Warehouse Automation in an Uncertain World: A Q&A with Colin McAleenan

Uncertain demand, rising costs and supply chain disruptions make warehouse investment decisions more complex. They also make the ability to adapt more valuable.

For Colin McAleenan, Vice President, Business Development & Marketing at Hai Robotics, successful automation starts with understanding the operation: its processes, its data, its people and the outcomes it needs to deliver. In this Q&A, Colin shares his perspective on why companies are moving forward with automation and what they need to get right.

What are the biggest factors influencing warehouse automation decisions today?

Uncertainty is the biggest factor. Operators are navigating uncertainty in demand forecasts, operational consistency, inflation, the cost of capital, geopolitical stability and supply chain resilience.

But that uncertainty is not necessarily stopping investment. In many cases, it is reinforcing the need to move forward. Customers increasingly recognize that disruption is part of the environment they operate in. They still need to work toward their strategic goals or risk falling behind their competition.

The result is a cautious but steady approach to automation. Operators want investments that help them respond to change while continuing to build toward their long-term objectives.

How do tariffs, transportation costs and geopolitical events affect automation decisions?

These pressures affect every industry. For warehouse operators, the question is how to design an operation that can work through disruptions and continue meeting customer needs.

I see these events as pressure points that should prompt a closer examination of the supply chain. Where are we vulnerable? What happens when costs increase or conditions change? Can we continue delivering for our customers?

As the saying goes, “iron sharpens iron.” We should use these challenges, and the expectation of more to come, to examine and strengthen our ability to deliver.

What is the cost of not automating?

There is comfort in continuing to operate in familiar, established ways. But postponing automation does not remove the pressures facing a manual operation.

Operators need to plan for a future in which labor availability, employee expectations and wage pressures continue to challenge the traditional warehouse model. An operation that depends heavily on manual work can find it increasingly difficult to attract and retain the people it needs.

I have seen employees respond positively to environments where robotics and automation are part of the operation. Delaying investment can erode an operator’s ability to compete for talent, as well as its ability to keep pace operationally.

What problem do customers most want robotics to solve?

Operational resilience.

Customers need the flexibility, scalability and predictability to respond when their operation has to pivot. That could mean seasonal demand, unexpected surges, rapid growth, changing service-level agreements or pressure to control unplanned costs.

Robotics should help operators manage those changes with greater confidence. The value is in how well the operation can adapt while continuing to deliver.

What payback period do customers expect, and how does project scope affect that target?

For a picking-focused automated storage and retrieval system, or AS/RS, I would generally target a payback period of three years or less. That assumes the investment is limited to the picking system, while reserve storage and dock-door coordination remain supported by existing systems or manual processes.

That scope matters. A broader project needs to be evaluated against its full investment and operational benefits.

It is also why operators should involve their automation partners early, before requesting budget. An experienced partner may recognize benefits that are easy to overlook when you work within the operation every day. Identifying those benefits helps build a more complete business case.

What are the biggest mistakes operators make when choosing and implementing automation?

Three mistakes stand out.

First, trying to automate processes that are not well defined. Exception handling is a good example. If a manual operation addresses exceptions differently each time, without documenting the process, it becomes difficult to define how automation should handle them. Those decisions need attention before implementation.

Second, designing around incomplete or unreliable data. Good process control creates reliable data. When data is missing, assumptions fill the gaps, and those assumptions introduce risk into the solution design. At go-live, that risk can appear as lower productivity, errors or a system that is blocked from moving work forward or starved of the inventory it needs.

Good operators have control over their processes. Controlled processes are measurable. Whatever you can measure, you can automate. Whatever you can automate, you can scale.

Third, focusing only on the process being automated. A faster picking system changes the demands on replenishment, packing, shipping and other connected processes. Operators need to consider the upstream and downstream impact and plan for the operation as a whole.

How can automation help facilities right-size inventory?

Automation supports inventory accuracy by controlling how items are stored and moved within the system. Those movements are coordinated by the software, creating a more reliable basis for understanding what inventory is available.

The warehouse execution system, or WES, helps provide visibility into what is in the system and what is or is not moving against order history.

That visibility supports better inventory decisions. Automation provides greater confidence in the inventory records; operators can use those records to evaluate stock levels and movement patterns.

How can gamification make working with automation more enjoyable?

People are competitive, and there are creative ways to make that part of the employee experience. I have seen shift-to-shift and team-to-team leaderboards displayed on the floor or in break rooms.

The reporting available through automation can also support recognition and rewards. In some operations, employees have become team leads or trainers because the data made their strong performance more visible.

The opportunity goes beyond a leaderboard. Operators can use those insights to build recognition programs that fit their culture and help employees see how their contributions matter.

How does work change when a facility moves from manual processes to automation?

The transition can be significant, which is why change management needs its own place in the project schedule.

Leadership needs to sponsor the transition and communicate consistently throughout the project. The strongest implementations I have seen include regular town halls, workshops before launch, support at go-live and adjustments informed by operating data during ramp-up.

The most difficult transitions often involve a departing project champion, leadership turnover or communication that loses momentum. Another major problem is continuing to run a newly automated warehouse as though it were still manual.

Bringing people along is essential. Employees need to understand how the operation is changing and how their work fits into it.