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SAP Warehouse Trends for 2025 and Beyond

23.07.2025

The warehousing industry has been evolving to meet the demands of a competitive landscape. With heightened customer expectations and a need for fast and accurate deliveries, all while facing supply chain disruptions and labor shortages, the warehousing industry continuously seeks new ways to innovate and improve its efficiency and resilience.

To overcome these challenges, powerful technologies such as modern warehousing systems, artificial intelligence, advanced automation, and the use of tools for deep data analysis are making their way into warehousing operations, boosting efficiency to new levels and providing incredible results such as:

• Increased throughput: automated facilities can process 2 to 3 times more orders per labor hour than conventional warehouses.
• Reduced error rates: from 67 to 80% when comparing automatic systems to manual processes.
• Improved forecasting: lowering forecasting error rates by 25 to 30% from traditional methods.
• Enhanced process visibility: allowing the identification of bottlenecks and opportunities for improvement across processes.

However, even though the adoption of modern technologies is on the rise in the warehousing space, there are many organizations that still rely on outdated systems. Companies delaying their transition to newer technologies are missing tremendous opportunities to improve their speed, visibility, accuracy, and flexibility.

In this article, we will highlight some of the leading trends that are shaping the future of the warehousing industry. But first, let’s look at why teams who still rely on legacy systems may risk falling behind.

Where we stand today.

Companies that have not yet started their digital transformation journeys from older systems may find themselves struggling to mold their digital infrastructure to handle today’s complex business scenarios and needs. For example, SAP’s most prominent warehousing solutions, Warehouse Management (WM) and Extended Warehouse Management (EWM), vary widely in terms of features, adaptability, and scalability. Though both WM and EWM serve as robust solutions for warehousing operations, EWM stands at the forefront, being a far more comprehensive solution and offering a wider range of advanced capabilities out of the box with a variety of customizing options available to fit to multiple business processes. Given that SAP plans to envision the future of warehousing through EWM, and knowing that the mainstream maintenance of LE-WM as part of SAP ECC will only be supported until the end of 2027, it is of utmost importance for companies that have not yet upgraded their systems to take notice of that they are missing out on:

In short, SAP EWM can provide significant value to warehousing teams with a number of key features that allow teams to scale and optimize their operations with a system that is ready to facilitate their growth.

Now that we have discussed why it is important to consider the benefits of upgrading a warehouse management system, let’s dive into the trends that are shaping the future of warehousing through market trends and pioneering breakthroughs.

What’s next: Trends shaping the warehouse of the future.

The rise of sophisticated automation.

Sophisticated automation encapsulates the use of highly advanced technological equipment that eliminates manual movements and streamlines order-picking processes. This type of automation includes devices such as automatic sorters, automated guided vehicles (AGVs), robotic picking systems, and automatic palletizers. Because of pressing factors challenging the industry, such as the need for increased efficiencies due to the rise of e-commerce and a latent labor shortage in the field, companies are increasingly willing to invest in this level of automation. In fact, in 2022, the global warehouse automation market reached a valuation of approximately $15 billion, and it is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 15% through 2030.

One example of the heights that this technology can reach is Hasco Vision. Being one of the world’s biggest automotive lighting providers, they implemented the world’s first SAP EWM-based robotic intelligence system at their Wuhan distribution center with Westernacher Consulting as their sole partner. With the concerted collaboration of 86 robots, this successful implementation led to outstanding achievements such as 100% accuracy of production supply, 90% reduction in logistics personnel, and 30% increase in storage bin utilization.

The augmented warehouse worker.

Rather than replacing or minimizing the human factor in the warehouse through automation, companies can give their workers an additional edge in order to maximize their efficiency through the use of warehouse mobility technologies. Unlike older devices, modern mobility technologies, such as wearable computers, voice picking headsets, and smart glasses, allow them to execute their work hands-free, which lets them focus on speed and accuracy while receiving validation in real-time from the system. These devices are particularly useful in processes that require them to execute multiple physical movements of materials, such as case picking.

Artificial Intelligence advanced process analytics.

The adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) models can provide enormous benefits across multiple nodes of the supply chain, allowing the warehouse to play a central role in material handling, storage, and resource optimization. Some examples of these applications are:

• Machine Learning for Slotting:one out-of-the-box application in EWM is the use of Machine Learning (ML) in the slotting process. Slotting is a mechanism that enables SAP EWM to dynamically and automatically determine storage requirements for materials. By analyzing the demand, packaging information, and master data of existing products through a ML model, SAP EWM can find the optimal put away bin location for a specific product, which optimizes warehouse space utilization and reduces travel time.
• Predictive Labor Demand Planning:Through the analysis of historical data of process execution, SAP EWM Predictive Labor Demand Planning can forecast precise task duration. By leveraging the power of AI, it is possible to estimate with accuracy the workload of deliveries. This feature will enhance the visibility of the teams and enable them to create better plans for daily operations and improve their resource allocation.
• Advanced Process Analytics: by using advanced analytics tools such as SAP Signavio Process Intelligence, processes can be visualized in much more detail. The value accelerator for managing warehouse and inventory in SAP EWM facilitates the identification of bottle necks, execution issues, and process variants.

Ready to Modernize?

The warehousing industry is shifting rapidly towards automation, worker augmentation, artificial intelligence, and deep data analytics. For companies to remain competitive in today’s globalized market, they must seek improved ways to execute their day-to-day processes. Embracing these changes can bring indispensable benefits like:

• High order accuracy
• Inventory optimization
• Increased process efficiency
• Improved visibility across processes

Start your digital transformation with Westernacher.

If you’re looking to future-proof your warehousing operations, Westernacher’s extensive experience and proven expertise is here to support you every step of the way.

Contact us today to explore how we can support your warehouse transformation journey.