The Future of Warehouses is Dark and Integrated

In this episode of the Futurum Tech Webcast host Shelly Kramer is joined by George Koutsaftes, President and CEO of Honeywell Safety and Productivity Solutions for a conversation about the future of warehouses. George joined me from ProMat, one of the biggest manufacturing and supply chain tradeshows, which took place in Chicago last week, and in addition to talking about the future of dark warehouses, he also shared insights on some of the key trends he’s observed there.  We live in an increasingly digital economy, which includes a massive web of packaging, shipping, warehousing, and distribution designed systems to help meet customer needs. In fact, without this physical infrastructure, the digital economy would grind to a sudden halt.  Over the course of the last few years and in order to combat labor shortages and deal with increased e-commerce demand, many companies have moved quickly to add automation and robotics to warehouse operations. In fact, it’s not at all surprising that the global market for warehouse automation technology is anticipated to reach $21.7 billion this year, which could lead to dark warehouses — which is a very good thing.  Their conversation covered the following: * What a dark warehouse is, and what that looks like in practice.  * There’s been a significant investment in new warehouses, both physical buildings and the technology within them. They discussed the driving forces behind that and how dark warehouses can alleviate the challenge.  * They explored the Interoperability Gap and why it’s such a major challenge for the industry. * They discussed some of Honeywell’s extended capabilities designed to address the Interoperability Gap and how those are being received in the market. * They talked about customer challenges throughout the industry and the key challenges George and his team at Honeywell seek to address.  It was a great conversation and it’s clear that addressing warehouse automation is on the minds of many throughout the industry, and with good reason.