Every operator invests in automation with the same goals: higher throughput, lower costs, and greater reliability. Yet too often, the results don’t match the promise. Despite the massive capital investment, systems become obsolete before they pay back their cost. You plan for performance, but end up fighting rigidity.
The reality is sobering:
Gartner predicts that 60% of supply chain automation initiatives will fail to deliver on their promised value by 2028.
That means the odds are stacked against you before you even start.
I learned this the hard way.
Several years ago, I led a three-year automation initiative with a capital budget of nearly $75 million. Our team spent a massive amount of effort designing the system. We modeled everything. SKU profiles, throughput, seasonality, shipping patterns, growth projections. We selected a vendor and locked in the design.
Eighteen months into the project, almost every assumption had shifted. Market. SKUs. Growth outlook. Even leadership priorities. The system we'd designed no longer matched the business we were running.
The design was locked. The capital was committed. Every change meant new delays, new costs, and new risks.
We were stuck with an impossible choice:
Either way meant hard trade-offs and wasted investment. Every operator who’s lived through a stalled go-live or costly redesign knows this pain. When the business changes, but the system can’t.
That experience made one thing clear: most automation doesn’t fail because of people, it fails because systems aren’t built for change.
Traditional automation locks operators into a vendor's roadmap. Only about 20% of your spend goes toward what you see at go-live. The other 80% is tied to long-term service and upgrade contracts that keep you dependent on your vendor for years to come.
That model works well for vendors. It guarantees them revenue for years. But for operators, it means your future is no longer in your hands.
With legacy systems, vendors decide:
The result? You're not just buying automation. You're buying years of dependence.
That dependency shows up daily when teams try to make even the smallest change.
Think of building automation systems like construction:
Legacy, closed automation systems are concrete. Open, modular automation systems are Lego blocks. The difference isn’t just technical, it’s philosophical. One locks you into the past. The other prepares you for whatever comes next.
Today, operators have a choice. Before you invest millions into a new system, ask yourself these four questions to know whether your automation will keep up or hold you back as your business changes.
1. Visibility: Can I See What's Really Happening?
If your system's logic and data are hidden from view, you're blind. When issues arise, your team can't diagnose or fix them without waiting for a vendor. And that means costly downtime.
In an open system, operators have full visibility into what's running, what's failing, and why. So problems get solved in minutes, not hours.
2. Control: Who Can Fix It When It Breaks?
If your people know the issue but can't touch the system, that's not support, that's dependency. Closed systems put the vendor in control even for the simplest of resets and configuration changes.
In an open system, your team can troubleshoot, restart, and fine-tune performance safely and quickly without waiting in a queue.
3. Adaptability: Can the System Change as Fast as My Business?
Forecasts shift. Customer demands change. A new SKU, barcode, or carrier update shouldn’t take months and tens of thousands of dollars to implement. In too many legacy systems, it does.
In a modular system, your team can make small adjustments quickly, which means keeping productivity intact while the business evolves.
4. Flexibility: Can I Integrate New Technology When I Need It?
Adding a sensor, new robot, or vision system shouldn’t feel like starting from scratch. In closed systems, teams pay premiums to vendors for even simple changes.
In an open system, your system welcomes innovation. You can add, swap, or upgrade technologies from the provider that's best for your operation, not what’s available on one vendor’s menu.
If the answer to any of these questions is "no", then you don't own your system. Your vendor does.
Open, modular design puts the power and the responsibility back where it belongs: in the hands of the operator.
Future-proofing isn't about buying the biggest or most advanced system. It's about designing for change from the start.
Your automation should be able to evolve as fast as your business. That means building systems that are open, modular and built for adaptability.
When you design for change:
Closed systems make you pay for change. Open systems make change your advantage.
So, as you plan your next automation investment, redirect that 80% of your post–go-live budget toward adaptability, not lock-in. Because the systems that will define the next generation of warehouse automation aren’t the biggest, they’re the ones that evolve with every shift in your business.
Six out of ten automation projects still fail. But they don’t have to. The next generation of warehouse automation will belong to operators who design for change with systems that are open, modular, and adaptable from day one.
Fidus helps operators design, modernize, and extend systems that adapt as fast as your business does. Book a Discovery Call today.