Miebach Study: Insights into Brownfield Solutions

Challenges

Automation in existing facilities – known as brownfields – holds great potential, but also comes with unique challenges. Our latest Brownfield Study reveals that companies often face limitations like restricting building heights and infrastructural constraints when wanting to implement automation projects in their brownfields. Additionally, planning such projects is much more complex and requires more creative solutions than simply building new constructions – unfortunately discouraging many organizations from pursuing brownfield automation. 

Processes with High Optimization and Automation Potential

Despite these challenges, the study identified several areas with significant optimization and automation potential. Transport processes, for example, stand out as well-established and proven candidates for automation in brownfield structures. Particularly promising are solutions that combine manual and automated operations. Picking processes also offer considerable savings potential, as this area is traditionally highly labor-intensive, making targeted automation measures especially impactful.

Leveraging current facility setup and cost-savings

The findings emphasize that achieving real value from these projects requires a holistic, end-to-end view of all relevant processes. Many current approaches focus only on optimizing individual "puzzle pieces" rather than addressing the entire system, limiting the long-term potential of automation. Through implementing automation in the existing warehouse facilities, substantial cost-saving potentials arise that can help companies advance while also improving efficiency and talent utilization at the same time. 

Technologies Driving Brownfield Automation

Another focus of the study was on the technologies most commonly used in brownfield projects. Automated storage technologies are particularly widespread, offering proven solutions for optimizing storage processes. Additionally, automated guided vehicles (AGVs) and autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) for pallet transport, as well as automated forklifts and loading/unloading technologies, are increasingly gaining attention from users.

Study Background

The insights from the Brownfield Study are based on a survey involving 66 participants from various industries, including automotive, chemicals, retail, logistics, and industrial manufacturing. Conducted in calendar weeks 9 and 10 of 2024, the results were presented at LOGIMAT 2024. The findings provided valuable insights into how companies can leverage existing infrastructure to reduce costs and improve efficiency through targeted automation measures.