eCommerce Drives New Supply Chain Management Trends
The global warehouse automation market is expected to skyrocket in the coming years as a result of this phenomenal growth.
Material handling equipment market forecasts show an exponential growth of $15 billion during the forecast period, with a CAGR of 10.41%, doubling the market value from $15 in 2019 to an estimated $30 in 2026.
E-commerce growth has had an impact on the warehouse automation market, as well as a significant increase in the material handling equipment market.
With a value of $140 billion in 2018 and nearly $213 billion in 2019, the market is now expected to reach $320.2 billion by 2027, representing a 5.4% CAGR over the next five years.
Markets are changing for the better as the adoption of mobile robots grows across industries.
More specifically, by 2027, the mobile robotics market in material handling equipment and logistics is expected to be worth $75 billion; by 2038, the market is expected to have doubled, reaching a total worth of $150 billion.
With the rise of automation, the market for automated material handling equipment, which is currently valued at $43.54 billion, is expected to grow at a 12% CAGR over the forecast period, reaching $76.69 billion by 2026.
This increase is significant when compared to the market for non-automated material handling equipment.
Businesses are beginning to adopt new approaches to order fulfilment; statistics show that nearly half of businesses intend to use a hybrid approach to order fulfilment, combining in-house and outsourced methods.
Real-time inventory availability updates and having an accurate, comprehensive overview of the warehouse's inventory, both of which can be easily achieved through inventory management automation, are two of the most useful tools for improving front-end operations.
Many warehouses appear to be still operating manually, with only 35% of warehouses reporting that they tracked their orders using automated solutions in 2018, indicating significant potential for market growth.
Robotic warehouse solutions have already proven to be beneficial, with more than 70% of warehouses and order fulfilment operations reporting double-digit growth since deploying autonomous mobile robots in their warehouses and fulfilment centres, particularly in terms of overall efficiency and productivity.
Whereas there were only 4,000 robotic warehouses in 2018, it is now expected that by 2025, there will be over 50,000 robotic warehouses worldwide, with approximately 23,000 in the United States alone, an increase of 20,500 units over 2018.
Not only do previous statistics reflect this, but robotic shipment data also shows that demand for robots is steadily increasing: in 2016, there were 40,000 robotic shipments for warehouses and logistics, but by the end of 2021, that number is expected to have risen to 620,000.
E-commerce, the emergence of automation, the increased importance of order fulfilment solutions in logistics, and the globalization of the supply chain industry are all expected to significantly impact the global warehouse automation market in the coming years.
The warehousing, manufacturing, and logistics industries are all being influenced by current e-commerce trends, indicating that it is becoming increasingly important for these industries - and others - to focus their efforts and attention on optimizing and developing automated solutions for the supply chain ecosystem.