Logistics Automation Market Is Estimated To Witness High Growth Owing To Increasing E-commerce Sales & Need To Streamline Processes
The logistics automation market is estimated to be valued at USD 53.71 Bn in 2024, exhibiting a CAGR of 11.5% over the forecast period (2024-2031). Furthermore, the growth of the e-commerce industry is creating demand for logistics automation solutions.
Market Dynamics:
The growth of the logistics automation market is driven by the increasing e-commerce sales and the need among organizations to streamline logistics operations and processes. E-commerce sales have grown significantly over the past few years as customers increasingly prefer online shopping over traditional retail channels. This has translated into higher volumes of shipments and packages that need efficient handling. Moreover, with rising customer expectations around delivery timelines, e-commerce companies are automating their logistics operations to facilitate faster and more accurate order fulfillment. On the operational front, logistics automation helps companies gain visibility into the supply chain, reduce shipping costs, improve asset utilization, and monitor performance in real-time. Adoption of automation solutions such as autonomous mobile robots, conveyor systems, and automated storage and retrieval systems enables organizations to achieve optimized workflows with minimal human intervention.
Market Drivers
Increasing Labor Costs
One of the major drivers for the logistics automation market is the rising labor costs across various industries and geographies. With exponential growth in e-commerce industry and increasing demand for faster delivery timelines, the workload on warehouse operators and logistics service providers have increased significantly. To process higher volumes efficiently and meet customer expectations, companies are finding it difficult to rely solely on human labor due to increasing wages. Automating various processes such as sorting, packaging, materials handling etc. helps reduce dependency on human labor and lowers overall operational costs for companies.
Growth of E-commerce Industry
The rapid growth of the e-commerce industry globally is another key factor fueling the demand for logistics automation. E-commerce retailers dealing with large volumes of orders need automated solutions to boost their order processing and fulfillment capabilities. Automated warehouses, robotic sortation systems, autonomous mobile robots, etc. help e-tailers optimize workflows, increase throughput, and ship more packages per hour. This allows e-commerce companies to efficiently scale up their operations and provide faster delivery to customers even during peak seasons without increasing warehouse footprints or labor costs substantially.
Market Restraints
High Initial Investment Costs
One of the major challenges restraining the large-scale adoption of logistics automation is the high initial capital expenditure required to automate processes. Automated material handling systems, robotic sortation equipment, collaborative robots, autonomous mobile robots, etc. are highly sophisticated machines that come with substantial price tags running into millions of dollars for setting up an automated distribution or fulfilment center. The payback period for such investments is also close to 2-3 years which deters many companies, especially SMEs from automating their logistics operations.
Technical Complexities and Skill Shortage
Implementing an automated logistics system that seamlessly integrates various hardware and software components is a complex technical task. It requires expertise not only in robotics, automation, computer vision, etc. but also in workflow design, system integration, and facility management post installation. However, there is a global shortage of engineers, technicians and supervisory staff skilled in logistics automation. This technical complexity and lack of adequate talent pool poses challenges for organizations to smoothly execute automation projects and scale operations post implementation.
Market Opportunities
Growth in Cold Chain Logistics
With the expansion of temperature-controlled warehousing and transportation facilities globally, cold chain logistics is emerging as one of the major opportunities for automation solution providers. Automated sortation systems, autonomous mobile robots, lifting vehicles etc. integrated with advanced temperature and humidity control features will help optimize operations in refrigerated and frozen warehouses. This, in turn, will support industries like food & beverage, pharmaceuticals and floriculture to efficiently manage inventories of temperature sensitive products on a large scale.
Personalization and Customization in Fulfilment
With the focus shifting towards hyper-local fulfillment, same-day and customized deliveries, there is a growing need for flexible yet scalable automation infrastructure. Automated micro-fulfilment centers located closer to customers, collaborative robots that can handle diverse inventory, data-driven automation software to dynamically optimize fulfillment workflows based on real-time demand - all of these new-age solutions will help logistics operators offer personalized omnichannel experiences efficiently. This presents a major business case for continued innovations and investments in logistics automation technologies.
Link: https://www.coherentmarketinsights.com/market-insight/logistics-automation-market-4593
Key Developments:
- In April 2023, TGW Logistics Group unveiled innovative visualization dashboards to optimize intralogistics system performance for both new and existing customers. These dashboards allow the graphical analysis of data from various software sources, ranging from goods-in monitoring to warehouse operations and sorters/scanners.
- In March 2023, KNAPP AG introduced cutting-edge robotics at the LogiMAT 2023 trade fair, aiming to automate and digitize logistics processes. These robot solutions are anticipated to reduce costs while enhancing shipping capacity, reflecting KNAPP's vision of "zero-touch fulfillment."
- Also in March 2023, Dematic showcased its latest automation technologies for KION's new logistics facility, intended to streamline the shipping of replacement components across Europe. By deploying the dynamic Dematic Multishuttle system with 110,000 storage places and 150 shuttles, Dematic aims to enhance customer deliveries' effectiveness.
- In the same month, Swisslog launched its CarryPickmobile robotic goods-to-person storage and retrieval system, featuring a significantly increased working speed. This updated platform incorporates innovative mobile robots equipped with a lifting turntable, enabling faster and more adaptable storage and selection processes.
Key Market Players:
Key companies covered as a part of this study include Daifuku Co., Ltd. , Dematic , ek robotics GmbH , Falcon Autotech , Grey Orange Pte. Ltd. , Hardis Group , HighJump , Honeywell International Inc. , Jungheinrich AG , KNAPP AG , Locus Robotics , Manhattan Associates , Murata Machinery, Ltd , Oracle , SAP SE , Seegrid Corporation , System Logistics S.p.A , TGW LOGISTICS GROUP GMBH , Toshiba Corporation , and Zebra Technologies Corp.
