Adhish Luitel

Adhish Luitel, senior analyst at ABI Research, details why rail strikes, staffing complexities, congestion and bottlenecks will continue to challenge supply chains in the New Year.

“Although port congestion (mostly on the West Coast ports) [is] easing, labor strikes definitely aren’t helping. Rail strikes (especially in the U.S.) will cause an added amount of pressure on the trucking industry. And due to the staffing complexities in trucking, we will see more congestion and bottlenecks, not just within maritime, but other modalities such as rail and trucking as well. In addition, lots of warehouses are short-staffed as well,” says Adhish Luitel, senior analyst, ABI Research.

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The warehouse robotics market is booming, but so too is the robotic delivery market. According to data from ABI Research, worldwide robotic last-mile delivery revenues will surpass $70 million this year. But that is just a drop in the bucket compared to the growth expected in the market. The firm’s research found that these tiny sidewalk robots will grow into a $670 million market by 2030, delivering as much as $3.3 billion worth of goods. The market is being driven by profitability concerns among retailers, restaurants and other delivery providers as more consumers seek out last-mile delivery of online orders directly to their homes. “As inflation and vehicle costs rise exponentially, these businesses are struggling to raise prices on wary consumers and businesses, while needing to protect margins,” explained Adhish Luitel, senior analyst of supply chain management and logistics at ABI Research. “Key initiatives include reducing labor, vehicle maintenance costs and fuel requirements while scaling to meet demand and customer expectations.”

According to ABI Research, a global technology intelligence firm, worldwide AGV deployments in seaports will have a compound annual growth rate of over 26 percent from 2022 to 2027 and exceed 150,000 global deployments by 2027. This will occur as global outbound freight volume crosses 13,000 million metric tons by 2027, at a compound annual growth rate of nearly 5 percent from 2022 to 2027.

Worldwide automated guided vehicles (AGV) deployments in seaports will have a CAGR of over 26% from 2022-2027 and exceed 150,000 global deployments by 2027, according to ABI Research, all thanks to global port congestion issues and other supply chain bottlenecks in the maritime industry. “Automation enhances the reliability, consistency, predictability and security of port operations. From an environmental perspective, automation can lead to lower energy consumption and a reduced carbon footprint. Automated ports are also far safer than conventional ports. The number of human-related disruptions falls as performance becomes more predictable with automation and data capture solutions,” says Adhish Luitel, senior analyst, supply chain management and logistics at ABI Research.

“The few record years of air cargo,” says Adhish Luitel, supply chain management analyst at ABI Research, “caused a lot of congestion and operational issues. This most likely isn’t a temporary thing.”

The grocery category also benefited from several improvements in user experience, platform options and faster delivery times, explained Adhish Luitel, supply chain management and logistics principal analyst at ABI Research. What’s more, he continued, with inflation, consumers are eating out less. “I believe inflation will continue to adversely impact prices which will result in inflated online spending,” he told the E-Commerce Times. “I don’t think consumers will cut back on spending, as one of the reasons e-grocery became popular is because it was a cheaper alternative,” he said. “This will continue to be so in the coming years as e-grocery takes a bigger chunk of the market.”

Investments in warehouse management systems are surging as a result of the boom in e-commerce. Global investment in Warehouse Management System (WMS) platforms surged from US$2.3 billion in 2019 to over $2.5 billion in 2020, showing an eight percent year-over-year growth, according to a new study by ABI Research. The biggest investment in WMS has come from logistics service providers, who spent over $636 million last year. Investments in retail and food and beverages follow suit with $509 million and US$483 million respectively. According to ABI Research, worldwide WMS market revenues will have a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of over 23 percent from 2021 to 2030 and will exceed $10 billion in revenues by 2030. “Companies are starting to combine the value of multiple hardware and software solutions. Productivity technologies can achieve far greater return on investment if combined correctly with other technologies,” said Adhish Luitel, industry analyst, supply chain management and logistics at ABI Research.

ABI Research forecasts worldwide WMS market revenues will have a Compounded Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of over 23% from 2021 to 2030 and exceed US$10 billion in revenues by 2030. Adhish Luitel “Companies are starting to combine the value of multiple hardware and software solutions. Productivity technologies can achieve far greater return on investment if combined correctly with other technologies,” explains Adhish Luitel, industry analyst, supply chain management and logistics at ABI Research.

“Companies are starting to combine the value of multiple hardware and software solutions. Productivity technologies can achieve far greater return on investment if combined correctly with other technologies. For example, by combining location tracking data with a voice solution, warehouses using a WMS can optimize workflows by minimizing distance traveled based on a worker’s whereabouts,” says Adhish Luitel, industry analyst, supply chain management and logistics at ABI Research.

“E-commerce has seen aggressive growth over the past several years, even before the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Adhish Luitel, an industry analyst with ABI Research. “The pandemic triggered an extraordinary increase in demand for online orders. Suppliers are finding it increasingly challenging to keep up with rapidly growing market demand.”

Adhish Luitel, an analyst at ABI Research, says another area of huge growth is in micro-fulfilment centres that use robots on rails, like those used by online retailer Ocado or AutoStore, its Norwegian competitor, which was recently listed in Oslo.

