Sortation needs more flexibility

Warehouse operations are under pressure from labour availability, rising costs, tighter delivery expectations and more volatile demand.

The session from Unbox Robotics focused on sortation, a process that remains critical across fulfilment centres, sortation hubs, last mile facilities and returns operations. Traditional fixed automation can deliver performance, but it can also require significant space, long installation times and limited flexibility once operational needs change.

Łukasz Banachowicz positioned vertical mobile sortation as an alternative approach designed for more dynamic logistics environments.

Space is becoming a constraint

One of the central challenges discussed was warehouse space.

In many European markets, adding more space is difficult, expensive or unrealistic. This makes it increasingly important to improve throughput inside existing facilities.

Vertical sortation addresses this by using height as well as floor area. Instead of relying only on horizontal movement, robots can move parcels or items into multi-level destinations, allowing more sortation points to fit into a smaller footprint.

For logistics operators, this can create capacity without requiring a full site move or major building expansion.

Automation can reduce manual pressure

Manual sortation can be labour-intensive and prone to inconsistency, especially during peaks or high-volume periods.

The session highlighted how robotic sortation can reduce the number of operators needed for sorting workflows while improving predictability. In examples shared during the presentation, robot-based systems were used to support order consolidation and parcel sortation with significantly lower labour requirements than previous manual processes.

The operational value is not only cost reduction. It is also about creating more stable, scalable performance.

Mobile robots create scalable capacity

A key advantage of mobile robot systems is adaptability.

Additional robots can be added during peak periods, layouts can be changed more easily than with fixed conveyor-based systems, and faults can be isolated to individual robots rather than stopping an entire line.

This distributed model is particularly relevant in ecommerce and last mile environments, where volume, product mix and destination profiles can change quickly.

What this means for the DELIVER community

For retailers, 3PLs and parcel operators, sortation is becoming a strategic automation opportunity.

The challenge is not simply to automate an existing process, but to redesign the flow around speed, space, labour and flexibility. For technology providers, the opportunity is to support automation that can fit into real warehouse constraints and scale with operational demand.

As fulfilment and delivery expectations continue to rise, vertical robotic sortation offers one route towards more compact, flexible and resilient warehouse operations.