even Report #2: Everything about automated small-parts storage systems

Automated small-parts warehouses are considered efficiency drivers in logistics, yet practice shows that many projects fail at the fundamentals: incorrect assumptions in planning, unclear volumes, underestimated performance limits or systems that cannot scale with the business later on. At the same time, new opportunities are emerging through modern robotics, flexible scalability and data-driven decisions.

The second even Report sheds light on exactly this reality: What actually works? What risks are lurking? And how do you plan an automated small-parts warehouse so that it holds up today and tomorrow?

It brings together knowledge from specialist articles, interviews and practice-oriented editorial pieces, from the first pain points in the warehouse through design and cost-effectiveness all the way to operations, maintenance and sustainability.

What to expect in the Report

1. When the warehouse reaches its limits
Which symptoms indicate that your own small-parts warehouse is approaching performance, process or growth limits, and what typically triggers automation projects.

2. Triggers & Business Cases
When automation is truly worthwhile, what business cases are based on and which pitfalls many companies only recognize late.

3. Alternative paths: optimizing the manual warehouse
Why optimization instead of automation is sometimes the better, faster and more cost-effective approach.

4. Low-cost automation
What options exist for starting automation in a pragmatic, modular and cost-efficient way.

5. Planning & dimensioning
Concrete expert knowledge from practice: SKU profiles, order load, service level, performance calculation, layout, space and temperature requirements as well as scalability and lifecycle design.

6. Cost-effectiveness & ROI
RaaS as a model, cost logic, amortization and risks. Assessed honestly, soberly and independently.

7. Implementation & testing
Brownfield vs. Greenfield, testing strategies, virtual runs and typical challenges before go-live.

8. Operations & further development
Performance metrics, scalability, system growth and professional maintenance during ongoing operations.

9. Sustainability & human-machine interaction
Material selection, energy consumption, CO₂ impact, recyclability as well as ergonomics, reach heights and safely designed workplaces.

10. Future outlook & forecasts
What the industry can expect by 2029: technological developments, market trends and perspectives from vendor interviews.

11. Tools & extras
Self-checks, checklists, roadmap, evaluations from the community.

Why you should read the Report

With the even Report you receive not a loose collection of specialist articles, but a tool that accompanies you from the first gut feeling to a well-founded decision:

• You understand which systems exist and which ones truly work for your volume.
• You learn how to plan, test and dimension an automated small-parts warehouse reliably.
• You gain deep expert knowledge first-hand, critically reviewed and clearly contextualized.
• You see which trends are transforming the market and which technologies promise more than they deliver.
• And you discover how sustainable automated small-parts warehouses must be conceived so that they hold up not only today, but also tomorrow.

Why a Report, and why this topic?

The selection and implementation of automated small-parts warehouses is one of the most strategically important decisions in modern logistics processes, and at the same time one with enormous risk. Many companies invest six to seven-figure sums without planning, design or operations being properly thought through.
This Report provides orientation: independent, practice-oriented and grounded in experience from projects and the expertise of many specialists.

"For me it feels like a puzzle every time: piece by piece an image comes together, but the pieces come from very different people with very different perspectives.

. Andreas Löwe, Founder of even

Many thanks for the valuable input:

NEOintralogistics, Gebhardt, Volume, SSI Schäfer, Exotec, Kompass350Grad, Autostore, Jungheinrich, Noyes, Libiao, Movu Robotics, MainturaTech, Timo Landener and Sascha Hoog