State of warehouse operations 2024

Warehouses are a fundamental part of modern supply chains. They are crucial to ensuring that goods can reach customers efficiently, effectively and on time. Yet many of these warehouses are in need of renewal. More investment and resources are needed to ensure truly effective operations and to become and remain a key link in supporting the future of their organizations. To find out more, Manhattan Associates commissioned market research specialist Vanson Bourne to interview 2,000 supply chain professionals in various countries and industries. This resulted in a comprehensive a research report. 

What do warehouse operations currently look like?

Most organizations struggle with their current warehouse operations, with the majority in each country believing that the IT infrastructure of their warehouse operations needs some or much improvement. Because warehousing is such an important part of the supply chain, this can affect organizations: it can determine whether or not they can meet customer expectations and requirements or take advantage of new opportunities.

Challenges in warehouse operations

Nearly all organizations report experiencing a number of challenges in their warehouse operations, with the top three challenges being outdated IT hardware/software, dealing with operational complexity and problems managing orders from different channels (e.g., in-store/e-commerce).

The human element

Staff retention and scheduling is a universal challenge for organizations, 84% of organizations report problems with staff retention. Of the industries surveyed, the pharmaceutical, consumer goods and retail/wholesale industries struggle the most with staff scheduling.

Looking to the future

Employees are excited about the potential of generative AI (75%) and robotics (72%) to improve their jobs, with GenAI and similar low-code applications facilitating the creation of more advanced capabilities and more efficient applications. Meeting these priorities requires innovation to ensure the warehouse is fully prepared for the future: simplifying operations, meeting increased demand and improving the employee experience.

Pieter Van den Broecke, EMEA leader, supply chain commerce strategies at Manhattan: "Consumers are ordering more and more, and through different channels. Both the growth and complexity of orders, as well as the tight labor market, present supply chain professionals with significant challenges to process orders effectively. It is important for organizations to modernize their existing warehouses by leveraging innovative omnichannel technology so that staff can focus on improving supply chain processes. By properly setting up their Web shop with sufficient product information, they can ease the workload created by returns. At the same time, they need to alert consumers to sustainable delivery methods and, in this, also steer their physical store's role as an important link for selling, picking up and returning products."