This week I'm at Supply Chain Point with a group of 45 executives from the warehouse, distribution and fulfillment arena from multiple different industries. It's been a great event so far with today being the last day.

Kicking off the event was Jim Tompkins as the keynote speech and he didn't hold back. He gave some hard truths about where companies need to be taking their supply chains in the next three years in order to have their companies survive.

He covered the technology shifts that need to happen and need to be embraced within your supply chain and why. The one thing that stood out is that amongst all the discussion of technology, he ended with this message:

"The future of supply chain will not be written by technology, it will be written by leaders."

His message is that we, the humans, need to take this technology and utilize it as a tool to write what our future supply chain will look like and how it will balance the human element with the agentic element.

To me, this is a powerful message of how the human element will remain in the supply chain and the great responsibility we all have to take action to make sure the supply chain is formed in the right way over the next few years.

If you're not helping to write how technology will be utilized in your supply chain now, you're already way behind.

What do you think about this message?

Monday's Episode - Warehouse Autonomy Meets Operational Reality

Welcome to this episode of The New Warehouse Podcast. Michael Lawrence, Director of Sales and Business Development from Anantak, shares a different approach to warehouse autonomy. Anantak has a deep focus on brownfield-friendly deployments, vehicle-to-vehicle interaction, and customer-driven engineering.

The episode also highlights how Anantak’s technology navigates facilities without requiring major infrastructure changes inside warehouse operations.

Tuesday's Episode - Symbotic at MODEX 2026: End-to-End ASRS, Breakpack, and Touch-Free Case Handling​
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At MODEX 2026, Kevin from The New Warehouse Podcast interviews David Clear from Symbotic, a first-time exhibitor, about Symbotic’s end-to-end, fully autonomous warehouse solution that combines OEM and integrator capabilities.

Symbotic’s ASRS is case-focused with dense native-case storage (no totes or trays), supporting high-throughput inbound and outbound cells monitored by minimal staff, and now includes a breakpack solution to handle both eaches and cases, plus mixed pallet builds for outbound delivery.

They discuss how the ASRS fits into the overall flow from pallet breakdown to case buffering, order building, and returns to storage, along with ideal customer fits including grocery, wine and spirits, food distribution, and micro-fulfillment. David emphasizes planning for product mix and exceptions, modular scalability, and staff training.

Wednesday's Episode - Warehouse Execution Systems: Optimizing People, Processes, and Automation

Welcome to this episode of The New Warehouse Podcast, where Kevin Lawton speaks with Mike Krabbe and Suneel Krishnaswamy from enVista live at MODEX 2026. The three of them explore how warehouse execution systems (WES) are helping operations connect automation, labor, and workflows into a more synchronized operation.

From digital twins and interoperability to robotic pallet building and pick-to-light systems, enVista shares how companies can scale automation without creating disconnected systems or operational bottlenecks.

Thursday's Episode - MODEX 2026: Why ‘A Tote Is Not a Tote’ in ASRS | Rehrig Pacific on Reusable Assets

At MODEX 2026, Kevin from The New Warehouse Podcast talks with Amanda Vernaglia, Director of Target Development at Rehrig Pacific, about why containers and reusable assets are a critical part of ASRS performance. Amanda explains that Rehrig Pacific, a fourth-generation, family-owned company with over a century in material handling and decades of reusable-asset design experience, provides injection-molded solutions including plastic pallets, totes, pallet support boards, lids, collapsible and nestable crates. She argues “a tote is not a tote,” warning that treating totes as commodity, last-minute decisions can cause dimensional issues, jams, misreads, and quiet efficiency losses over time due to poor interaction with conveyors, barcode readers, or ASRS forks. She also discusses increasing customization, the push for ROI, and Rehrig’s AutoStore supplier partnership focused on tolerances, stiffness, and asset life.

Friday's Episode - Autonomous Yard Operations from YMX Logistics

Welcome to this episode of The New Warehouse Podcast, where Kevin Lawton speaks with Rock Stars Matt Yearling and Erin Mitchell (https://ymxlogistics.com/press-releases/ymx-logistics-executives-named-2026-food-logistics-rock-stars) of YMX Logistics and industry analyst Bart De Muynck, live from MODEX 2026.

The discussion covers technology enablement, autonomous yard operations, digital twins, safety culture, and the growing need for orchestration across the yard. The episode also highlights how YMX combines operational expertise with technology to help shippers create more value from an area many organizations still underestimate.

Time to get back to the SCP festivities and make some more great connections. If you want to get on the waitlist for Supply Chain Point 2027, let me know. I'm on their advisory board and happy to put your name in the ring. This event is growing quickly!

Thank you,

Kevin

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