Warehouse efficiency is crucial in helping get goods into the arms of customers. In its simplest form, this means picking, packing and shipping goods from the warehouse to the home as quickly, efficiently and cheaply as possible. In practice, however, there are several challenges that organizations face in their battle to continuously meet customer demand.
Costs for warehouse operators continue to balloon, amidst rising wages, increased national insurance contributions and increased operational costs. Data from the UK’s Office for National Statistics showed that in Q1 2025, costs rose more steeply for transport and storage companies (including logistics, parcels, haulage and warehousing) than for other comparable sectors. This pressure is being compounded by a huge labor shortage, with skilled employees continuing to leave the industry year on year, and the pipeline of emerging talent continuing to decrease.
Businesses are seeking new alternatives to help solve some of these critical industry challenges – including the introduction of automation, and more specifically, autonomous mobile robots (AMRs). These robots can help complete labor-intensive manual tasks, from intricate picking and sorting of goods to moving pallets and large payloads – creating huge efficiencies. Here are five key benefits and considerations for companies looking to AMRs to drive efficiency.
1. AMRs to solve labor challenges
Warehouses are facing several compounding labor-related pressures simultaneously. An aging workforce means more and more talent leaves the industry each year, while the younger generations are seemingly less likely to consider a role in logistics – owing to a preference for more ‘prestigious’ jobs. For existing warehouse employees, retention and workplace engagement is low, contributing to significantly higher turnover rates than in other sectors. These labour disruptions contribute to the slower fulfilment of orders, reduced margins and ultimately impact supply chain resilience.
Rather than taking or replacing jobs, AMRs are actively filling much needed gaps in the labor force, in a way that enhances safety and increases job satisfaction. Using complementary strengths of robots and human workers enhances overall productivity. AMRs excel at repetitive, physically demanding and precision tasks, such as moving heavy loads, sorting items and transporting goods across the warehouse. This allows human workers to focus on higher-value tasks, involving problem solving, critical thinking and adaptability. The result is an efficient workflow, in which the bulk of more dangerous manual labor is handled through automation, while humans oversee quality control, ensuring orders are fulfilled quicker and with less errors.
2. Meeting demands through reduced order cycles
Today’s shoppers prioritize convenience and experience. There is an expectation for quick and efficient delivery of items purchased online, and next-day – or increasingly same-day – deliveries are becoming the industry standard. Failure to meet these expectations risks impacting customer loyalty and retention. In fact, as may as one in three customers won’t purchase from a brand they like again, if they have a single negative experience. Improving the order cycle of goods – from order receipt, through to picking, packing, sorting and shipping – is critical to meeting these expectations.
Close integration between AMRs and Warehouse Management (WMS) ensures accurate, real-time data on current inventory, preventing delays and stockouts. By bringing goods directly to workers on the warehouse floor, AMRs minimize walking and travel time. Equally, advanced navigation systems ensure efficient routing and continuous operations. The result is a quantifiable improvement in picking rates, shorter lead times and increased throughput.
3. Providing increased flexibility and scalability
AMRs provide the additional benefit of flexibility and scalability. Season peaks, like Christmas, require significantly more resources to manage an increased order volume. This often requires larger recruitment drives, from an already dwindling talent pool, and longer hours to meet fulfilment deadlines.
Without time consuming training processes, AMRs can meet the increased volume of work with minimal ramp-up time needed. As business demands change, AMRs can be scaled up and down to match a live workload and seasonal peaks, while human workers can focus on making reactive changes to overarching business challenges. If demand is massively increased, businesses can add more AMRs to their fleet and integrate these without major infrastructure changes or downtime.
4. Increasing efficiency through orchestration
While the benefits are clear, deploying AMRs alone isn’t enough to unlock their full potential. Without integration, the efficiency of AMRs can be limited, if they fail to coordinate and complement the workloads of other automated systems, alongside human employees. The future of teamwork within warehouses is through multi-robot and people orchestration – or technologies that help to coordinate robot fleets and the surrounding manual workers all under one system.
Driving maximum efficiency while using AMRs requires integration, and the application of real-time data from other key warehouse technologies. For example, orchestrators, who can use live order and inventory information from WMSs can allocate tasks to the most suitable robots, or humans, based on proximity, availability and current workload. This ensures that each robot is always working on the most optimal task possible. Resulting reductions in idle time and bottlenecks, through the intelligent application of resources, minimizes errors and ultimately drives improved efficiency and throughput across the warehouse.
5. Future-proof your operation
Ensuring supply chain resilience, and the ability to maintain consistent fulfilment, requires the embracement of technology to drive efficiency. The introduction of AMRs should be part of a wider long-term supply chain and warehouse strategy to balance the strengths of human workers, the efficiency gains for technology and intelligent decision making through real-time data. Together this will enable faster and more accurate delivery of goods, while collectively strengthening the supply chain’s ability to withstand and recover from unexpected challenges.
Ultimately, rising costs and labor shortages are making warehouse efficiency increasingly difficult. Rising adoption of AMRs helps fill labor gaps, speed up order fulfilment and provides valuable flexibility during peak periods. When integrated with warehouse systems and human workers, they optimize workflows and reduce errors overall. Embracing AMRs should be part of a broader technology strategy to provide faster deliveries, meet customer expectations and ultimately build a more resilient supply chain.
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