BoxLogic’s Stuart Parsons in Logistics Manager Magazine

BoxLogic have been quoted in an article focused on warehouse automation in the retail sector in the February 2020 issue of Logistics Manager magazine. The article, entitled ‘Shifting Sands’ was part of a Materials Handling & Warehousing Special that investigated the arguments driving automation written by Logistics Manager journalist Michelle Mooney.

BoxLogic Director, Stuart Parsons’ contributions featured alongside James Smith, MD at AutoStore; Craig Rollason, MD at Knapp; Eric Rice, marketing manager at Honeywell; Scott Reed, Head of Intralogistics at Siemens Digital and Amir Harel, MD at Zetes. A digital copy of the magazine can be accessed through the Logistics Manager website (see link) and the article can be found on pages 43-45.

Photo of article in Logistics Manager

The contribution starts with an explanation of why warehouse automation is being used by retailers:

Stuart Parsons, director of BoxLogic, says “The shift towards e-commerce has dramatically changed the ordering profiles for omnichannel retailers, where smaller and fragmented order profiles have added cost into the operation. The cost of fulfilling online orders can be up to five times more costly per unit in a manual environment than for store orders and automation is supporting businesses to take cost back out of the operations again.”

After comment from another contributor on the importance of agility in a modern business environment and moving staff towards higher-value roles Stuart’s contribution continues:

However BoxLogic’s Stuart Parsons warns “Like any investment that is to be recovered over multiple years, certainty of the design flows is critical. If the volumes fail to materialise or there is a significant change in the shape of the marketplace, then achieving the payback becomes a risk.

Automation generally reduces the flexibility of the operation it is important to get the design right so that it can cope under a range of scenarios including volume growth, changes to seasonal profiles, expanding project ranges or changing order profiles. Retailers undergoing rapid growth need to develop a clear expansion path so that the automated solution can grow in-line with the business.”

The comments were taken from a longer-form article supplied by BoxLogic which we will post soon. In the meantime, please check out the full article on Logistics Manager as well as the rest of the issue.

INSIGHTS