Ongoing disruptions in the supply chain—including port congestions, delayed shipments and a lack of warehouse workforce—have further highlighted the need for real-time traceability, says Adhish Luitel, an industry analyst with global technology intelligence firm ABI Research.

“As the shift toward robotics occurs with busier warehouses, manual workflows can be automated or workflows that have traditionally been carried out by highly specialized and inflexible machines could soon be carried out by robots that can be moved and retrained as needed,” Adhish Luitel, industry analyst for supply chain management and logistics at ABI Research, said in a release.

Medical facilities are short on a range of supplies, and this could only get worse. Shortages of masks and gloves from the early days of the pandemic have spread to many other medical items in the United States and Europe, from exam tables and heart defibrillators to crutches and IV poles. —Adhish Luitel Industry Analyst, Supply Chain Management and Logistics ABI Research

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“Productivity technologies can achieve far greater return on investment if correctly combined with other technologies. For example, by combining location tracking data with a voice solution, warehouses using a Warehouse Execution System (WES) platform can optimize workflows by minimizing distance traveled based on where the worker is,” saysAdhish Luitel, industry analyst, Supply Chain Management and Logistics at ABI Research.

The supply chain industry has surged its warehouse automation efforts considering the e-commerce boom and labor scarcities, according to tech advisory firm ABI Research. In addition to solutions such as headphone-enabled voice-picking, mobile robots are proving to be the most prevalent productivity-enhancing solution in the warehousing sector.

Fueled by labor shortages and increased order volume, automation in the warehouse continues to increase. In addition to technology solutions such as Augmented Reality (AR) powered smart glasses and handheld devices with enhanced capabilities, autonomous, collaborative, and mobile robots are proving to be the most popular and fastest-growing productivity-enhancing solution in the warehouse workspace. According to ABI Research, global commercial robot revenue in warehouses will have a compounded annual growth rate (of over 23% from 2021 to 2030 and exceed $51 billion by 2030. "Mobile robots are at the heart of the warehouse robotics market and account for most shipments and revenue," said Adhish Luitel, Industry Analyst, supply chain management and logistics at ABI Research, in a statement. "These robots, made up of Autonomous Guided Vehicles (AGVs) and Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMRs), are being used to move goods within the warehouse and being integrated within wider automated or manual workflows."

n addition to technology solutions such as augmented reality powered smart glasses and handheld devices with enhanced capabilities, autonomous, collaborative, and mobile robots are proving to be the most popular and fastest-growing productivity-enhancing solution in the warehouse workspace. According to ABI Research, a global tech market advisory firm, worldwide commercial robot revenue in warehouses will have a compounded annual growth rate of over 23 percent from 2021 to 2030 and exceed $51 billion by 2030. “Mobile robots are at the heart of the warehouse robotics market and account for most shipments and revenue. These robots, made up of autonomous guided vehicles and autonomous mobile robots, are being used to move goods within the warehouse and being integrated within wider automated or manual workflows,” says Adhish Luitel, industry analyst, supply chain management and logistics at ABI Research.

Worldwide commercial robot revenue in warehouses will have a Compounded Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of over 23% from 2021 to 2030 and exceed US $51 billion by 2030, according to a new report by ABI Research, a global tech market advisory firm. The warehousing industry has ramped up its automation efforts considering the increased order volume and labor shortages fueled by the pandemic, ABI explained in its announcement. In addition to technology solutions such as Augmented Reality (AR) powered smart glasses and handheld devices with enhanced capabilities, autonomous, collaborative, and mobile robots are proving to be the most popular and fastest growing productivity enhancing solution in the warehouse workspace “Mobile robots are at the heart of the warehouse robotics market and account for most shipments and revenue. These robots, made up of Autonomous Guided Vehicles (AGVs) and Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMRs), are being used to move goods within the warehouse and being integrated within wider automated or manual workflows,” states Adhish Luitel, Industry Analyst, Supply Chain Management and Logistics at ABI Research.

Augmented reality (AR)-powered smart glasses and handheld devices with enhanced capabilities as well as autonomous, collaborative and mobile robots are becoming the fastest-growing warehousing solution, projected to exceed $51 billion by 2030, according to ABI Research. “Mobile robots are at the heart of the warehouse robotics market and account for most shipments and revenue. These robots, made up of autonomous guided vehicles (AGVs) and autonomous mobile robots (AMRs), are being used to move goods within the warehouse and being integrated within wider automated or manual workflows,” says Adhish Luitel, industry analyst, supply chain management and logistics at ABI Research. “In addition to robots, warehouse operators should be seeking to combine the value of multiple solutions across the fulfillment workflow to achieve desired results. There is also a need for operators to look beyond productivity and assess how technologies affect worker satisfaction and safety, worker comfort, energy consumption, distance traveled and error rates.”

Adhish Luitel, a supply chain analyst with ABI Research, said there’s growing demand for warehouse automation, largely because warehouse jobs are so unappealing to humans. “You just can’t find workers anymore,” said Luitel. The trend is also being driven by the surge in online shopping spawned by the COVID-19 pandemic. According to ABI Research, sales of autonomous material-handling robots is projected to reach $49 billion by 2030. The Greater Boston area is home to a host of warehouse robotics companies, including Amazon Robotics, 6 River Systems, Locus Robotics, Vecna Robotics, and Berkshire Grey.