Learn about the future of warehouse automation at RoboBusiness

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GXO Logistics is a global warehouse solutions company that designs and operates some of the most advanced warehouse solutions in the world. | Credit: GXO Logistics

The global market for warehousing is estimated to total over $400 billion, but less than 5% of that market is currently automated. However, the increasing complexity of supply chains, along with increasing pressure on profitability from rising costs and competition for customers and labor, has created demand for warehouses with tech ecosystems — networks of robotics and software designed to optimize safety, efficiency and profitability.

RoboBusiness 2023 (Oct. 18-19 in Santa Clara, Calif.) will be diving into the future of warehouse automation. Rob Thyen SVP, Sales Solutions and Interim CIO at GXO Logistics, is talking about “Designing the Warehouse of the Future” on Oct. 18 from 4:15-5 PM. This session will highlight the different types of technology, including automated storage and retrieval systems (ASRS), robotic arms, goods-to-person robots, as well as data analytics, many of them industry-first implementations — and how they were strategically integrated to create a state-of-the-art tech-ecosystem at this warehouse of the future. In 2023, GXO was the world’s largest contract logistics provider.

In 2023, an example of such a tech ecosystem was launched in the U.S. The site includes one of the largest deployments of robotics in logistics and an industry-first combination of state-of-the-art automation. The technology solutions were selected to optimize returns operations, also known as reverse logistics, for a consumer electronics company, and custom-designed to handle a high rate of throughput at minimal cost, while increasing accuracy and productivity, lowering costs, and raising profitability for the customer. The warehouse is capable of processing 50,000 electronic devices per day with technology that can pick a specific item from over 2 million pieces of inventory in seconds.

Rob Thyen

Thyen is the Senior Vice President of Sales Solutions and leads the IT function for GXO in the Americas and Asia Pacific. He has more than 20 years of experience in supply chain systems and warehouse design. Thyen is intimately familiar with designing leading-edge innovations to drive customer solutions.

Based in Greenwich, Conn., GXO Logistics is an American global contract logistics company that manages outsourced supply chains and warehousing. GXO spun out of XPO in August 2021. Following the spinoff, GXO had approximately 94,000 employees and operated 869 warehouses with more than 208 million square feet of space across 27 countries. GXO’s contract logistics customers operate in technology[15] and infrastructure.

RoboBusiness is the leading event focused on developing commercial robots. There will be 60-plus speakers, 100-plus exhibitors and demos on the expo floor, networking receptions, the Pitchfire Robotics Startup Competition and more. You can check out the current list of speakers, to which more will be added.

RoboBusiness will be co-located with the Field Robotics Engineering Forum, an event focused on successfully developing robots that operate in wide-ranging, outdoor, dynamic environments.

Also co-located with RoboBusiness is DeviceTalks West, the premier industry event for medical technology professionals, currently in its ninth year. Both events attract engineering and business professionals from a broad range of healthcare and medical technology backgrounds.