Is your warehouse tracking the right numbers?
Too many warehouse operational teams and leaders come into initial conversations with solutions providers with the same question:
“How many robots should we buy?”
It feels like a fair, objective question to kick-off the conversation, especially for companies brand new to considering and implementing automation and robotic solutions. But the assumption that more robots means more productivity is something to address early and often.
There’s upfront work to better understand what matters. This is how solutions providers and customers need to partner to define success metrics. Emphasizing quality measurement over quantitative line items can make all the difference.
More can quickly become too much.
A larger AMR fleet looks and feels like progress - until it doesn’t. It’s important to consider the hidden costs, especially when growing the fleet is done suddenly and severely.
With every new robot comes the potential for:
→ More charging stations.
→ More maintenance contracts.
→ More traffic jams in your aisles.
→ More congestion and labor at P&D
→ More headaches for your team.
In addition to overwhelming your operation with more, too many robots can also cause stagnation from waiting. Robots waiting for people to fit and retrofit them effectively into their operations and teams. People waiting for robots to “just work” without understanding HOW they work and augment their day-to-day.
Pick density is what matters.
The core issue isn’t fleet size. It’s pick density—the measure of how efficiently items are picked and moved through your operation.
This is where many warehouses get misaligned. They prioritize and center success around robot counts, when they should be measuring throughput per robot and throughput per picker.
There are two paths to scale
When it comes to automation strategy, most operations have two choices:
1. Deploy more small robots
Costs and complexity balloon.
Aisle congestion increases.
Diminishing returns kick in more quickly.
2. Use fewer, high-capacity robots
Lower overall cost of ownership.
Easier fleet management.
Better utilization per unit.
The last thing anyone wants to see is unused robots sitting in way-back storage for the sake of having more robots.
ROI starts with asking the right questions.
The real ROI isn’t measured in “robots per worker,” it’s measured in work per robot. Solutions providers aren’t doing their job if they aren’t answering these questions in ways that not only accommodate, but accelerate what you currently have going on in your warehouse, system-wise and human resource-wise.
How much can each robot really handle?
Where are the true bottlenecks in your operation?
What’s the total cost of adding one more robot—not just the purchase price, but the impact on the whole system?
Working through these core questions together will point the strategy in the right direction - and will often identify opportunities to partner on creating a best-case scenario, with the right number of robots, doing more optimal work.
The right robots doing the right work.
Warehouses don’t win by adding more robots—they win by making the right robots work smarter. And this starts with identifying what success looks like, asking the right questions that dive deeper into what’s happening right now, what is in place, and where the operational gaps need filled with high-capacity automation.
You never want to just make a record of more things for the sake of showing something new is happening in your facility. Your team needs to show value in results that can then be responsibly scaled.
Sometimes the most advanced solution, the best way to hit warehouse goals, doesn’t mean more. It’s actually less - just done better.