Increase Picking Density with Mezzanines, Pick Towers, and Automation

Going vertical can double or triple the storage density of a brownfield warehousing facility. Applying the right robotics solution on top of that can send throughput through the roof.

For warehouse operators, recent economic numbers confirm the uncertain economic conditions they already knew they faced. Amazon has paused or canceled construction on dozens of new warehouses around the country, as e-commerce sales leveled off. New warehouse construction in North America and Europe declined by 25% during 2023, according to research from Interact Analysis. Meanwhile, healthy job growth in the warehousing industry has allowed workers to demand and receive significant wage increases — amounting to 38% between 2019 and 2023. With over 261,000 active warehouse worker job openings in the United States, warehouse operators appear to be having a hard time filling available positions.

Geographically, the massive growth in e-commerce in recent years has meant that online retailers and logistics services providers have required more square footage in urban and suburban locations to facilitate quick deliveries, but land for new-building of local e-commerce centers and suitable existing buildings are not readily available. Warehouse operators that want to expand their capacity to accommodate future growth but are wary of the risks inherent in greenfield development or don’t have greenfield options, have discovered a viable alternative. They can increase the density of their storage and their pick operations — and with that the productivity of their facilities — by installing a tiered structure in the form of pick towers and mezzanines within their current facilities, boosting throughput and pick density inside their existing building envelope. This also increases the complexity of fulfillment operations. Logically, going vertical lends itself to the application of automation in the form of autonomous robotics and their associated information systems — which also represent at least a partial solution to labor costs and worker shortages. Implementing multi-level warehouse structures combined with automation achieves throughput gains that are nothing short of astronomical.

How astronomical? Read on to find out.