Logistics Automation Market - Growth, Trends, COVID-19 Impact, and Forecasts (2022 - 2027)

Logistics Automation Market - Growth, Trends, COVID-19 Impact, and Forecasts (2022 - 2027)

The Logistics Automation Market is expected to register a CAGR of 12.5% during the forecast period (2022 - 2027). The emergence of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and the advent of a network of connected systems are helping industries perform a multitude of tasks, such as material batching, picking, ordering, packaging, warehouse security, and inspection. The factor helps improve operational efficiency by huge margins, which, in turn, drives the market.

• Automation for warehouses offers superior convenience regarding cost-cutting for the overall business and helps minimize minute errors in product deliveries. According to Dalsey, Hillblom, and Lynn, a prominent 3PL company and a significant end-user of warehouse automation solutions, about 80% of warehouses “still manually operate with no supporting automation,” despite the advantages. Furthermore, warehouses that use sorters, conveyors, and pick and place solutions, among other equipment (not necessarily automated), account for 15% of the total warehouses. In contrast, only 5% of the current warehouses are automated.
• According to the Bank of America, by 2025, 45% of all manufacturing is likely to be performed by robotic technology. Following this trend, large firms, such as Raymond Limited (an Indian textile major) and Foxconn Technology (a China-based supplier for large technology manufacturers like Samsung) have replaced (or plan to replace) 10,000 and 60,000 workers, respectively, by incorporating automated technology into their factories.
• These factors have directly impacted the increasing adoption of warehouse robotics. The rising number of warehouses and increasing investments in warehouse automation, coupled with the global rise in labor costs and availability of scalable technological solutions, have been driving the market for warehouse robots across the world.
• For many manufacturers and retailers, sometimes it is more economical to outsource increasingly complex warehouse operations to a logistics company, as automation requires a high initial investment. This hinders market growth.
• Warehouse Robots have been witnessing massive deployments, but amid COVID-19, a significant speed of deployment is expected. The COVID-19 pandemic has led warehouse operators to consider accelerating their timetables to adopt automation and robotics. Those who have successfully deployed also depicted the creation of safer workplaces by reducing interactions among workers by simultaneously enhancing productivity to meet increasing demands for e-commerce.

• The growth of the post and parcel industry, along with partnerships by vendors, has been driving the market’s growth positively and is anticipated to continue over the forecast period.
• With parcel growth expected to rise at a rate of 17% to 28% annually between 2017 and 2022 (according to the Pitney Bowes Parcel Shipping Index), majorly due to immense activities in the e-commerce sector, post and parcel and e-commerce sector is projected to be one of the largest consumers of sortation systems.
• Factors such as increasing labor costs and changing consumer buying patterns, have pushed the demand for faster and more on-time delivery operations, which have, in turn, developed a considerable demand for automated sortation systems. For instance, in March 2021, Thailand Post launched an automated packages sorting system at its logistics center in the central region, which is located at the Hoa Khanh Industrial Park in Da Nang city. This will help the company in boosting efficiency of the mail and parcel sorting systems through automation and innovation.
• Moreover, in May 2021, Deutsche Post partnered with Siemens Logistics to deliver, integrate, and commission parcel sorting technology for its international postal center (IPC) in Niederaula, Germany. The contract will include a high-performance cross-belt sorter for small parcels with several high-speed inductions, conveyor technology, as well as reading, intelligent control and coding software.
• Additionally, in November 2021, Royal Mail installed a new fully-automated parcel sorting machine in its Tyneside site, which will be able to process 180,000 parcels per day. The machine, which was officially opened by Gateshead MP Ian Mearns, is a system of conveyor belts and scanning technology that automatically sorts parcels for dispatch within Royal Mail’s network.

• Manufacturing serves as a significant industry in Asia-Pacific, and China's economy, being a significant contributor, is undergoing a rapid transformation as labor costs have risen and the conventional model of migrant workers. Such trends have pushed the economy to adopt automation as a part of manufacturing processes.
• In March 2021, Vietnam Post Corporation launched an automated packages sorting system at its logistics center in the central region, located at the Hoa Khanh Industrial Park in Da Nang city. With logistics services globally facing labor shortages during the COVID-19 outbreak, the company witnessed increasing demand for its automation systems that could replace repetitive warehouse work, intending to respond to the uptick in e-commerce sales and undertake disease prevention methods.
• The adoption of robots in corporate Japan has largely been confined to the manufacturing sector, with retail lagging behind. However, the current efforts by the retailers may drive the use of robots in the sector. In September 2021, SB logistics in Ichikawa, Japan, implemented robotics systems for piece picking and packaging. Additionally, the company also deployed conveyance, sortation, automated storage, and retrieval to make its warehouse completely autonomous to meet the exacting quality standards expected by Japanese consumers primarily.
• There has been rapid growth in the e-commerce industry in Asia. With more consumers switching to online delivery platforms, click-and-collect models, and curbside collections, supply chains are being challenged to adapt quickly. Though container shortages, shipment delays, and the growing demand for air cargo demand in the region has affected fulfillment in recent times, many major industry players are rapidly investing in technology solutions to ease these growing pains, especially automation.
• Also, many warehousing and logistics companies in the region are increasingly turning to robotic material handling solutions, such as autonomous mobile robots (AMRs), to move materials between pickers and transport completed orders to the packing area. As per Zebra's Warehousing Asia Pacific Vision Study, several decision-makers plan to use robotics for inbound inventory management (27%), packing (24%), and the receiving of goods (21%) by 2024.

The Logistics Automation Market is moderately competitive, with a considerable number of regional and global players. Players in the market adopt strategies such as product innovation, partnerships, mergers, and acquisitions to increase their market share.

• October 2021 - Honeywell introduced a smart, flexible depalletizer, which uses artificial intelligence to ease the implementation of robotic depalletizing technologies and minimize the need for manual labor to break down pallet loads.
• February 2021 - Dematic announced an agreement to provide an automated mixed-case fulfillment solution to Merchants Distributors (MDI), a wholesale grocery distributor, for the primary operations center's upcoming renovation and expansion.

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