The market is buying humanoids as warehouse labor. The floor disagrees.

Unitree, Agility, Boston Dynamics, SoftBank. What the deployment numbers actually say.

I know you're reading. I just don't know who you are.

A quick one this week and one question I'd genuinely love your answer to.

The framework the industry never gave you for after go-live

I built this from a broken building. Here's what I learned.

The Trade Policy Quietly Moving Through Washington That Could Hit Your Automation Budget

A national security investigation into robotics just wrapped up.

You can't buy the capability

The Gartner Top 25 prove it. The robot was never the hard part.

WES exists because conveyor makers realized the money was in software

AutoStore SIs keep recommending it. I keep asking what it's scheduling across. I haven't gotten a satisfactory answer.

Nobody opens the ROI Excel twice

Real estate, WMS, automation. Most operators treat these as three decisions. They're not.

The $1M Line Item That’s Not on Your ASRS Quote.

Cost is the surface problem. Project credibility is the deeper one.

I walked into MODEX wrong

The either/or debate that dominates my feed didn't exist on the floor.

Your MODEX 2026 Reading List

10 field notes before you talk to a single vendor.

Signed at the portco level. Priced in at exit.

The math your portco used to approve that automation deal is probably wrong and you won't find out until exit.

I went on The New Warehouse to say the quiet part out loud.

Is warehouse automation's reputation in danger?

The 5% Keyhole: Why Your Best Engineers Can't See Your Operation

Every warehouse transformation runs through the IE. So why are we wasting 70% of their day?

Automation Doesn't Fail at Go-Live. It Fails at the Org Chart.

Every breakdown I've written about traces back to the same gap — automation didn't have leadership, it had a budget line.

Trying to make sense of AI in supply chain

AI in supply chain: vitamin or painkiller?

Ready Before Shiny

Before you walk the MODEX floor, know whether you’re buying equipment or building capability.

"It scales" is a lie and I can prove it

We mistake unit scalability for system scalability. Here are the five breaking points.

$4B Lost in Automation: Robot Fit vs. Business Model

Robot Fit vs. Business Model: Why Automation Bets Break

What really slows automated warehouses down - Roundup (Jan 19 - Jan 25)

It’s not the robot or the WMS. It’s where judgment goes once systems connect

How My Automation Lens Has Changed Over Time - Roundup (Jan 12 - Jan 18)

What years on both sides of automation conversations taught me to pay attention to.

My Anti-Predictions for 2026 - Roundup (Dec 15- Jan 11)

Why recovery, design debt, and triage will matter more than orchestration and hype.

The Hidden Cost of Peak: Uncertainty - Weekly Roundup (Dec 8- Dec 14)

The slowdown isn’t the real pain. The minutes spent guessing are.

Throughput Is the Plan. Surety Is the Reality - Weekly Roundup (Dec 1- Dec 7)

Your official layout is the plan. The Surety Layer is the truth. December shows you both.

Weekly Roundup (Nov 24- Nov 30)

Peak Reveals the Warehouse You Actually Run - Weekly Roundup (Nov 17 - Nov 23)