Sweat Your Assets: 5 Steps to Get More From Your Existing Warehouse
Guest blog by Hunter Senn, Vice President of Sales for MHI Member Company Hai Robotics
So you want to improve your warehouse performance, but you don’t have the budget for a brand-new facility or a full retrofit. What are your best options?
First, let’s bust a common myth: you don’t need a multi-million-dollar project or a brand-new building to automate your warehouse. That assumption usually comes from thinking about older, fixed-infrastructure automation systems — the kind that require months of prep, costly renovations, and major downtime.
But there’s a better way.
Today’s automated solutions for inventory storage, picking, and order fulfillment are modular, scalable, and surprisingly flexible. That means you can start improving efficiency, throughput, and storage capacity right where you are. Here are 5 practical steps to help you make the most of your existing warehouse:
1. Think Vertical
One of the easiest wins? Start using your untapped vertical space. Modern Automated Storage and Retrieval Systems (ASRS) can reach up to 39 feet high, packing more inventory into the same footprint at over 6x the height of other human-augmented robotic picking solutions. Their ultra-dense design means you can shrink your storage area by as much as 75% — or dramatically increase capacity without adding square footage.
2. Start Small – and Smart
You don’t need to automate everything at once. Focus on a single zone or process that’s slow, error-prone, or labor-intensive. Flexible goods-to-person solutions like a modular ASRS are a smart entry point because they solve a big pain point: the time and labor it takes for workers to walk, search, and pick orders. Instead, robots deliver inventory to ergonomic workstations, letting your team fulfill up to 300% more orders in less time — with 99%+ order accuracy.
3. Stay Flexible
Look for systems that are modular and easy to reconfigure. Want to expand later? Add more bots or racks. Need to move things around? No problem. Flexible ASRS solutions are designed to grow and adapt with your business — and because they operate using industry-standard racking, nearly any size or shaped container (or no containers at all!), and minimal-to-no floor prep, you can make changes without shutting down operations.
4. Boost Efficiency Without Burning Out Your Team
With mobile robots doing the heavy lifting, your team can focus on more valuable tasks. Instead of walking 10+ miles per shift, they stay put and fulfill up to 30 orders at once from a single station. This boosts daily throughput by 3x, improves accuracy to 99%+, and cuts labor costs by up to 67%. It also creates a safer, more ergonomic environment that helps reduce injuries, turnover, and onboarding time.
5. Think ROI, Not Just CapEx
The best part? You don’t have to blow your budget. By deploying automation in your current space and scaling gradually, you avoid the massive upfront costs of new real estate or a full retrofit. And because these systems improve accuracy, reduce waste, and dramatically increase output, they deliver fast ROI — all while staying nimble for future growth.
Bottom line: If you’re trying to get more out of your current warehouse, you have better options than you might think. Today’s flexible goods-to-person systems are designed to meet you where you are — and help you go a lot further, faster.
