Challenges while moving towards Warehouse Automation

Abstract: Currently, customers are pushing companies by demanding high quality, customized products, reduced lead time, and reliable delivery. To provide such high customer sat-isfaction, companies have to rely on third-party logistics and warehouse operations. The variety of products, combined with shorter delivery times makes warehouse operations even more complex. To manage these complexities, warehouses are turning to "auto-mation technologies" that provide a competitive edge in the market by lowering costs and improving productivity in all operations, throughout the shop floor. This project aimed to explore how warehouses can implement automation successfully by analysing the challenges that arise with the automation approach. The project will be limited to the planning phase of the automation approach. Based on the aim, two research ques-tions were defined. The first one concerns identifying the challenges that arise when a warehouse is becoming automated, while the second one concerns, finding solutions that mitigate these challenges. To fulfill the purpose, a single case study was conducted in the warehouse of a logistic company in Jönköping. The case study method consisted of interviews and observations as primary data collection techniques. In total thirteen challenges were identified in the literature, out of which ten were found at the case company. The identified challenges were classified into the organisational, technolog-ical, and people factors. In order to mitigate the challenges, suggestions were provided to the case company. The thesis concludes that even though automation is a good strat-egy for improving production activities, it comes with several challenges within organ-isational, technological, and people dimensions. Moreover, the study will be useful, for researchers and practitioners working in warehouse automation to identify and solve challenges while automating the facility