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Your TNW Weekly Recap - 8/23/2026
Published about 7 hours ago • 3 min read
It feels good to almost take a full week off from the regular day to day. Last week I spent some time down in Florida with my son who just turned 13 yesterday! We hit Universal for Super Nintendo World, some Pokemon shops and spent time at Grandma's down in the Fort Myers area.
One thing we did that was incredibly interesting and also related to supply chain (can't get away from it!) was visiting a local orange juice producer. We went to Sun Harvest Citrus to see how they make OJ because my son is currently obsessed with OJ. Drinks it like crazy.
We got a look behind the scenes at their operations that happen right in the back of the retail store. It was an interesting look at a combination of older automation and manual work to deliver a delicious product that could be drank right off the line. What was interesting is where they utilized automation versus manual tasks. They were utilizing conveyors to bring oranges to the inside of the facility and then they were manually graded by someone who would pull off bad oranges and put them on to a different conveyor that would shred them and take them outside to a dumpster.
Oranges were basically crushed to extract the juice in an automated crusher. This was a pretty cool machine and my son loved it. The one surprise was that they manually put lids on all the bottles.
Fascinating to see but even more delicious to drink. Big shoutout to Willy for giving us the behind the scenes tour!
Now I'm back to it this week. Lots of events happening both in-person and virtual. Hopefully you can join me for one of them!
NYC breakfast tomorrow (8/25) with Traba. Details here.
NYC boat party with Breez Hub tomorrow night (8/25). Details here.
Warehousing After Dark Virtual Thursday night (8/27). Details here.
Monday's Episode - Peer Robotics: When Warehouse Robots Become Operational Peers
Peer Robotics CEO and co-founder Rishabh Agarwal is today’s guest on The New Warehouse Podcast. Peer Robotics develops collaborative mobile robots designed to automate material movement across manufacturing and warehouse environments. Its Peer 3000 platform moves pallets and supports applications including trailer loading and unloading.
In the conversation, Agarwal looks beyond what the robot can physically do. He explains why ease of use may determine automation adoption, why ROI must appear quickly, and how human-in-the-loop systems can make robotics more adaptable. He also sees robots becoming a source of operational data, not just physical labor.
Wednesday's Episode - Frozen Fulfillment: Cost, Data, and Transportation Waste
Welcome to this episode of The New Warehouse Podcast. Kevin is joined by Ariane Mary Kemper, co-founder and COO of eGourmet Solutions. The cold chain 3PL specializes in frozen and refrigerated fulfillment.
The company began 20 years ago as a frozen-food retail business. Today, eGourmet has five U.S. locations. It reaches 80% of the U.S. population in one day and 100% in two. Kemper shares lessons on D2C economics, actionable data, AI, and transportation waste.
Key Takeaways on Frozen Fulfillment:
eGourmet operates five U.S. locations and says its network reaches 80% of the U.S. population in one day and 100% in two.
D2C remains harder operationally than pallet-in, pallet-out B2B fulfillment.
eGourmet picks individual units entirely inside the freezer.
FROST IQ can surface backorders, open orders, expiring SKUs, and weeks on hand. Users can flag SKUs with more than four weeks of inventory.
Friday's Episode - AI + Automation, ASRS Lead Times, and Building Readiness with Parth Pethani of Prologis Essentials
At MODEX 2026, Kevin from The New Warehouse Podcast talks with Parth Pethani, Director of Warehouse Design & Innovation at Prologis Essentials, about helping customers get more from their buildings through a vendor-agnostic approach.
Parth shares that MODEX hasn’t become “all AI” and that operators are pursuing AI and physical automation in parallel, using AI to speed software changes while still needing automation to make insights actionable. He notes a market “rebalancing” as end users reassess solution partners and prior automation choices. Standout observations include growing interest in metallic/collapsible totes for lower freight costs and improved fire safety. In ASRS, Parth highlights two-way vs four-way pallet shuttles and says reducing lead times and cost is the key challenge. He also discusses brownfield readiness concerns—power availability amid data center competition, fire/safety, floor flatness, and overall infrastructure requirements.
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