” said Ledversis. “We’re seeing a decline in jobs that aren’t really exciting to people. Technology does help retain people, and it has been proven that if you give people more tools, they can create more output.”
“If you give a pad of paper to a kid, they’re not going to come back the next day,” he said. “But if you give them ergonomic Zebra scanners and robots, that’s a better incentive, but it’s a small labor pool in much of the country.”
The cost of automation is coming down, but not fast enough for small and midsize businesses (SMBs), Ledversis said. Enterprises on the scale of Amazon have people ready to fix any problems, but SMBs don’t, opening an opportunity for robotics-as-a-service (RaaS) providers.
Newcastle Systems has tailored its own offerings to address the workforce challenges. As with AMRs, its mobile workstations and carts are designed to reduce time and effort spent walking around a warehouse.
“Another issue is mistakes,” said Ledversis. “When people are forced to work back and forth, they print multiple jobs and then the wrong things get on the wrong items. It can be a problem, especially in automotive, pharma, and medical devices.”
Newcastle is also seeing a rise in supervisor workstations, joining associates and robots on shop floors. “We see engagement and productivity rise when supervisors are on the floor, solving problems, taking suggestions, sharing KPIs [key performance indicators], and celebrating wins now that the workstation is their office,” Ledversis said.
Emerging technologies to shape human-machine collaboration, says Newcastle
Ledversis said that software and AI are providing holistic views, enabling operators to see an entire warehouse or even a network of facilities as a single system. Robots, people, and workstations are all collaborative agents in these scenarios.
“I can see AI hovering above ERP, WMS, transportation and logistics software, and yard tracking,” he said. “It could absorb [data on the] movement of materials, look at order patterns, and make supply chain recommendations.”
“I’m sure the big companies are already working on this because if you can pick up seconds in their buildings, it equates to millions and millions of dollars,” added Ledversis. “But it’s a huge opportunity for somebody to figure out how to help SMBs compete by being less manual.”
He also noted that RFID is being applied to more items as costs come down, and robot dexterity and vision are improving. Automated storage and retrieval systems (ASRS) have grown in the past five years but require high utilization rates to be effective, Ledversis added.
“I know one $2 billion company that only needs its ASRS for three hours a day,” he said. “That’s going to take a long time to return their investment, but it’s willing to invest in those long-term gains. Again, there’s a big opportunity for someone to figure out how to provide this to SMBs for less than $10 million.”