Warehouse Automation Global Market Report 2022

Major players in the warehouse automation market are Daifuku Co., Ltd., Honeywell Intelligrated, KUKA Group, KNAPP Group, Omron Corporation, ABB Ltd, Kardex Group, SSI Schaefer AG, Locus Robotics, Dematic Group (Kion Group AG), Vanderlande Industries BV, Godrej Consoveyo Logistics Automation, Space Magnum Equipment, Toyota Industries, Yaskawa Electric Corp Inc, and WITRON Logistik + Informatik GmbH.

The global warehouse automation market is expected to grow from $15.21 billion in 2021 to $17.47 billion in 2022 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 14.86%. The warehouse automation market is expected to grow to $31.03 billion in 2026 at a CAGR of 15.45%.

The warehouse automation market consists of sales of goods by entities (organization, partnership, sole traders) that refers to devices or systems used to streamline repetitive warehouse operations and make them less labor intensive to generate greater operational efficiencies.Warehouse automation is an integral entity of supply chain optimization, as it reduces time, effort, and errors caused due to manual or repetitive tasks.

These automated systems are transforming operational facilities by increasing the speed of inventory movement, increasing storage density, reducing labor costs, and improving human safety inside the facility.

The main types of warehouse automation are conveyor/sortation systems, automated storage and retrieval systems (AS/RS), mobile robots, warehouse management systems (WMS), automatic identification and data capture (AIDC).Sortation is the act of detecting individual objects on a conveyor system and routing them to the appropriate areas with the help of a variety of devices controlled by task-specific software.

They are divided based on components in hardware and software that can function activities such as inbound, picking, outbound. There are various end users of warehouse automation such as general merchandise, healthcare, FMCG/non-durable goods, other end users.

North America was the largest region in the warehouse automation market in 2021.Asia-Pacific is expected to be the fastest-growing region in the forecast period.

The regions covered in the warehouse automation market report are Asia-Pacific, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, North America, South America, Middle East and Africa.

The rise in e-commerce sales will drive the growth of the warehouse automation market.As retailers encounter to keep up with an increasing volume of the orders and will surge last-mile delivery needs, warehouse automation is briskly turning into the trump card for those who are looking for a leg up on the competition, especially in the competitive e-grocery market.

For instance, according to the Robotic Business Review, e-commerce will grow and is expected to reach 22% of all the retail sales worldwide in 2023, as compared to that 14.1% in 2019. According to a study published by Prologis, a USA-based real estate investment trust, in 2021 the use of automation in warehousing is expected to increase revenue per square foot from 10% to 20% in the e-commerce real estate sector in the next three years. Therefore, the rise in the e-commerce sector is expected to boost the warehouse automation market during the forecast period.

Investments in research and development activities are a key trend gaining popularity in the warehouse automation market.The companies operating in the warehouse automation sector are increasingly investing in R&D facilities, to boost their new product development activities and gain a competitive edge over other players through launching technologically advanced products with greater operational capabilities and performance.

For instance, in November 2021, Honeywell International Inc, a US-based conglomerate company involved in building technologies, safety & productivity solutions and performance materials & technologies, has announced its plans to develop a new advanced research and development (R&D) testing facility in the Czech Republic for its own Honeywell Intelligrated warehouse automation business to meet the growing demand for technologies that enable secure, more accurate supply chains. The facility enables Honeywell software and hardware engineers to design, prototype and test the innovative warehouse automation systems used by the logistics companies to improve the efficiency, accuracy and throughput of packages within the warehouses and distribution centers.

In July 2021, Zebra Technologies, an Illinois-based company involved in the manufacturing and distribution of marking, printing and tracking technologies, acquired Fetch Robotics for $290 million.The acquisition helps Zebra Technologies to accelerate its enterprise asset intelligence vision and expand its developmental activities in intelligent industrial automation by embracing new methods of empowering the workflows and helping customers operate efficiently in increasingly automated and data-powered environments.

Fetch Robotics is a US-based on-demand provider of warehouse automation.

The countries covered in the warehouse automation market report are Australia, Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, Russia, South Korea, UK, USA.