Rohit Laila brings over two decades of deep-rooted expertise to the global logistics and supply chain landscape, having navigated the intricate evolution of delivery networks from traditional manual operations to the cutting-edge automated hubs of today. His career is defined by a relentless passion for integrating disruptive technologies that bridge the gap between industrial necessity and digital innovation. As global markets grapple with fluctuating material costs and shifting geopolitical tides, Rohit provides a seasoned perspective on how organizations can leverage automation not just as a tool for efficiency, but as a resilient foundation for long-term growth.
Order intake has risen 7% recently, driven by higher input costs and massive retail investments from giants like Amazon and Walmart. How do these inflated project values impact long-term ROI, and what specific steps can companies take to balance rising steel and labor costs against actual operational needs?
The reality of the current 7% rise in order intake is that it is heavily decoupled from an actual spike in volume demand, as much of this growth is synthetic, born from inflated material and labor prices. When steel prices soar, the foundational cost of a warehouse rack or a conveyor system jumps significantly, which can stretch a typical three-year ROI window into five years or more if the underlying throughput doesn’t increase proportionally. Companies must look past the sticker price and focus on modularity, ensuring they aren’t over-engineering facilities for peak capacities they won’t hit for another decade. To balance these costs, I advise leadership to prioritize software-driven optimizations that squeeze more productivity out of existing physical footprints before committing to massive, steel-heavy expansions. It is about being surgical with capital; if a project cost is 15% higher due to external inflation, the operational gain must be verified through rigorous simulation to ensure it remains a viable asset.
EMEA shows strong 7% growth projections, while German demand slows as operations migrate to lower-cost regions. What specific factors drive this geographic shift, and how should automation providers adjust their service models or localized strategies to support these emerging, high-growth markets?
The shift we are seeing in EMEA is a classic example of operational gravity moving toward regions that offer a better balance of labor availability and land costs. Germany has traditionally been the heart of European logistics, but high energy costs and rigid labor markets are pushing new investments toward the UK, Northern Europe, and the Netherlands. Automation providers can no longer rely on a “one size fits all” sales model and must instead transition into localized service partners that understand the specific regulatory and economic nuances of these emerging hubs. This means deploying local technical support teams and spare parts depots in high-growth corridors to minimize downtime, which is the biggest fear for any facility manager. By aligning their service infrastructure with where the hardware is actually being installed, providers can capture the 7% growth while mitigating the risks associated with the slowdown in traditional industrial centers.
Parcel automation is growing at 6% due to last-mile investments, even as grocery automation in the Americas approaches a cyclical slowdown. What unique technical hurdles exist in last-mile systems, and how should retailers pivot their strategies as large-scale distribution projects reach maturity?
Last-mile automation is an entirely different beast compared to the massive regional distribution centers we’ve built over the last decade, primarily because it requires extreme precision in dense, urban environments. The technical hurdles involve managing high-frequency, small-batch sortation in confined spaces where every square foot is at a premium and the margin for error is razor-thin. As major grocery projects in the Americas reach their completion phase toward 2030, retailers must shift their focus from “big-box” automation to micro-fulfillment and decentralized nodes. This strategy requires a pivot toward robotics that can handle mixed-case picking and rapid dispatch, rather than just moving bulk pallets. Success in this maturing cycle will be defined by how seamlessly a retailer can integrate their inventory data across hundreds of small nodes to satisfy the immediate gratification of the modern consumer.
Factors like U.S. political uncertainty and stabilizing steel prices are expected to eventually slow market growth as capital expenditure cycles mature. How do these external variables influence multi-year investment cycles, and what metrics should leadership prioritize to ensure infrastructure remains resilient during these shifts?
The cyclical nature of logistics is being heavily influenced by the 2028 U.S. election and the normalization of steel prices, which creates a “wait and see” atmosphere for many C-suite executives. These external variables often cause a freeze in multi-year CapEx cycles, as firms become hesitant to lock in massive budgets when the regulatory or tax environment might shift in twenty-four months. To maintain resilience, leadership should prioritize the “flexibility ratio”—a metric that measures how easily a system can be scaled up or down without requiring a complete teardown of the infrastructure. They should also focus on total cost of ownership (TCO) rather than initial intake price, ensuring that even if steel prices drop later, the current investment remains profitable through lower energy consumption and maintenance. Building for a “average” day rather than a “peak” day, and using automation to bridge the gap, is how you survive political and economic volatility.
The APAC region recently saw an 8% revenue decline, largely due to slowing domestic demand in China despite strength in other territories. What are the broader implications of this downturn for the global supply chain, and what practical steps can international firms take to mitigate risks?
The 8% revenue decline in APAC is a sobering reminder of how much the global supply chain has historically leaned on Chinese domestic growth as a primary engine. When demand in such a massive market cools, it creates a surplus of automation hardware and engineering capacity, often leading to aggressive price cutting and market instability for global vendors. International firms must mitigate this by diversifying their regional dependencies and looking toward Southeast Asia or India as secondary hubs for manufacturing and logistics. Practically, this means auditing your supply chain to ensure you aren’t 100% reliant on components or demand from a single territory that is currently facing a structural slowdown. By spreading technological investments across multiple high-performing APAC territories, firms can insulate their global bottom line from localized economic tremors.
General merchandise and food and beverage sectors are emerging as primary drivers for future automation growth. How do the automation requirements for these industries differ from traditional parcel handling, and what specific anecdotes or metrics illustrate the success of integrating automation into these complex environments?
Traditional parcel handling is largely about speed and sortation, but the general merchandise and food and beverage sectors demand a much higher degree of environmental control and SKU diversity. In food and beverage, for example, automation must often operate in temperature-controlled zones or handle fragile packaging that would be crushed in a standard parcel chute. I’ve seen cases where a grocery giant integrated automated storage and retrieval systems (AS/RS) and saw a 30% increase in storage density while simultaneously reducing product spoilage by 15% due to better rotation tracking. These sectors require systems that can handle “each-picking” with high accuracy, as a leaked bottle of detergent or a crushed box of cereal in a mixed tote is a failure that traditional parcel sorters aren’t designed to prevent. The success here is measured in the reduction of “cost per order” rather than just “parcels per hour,” reflecting the complexity of the inventory.
What is your forecast for warehouse automation?
I forecast a period of strategic consolidation where the global market settles into a steady 6% annual growth rate through 2030, characterized by a transition from “growth at any cost” to “growth through efficiency.” While we will see a slight cooling in North America as the current massive CapEx cycle reaches maturity and political uncertainty takes hold, the EMEA region will likely stay ahead of the curve with its projected 7% growth. We are moving away from the era of simply throwing steel and robots at labor shortages and into an era of intelligent, data-driven automation. My expectation is that by 2030, the most successful firms will be those that have integrated last-mile automation and modular systems, allowing them to remain agile regardless of whether steel prices rise or regional demands shift unexpectedly.
