For the time being, companies are refraining from investing in new space, and they plan to spend their savings on increasing efficiency, among others by purchasing AGV trucks. The first report on the warehouse industry in Poland, during the COVID-19 pandemic, was prepared by ICAN Institute in cooperation with WDX S.A. The study illustrates the changes taking place well because it was carried out on two dates: December 2019 and June 2020.
Even before the pandemic, the mood in the warehouse industry was positive, many companies planned to expand their warehouse space forecasting a stable increase in demand. COVID-19 turned out to be a catalyst for the existing forecasts, and some processes accelerated significantly.
70% |
of respondents plan to exchange or purchase of forklifts. |
48% |
believes that autonomous forklifts have the best chance of conquering the market in the next 5 years. |
83% |
companies intend to automate processes over the next 3 years. |
According to the authors, what drives the industries is growing domestic demand in many industries, foreign expansion of Polish companies, and, above all, the rapid growth of the e-commerce sector. In order to meet market demands, many warehouse operators planned to build new space. Now, however, they tend to invest in increasing efficiency in already owned locations. This is to be helped by the purchase of new AGV's and racks and the increase in automation.
The stages of the storage process, where there is still a lot of room for improvement, are especially loading and unloading. While the booms in online commerce drive industries, they are also a source of many challenges. They result from the huge diversity of the assortment sent, which often has non-standard dimensions and different weights, which means that the storage processes must be constantly verified and modified. This is one of the reasons why over the next 5 years entrepreneurs indicate that they will focus on investments in:
- drones for scanning goods in high-stock warehouses (49% of respondents),
- transporters for packing goods into a truck (49%),
- stacker cranes (48%),
- autonomous forklifts (AGV) (48%),
- RFID systems for scanning products (47%),
- big data analysis systems (47%).
Full report to view or download on LinkedIn (only available in Polish):
