Watch: The ROI of Automating Brownfield Facilities

Companies can implement new automation technology in steps rather than throwing everything out and starting over, says Fred Fox, president of Kardex Solutions Americas.

Given the many changes affecting supply chains over the past few years, from geopolitical events to COVID-19 to artificial intelligence, if there’s anything that operators need today, it’s flexibility, Fox says. It allows them to scale any deployment, and that’s highly important.

 “Avoid the big-bang approach,” Fox says. “What are the things that I can do now with what I have? What can I leverage now with what I have, quicker and in a way that gets me some return on investment now, but also gives me the ability to be flexible and scale with that in the future?”

He says a smaller system with the ability to scale in a couple years might be the better way to proceed in one’s brownfield operation. “I add some new software features, add some new innovations that are bolt-on a couple years down the road.”

Automating in smaller bites, so to speak, may help a company meet its throughput requirement or current business objective. It also enables pivoting quickly when a new market opportunity materializes.

In addition, automation projects sometimes struggle with payback taking much too long. Accordingly, Fox says there should be some comfort in knowing that a company doesn’t have to start over with a completely new automation project. Rather than erect a new building, or even knock out an existing wall, perhaps old racking can be replaced with a modular goods-to-person system. “That allows me to get a little bit more dense and utilize that space more efficiently within my existing footprint. I can avoid a whole new greenfield facility and utilize the existing building that I have now.”