The Future Fulfilled - 10 Insights on Warehouse Automation

On a warm afternoon at the Guoco Midtown Network Hub, executives and supply chain professionals gathered not to marvel at flashy prototypes or lofty promises, but to confront a question of increasing urgency: what does warehouse automation actually look like when it moves beyond pilot projects and glossy brochures into the messy, unpredictable terrain of daily operations?

Hosted by Vertex Holdings in partnership with Geek+ and Supply Chain Asia, “The Future, Fulfilled: Achieving Warehouse Automation at Scale” drew industry leaders whose careers have been shaped by philosophy and practice alike. Over three hours of presentations and discussion, the forum explored how automation is impacted by the realities of logistics, labor, and business strategy.

At the heart of the conversation was a consistent theme: technology may be the tool, but automation is ultimately about adaptation. In warehouse environments, the gulf between what is promised and what is real can be wide, and the path across it demands both ingenuity and humility.

Insight 1: Automation is a trade-off, not a destination

One of the clearest messages to emerge was that warehouse automation is not a linear journey toward some fully automated end state. It is a continuous exercise in compromise.

Joe Qiao, Director and APAC Automation Lead at DSV, framed automation as a balancing act between two opposing forces. On one side sits flexibility; the ability to handle diverse SKUs, customers, and workflows under one roof. On the other sits automation, which relies on structure, repeatability, and constraint.

Warehouses today are rarely homogeneous environments. A single facility may process consumer electronics, food products, and bespoke customer orders simultaneously. The operational challenge, Qiao argued, is not to eliminate this complexity but to discipline it.

“Automation is rigid by nature. Warehousing is not. The work is finding the balance between the two.” - Joe Qiao, DSV

Insight 2: Predictable performance is the quiet north star

In the discussion, “performance” did not mean record-breaking peak throughput. It meant reliability under normal stress: the system behaving in ways leaders can plan for, teams can execute, and customers can trust.

Qiao described predictable performance as the ability to deliver consistent service outcomes while steadily improving operational efficiency. The promise of automation, in this framing, is not just speed, but stability: fewer surprises, fewer downstream disruptions, and fewer costly workarounds that become invisible habits.

Insight 3: Standardisation scales; customisation sustains

As automation efforts scale, another tension becomes unavoidable: how much to standardise, and how much to customise.

For global operators like DSV, customer expectations are shifting. Increasingly, multinational customers want solutions that can be replicated across regions, not rebuilt from scratch in every market. That requires common processes, shared architectures, and governance.

Yet total standardisation is a trap. Local operating realities, labor markets, facility constraints, regulatory environments still matter deeply. The emerging consensus was that the future lies in layered design: standardise what is common and repeatable, then customise where differentiation or compliance truly demands it. Automation begins to resemble a platform rather than a project.

Insight 4: Cold chain exposes the cost of uncertainty

If automation discussions can sometimes drift into abstraction, Siang Tian Ng, Head of Non-Aviation Logistics & Distribution at Country Foods, brought the conversation firmly back to ground truth.

Cold-chain logistics operates under conditions where error has no grace period. Containers arrive in unpredictable surges. Temperature lapses can destroy inventory in hours. Many processes, from unstuffing to pallet consolidation, remain stubbornly manual, performed in extreme cold and under intense time pressure.

Visibility gaps compound the challenge. Active temperature monitoring is often optional rather than standard. FIFO management becomes exponentially more complex when returns, mixed expiry dates, and manual handling collide. Downstream, last-mile delivery introduces its own fragility, shaped by congestion, limited unloading bays, and tight acceptance windows.

“Cold chain doesn’t forgive ‘we’ll fix it later.’ If something breaks, it breaks immediately.”-Siang Tian Ng, Country Foods

Insight 5: ROI is as much human as it is financial

When the discussion turned to return on investment, the definition widened beyond spreadsheets.

Ng offered a perspective that resonated across the room: ROI also shows up as staff confidence. Automation that reduces firefighting; fewer emergency calls, fewer weekend crises, fewer moments of operational panic; creates value that is rarely captured in capital-budget models but deeply felt on the ground.

Operational stress is one of the most persistent and under-measured costs in supply chains. Systems that behave predictably allow people to move from constant reaction to continuous improvement. Automation, seen this way, does not replace people. It reshapes their work.

Insight 6: Data without purpose can make operations worse

A recurring warning came from Michael Guantiero, Vice President of Solution Consulting at Infor: more technology does not automatically lead to better outcomes.

Over the past decade, many warehouses have accumulated sensors, dashboards, and connected devices. The result has often been an abundance of data paired with a shortage of insight. When automation is layered onto unclear processes or outdated operating models, it risks locking inefficiency into place.

“If you automate a broken process, you don’t fix it. You freeze it.” -Michael Guantiero, Infor

Insight 7: Assumptions quietly decide whether automation succeeds

From the solution-provider perspective, Ryan Zhang, Senior Retail Solution Advisor, APAC at Geek+, highlighted a less visible but decisive factor: assumptions.

Automation projects are often built on forecasts of growth, order profiles, and labor availability that feel reasonable at the time. When reality diverges, utilisation drops, and ROI erodes.

The most resilient projects, Zhang noted, are those where customers and providers challenge assumptions openly and design systems flexible enough to adapt. Phased deployment, rather than sweeping transformation, allows real operational data to validate early decisions before further capital is committed.

Pull-out quote
“The biggest ROI problems don’t come from the wrong robots. They come from the wrong assumptions.” - Ryan Zhang, Geek+

Insight 8: Robotics can deliver flexibility, but it still needs orchestration

Terence Chan, Senior Sales Manager for Southeast Asia and India at Geek+, described a spectrum of deployed solutions: goods-to-person systems, high-density storage, and pallet shuttle systems designed for cold-chain environments where human exposure must be minimised.

The defining advantage of newer robotic systems, he argued, is flexibility. Fleets can be scaled during peak periods, redeployed across sites, and implemented incrementally. Accuracy and visibility also matter because the hidden costs of errors and returns can dwarf the gains promised by speed alone.

Still, robotics cannot function in isolation. Warehouse management systems, execution layers, and human oversight remain essential. Automation works best when it is embedded into operations rather than imposed upon them.

Insight 9: Every automation solves one problem and creates another

If optimism needed grounding, it came from Eddie Sng, Director and Founder of Sanbo Intelligent Technology.

Automation, he reminded the audience, does not eliminate bottlenecks. It relocates them. Faster picking creates congestion in staging. Higher throughput stresses downstream coordination. Removing manual work from one step intensifies decision-making pressure elsewhere.

The danger lies in treating automation as a sequence of isolated wins rather than as a system-wide redesign. Warehouses are interconnected systems; improvements in one area inevitably ripple through others. He also raised a subtler concern: as entry-level tasks become automated, organisations must ensure they do not lose the experiential knowledge that underpins future leadership.

“Every solution creates its own problem. If you don’t look end-to-end, you just move the pain.” Eddie Sng, Sanbo Intelligent Technology

Insight 10: Flexibility must be designed, not promised

As the panel looked ahead, a final tension surfaced. Automation introduces structure. The world, however, demands adaptability.

Trade routes shift. Demand spikes and collapses. Regulations change. Systems that cannot evolve become liabilities. The consensus that emerged was pragmatic rather than ideological: automation must be modular, assumptions must be revisited, and leadership must remain willing to adapt systems rather than defend them.

The future of warehouse automation will not be defined by how many robots are deployed, but by how thoughtfully organisations integrate technology, people, and process into something resilient enough to absorb disruption. Automation does not replace complexity. It reframes it. And the companies that succeed will be those that accept that reality and design accordingly.