Overview of strategic intent profiles, case examples, and warehouse automation strategy
| Strategic intent profiles | Case | Owner and management characteristics | Priorities | Financial concern | Warehouse automation strategy (connected to specific WA-strategy considerations) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reliability and delivery service | A | Long-term stable owners (e.g. government) | Delivery service to customers is the highest priority. Emphasizes regulatory compliance, safety of products, and employees | Capital availability appeared to be a minor issue. Financing granted for well-motivated investments | Invested in a centralized, greenfield facility (C1,2) with focus on reduced energy consumption (C16). Avoids being an innovator (C3). Emphasizes a long-term holistic approach to AWS (C4). Invests in excess capacity to ensure future growth (C7,8). The AWS focuses on simplicity and low risk of downtime in the form of proven technology and a carefully selected turnkey provider with overall responsibility, to avoid complex integration between multiple suppliers (C9,10,11). Avoids risks and ensures robust operations (e.g. power and fiber redundancy) (C14,15) |
| Profitable deliveries | G, H, D, B | Long-term majority owners (e.g. founding families still involved in management) or long-term investors reaping synergies by consolidating industries. “Retail-DNA” with a good understanding of retail and logistics | Growth with profitability | Return on investment. Larger investments are granted based on a strong business case | Invested in centralized and mostly brownfield facilities (C1,2). Early adopters to implement AWS that helps to increase profitability and gain competitive advantage such as supporting new profitable customer offerings (C3). Investments are characterized by holistic thinking (C4) and future vision (C7,8). Invests in new but proven technology in combination with strategic partnerships to develop the warehouse over time (C9,10,11). Has gained extensive experience of what works and is gradually focusing on building internal competence to run, finetune, and develop highly automated warehouses (C12,13) with robust operations (C14,15) |
| Scalable logistics for volume growth | C, F | Short-term owners: shareholder value generated, e.g. through an exit. More focus on selling the firm than profitable retail operations. Management origin in e-commerce rather than retail stores | Growth prioritized higher than profit and profitability | Company valuation based on sales growth. Financing model increasingly important if owners are close to an exit | Invested in centralized, greenfield facilities (C1,2) with focus on reduced energy consumption (C16). Gains market share through cutting edge – but not overly expensive, technically complex, or mixed – AWS that provides competitive advantages within the segment (C3,5). The investment horizon of an AWS may be shorter, the investments lower, and the financing possibilities vary (C7). Invests in excess capacity (C8) and develops strategic partnerships with tech companies to be at the forefront (C9,10,11) |
| Platform provider, e-logistics as service for others | E | Short- to medium-term owners: shareholder value can be generated by an exit but also by new service-oriented business models. Management with tech-DNA, less in retail and logistics | Growth prioritized, but not only own retail sales. Focus on innovation based on technology know-how, to generate new services | Future profit from serving other retailers with its platform | Invested in a centralized, greenfield facility (C1,2). Greater focus on innovation and creating own (or heavily customized) AWS (C3). These are preferably based on simple and modular technology (C4,5) to create scalability and flexibility (C6,7,8) to quickly and efficiently bring in new flows and business as a service. Controls technology internally instead of being dependent on an external provider (C9,10,11). The innovation is based on the company's own technology know-how and ability to optimize sub-processes (C12,13) |
| Strategic intent profiles | Case | Owner and management characteristics | Priorities | Financial concern | Warehouse automation strategy (connected to specific WA-strategy considerations) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reliability and delivery service | A | Long-term stable owners (e.g. government) | Delivery service to customers is the highest priority. Emphasizes regulatory compliance, safety of products, and employees | Capital availability appeared to be a minor issue. Financing granted for well-motivated investments | Invested in a centralized, greenfield facility (C1,2) with focus on reduced energy consumption (C16). Avoids being an innovator (C3). Emphasizes a long-term holistic approach to AWS (C4). Invests in excess capacity to ensure future growth (C7,8). The AWS focuses on simplicity and low risk of downtime in the form of proven technology and a carefully selected turnkey provider with overall responsibility, to avoid complex integration between multiple suppliers (C9,10,11). Avoids risks and ensures robust operations (e.g. power and fiber redundancy) (C14,15) |
| Profitable deliveries | G, H, D, B | Long-term majority owners (e.g. founding families still involved in management) or long-term investors reaping synergies by consolidating industries. “Retail-DNA” with a good understanding of retail and logistics | Growth with profitability | Return on investment. Larger investments are granted based on a strong business case | Invested in centralized and mostly brownfield facilities (C1,2). Early adopters to implement AWS that helps to increase profitability and gain competitive advantage such as supporting new profitable customer offerings (C3). Investments are characterized by holistic thinking (C4) and future vision (C7,8). Invests in new but proven technology in combination with strategic partnerships to develop the warehouse over time (C9,10,11). Has gained extensive experience of what works and is gradually focusing on building internal competence to run, finetune, and develop highly automated warehouses (C12,13) with robust operations (C14,15) |
| Scalable logistics for volume growth | C, F | Short-term owners: shareholder value generated, e.g. through an exit. More focus on selling the firm than profitable retail operations. Management origin in e-commerce rather than retail stores | Growth prioritized higher than profit and profitability | Company valuation based on sales growth. Financing model increasingly important if owners are close to an exit | Invested in centralized, greenfield facilities (C1,2) with focus on reduced energy consumption (C16). Gains market share through cutting edge – but not overly expensive, technically complex, or mixed – AWS that provides competitive advantages within the segment (C3,5). The investment horizon of an AWS may be shorter, the investments lower, and the financing possibilities vary (C7). Invests in excess capacity (C8) and develops strategic partnerships with tech companies to be at the forefront (C9,10,11) |
| Platform provider, e-logistics as service for others | E | Short- to medium-term owners: shareholder value can be generated by an exit but also by new service-oriented business models. Management with tech-DNA, less in retail and logistics | Growth prioritized, but not only own retail sales. Focus on innovation based on technology know-how, to generate new services | Future profit from serving other retailers with its platform | Invested in a centralized, greenfield facility (C1,2). Greater focus on innovation and creating own (or heavily customized) AWS (C3). These are preferably based on simple and modular technology (C4,5) to create scalability and flexibility (C6,7,8) to quickly and efficiently bring in new flows and business as a service. Controls technology internally instead of being dependent on an external provider (C9,10,11). The innovation is based on the company's own technology know-how and ability to optimize sub-processes (C12,13) |
Source(s): Authors’ own creation