30 Years of Distribution Warehouse Automation – How Beverage Caught Up

Looking back at the last three decades, you can see a clear progression of innovations that solved yesterday’s problems while creating new challenges for the next generation to tackle. Each wave of technology was a stepping stone to the highly automated distribution centers we’re building today.

Here’s the timeline of breakthroughs:

Late 1990 – WMS & Voice Picking

  • Companies: Manhattan Associates, JDA/RedPrairie (now Blue Yonder), Vocollect

  • Solved: Brought digital control, reduced mis-picks, improved safety with “hands-free” operations.

  • Limitations: Still labor-intensive; only optimized human work, didn’t reduce total headcount.

Early 2000 – Pick-to-Light & Conveyors

  • Companies: Matthews Lightning Pick, Dematic, Vanderlande, SSI Schäfer

  • Solved: Faster, more accurate case picking; conveyors improved throughput & ergonomics.

  • Limitations: Inflexible layouts, expensive retrofits, difficult to scale with SKU growth.

2005 – AutoStore (Cube Storage ASRS)

  • Company: AutoStore (first install at Elotec, Norway)

  • Solved: Dramatic storage density + goods-to-person picking.

  • Limitations: Suited to small/medium items, not full cases or beverages; throughput bottleneck at ports.

2008 – Shuttle Systems

  • Companies: KNAPP (OSR Shuttle), Dematic (Multishuttle)

  • Solved: High-throughput tote handling & sequencing for e-commerce and grocery.

  • Limitations: High capex, complex mezzanines, less adaptable to SKU volatility.

2012 – Kiva Robotics → Amazon Robotics

  • Company: Kiva Systems (acquired by Amazon)

  • Solved: Flexible goods-to-person with mobile robots moving pods; revolutionized AMRs.

  • Limitations: Proprietary to Amazon after acquisition; not designed for heavy beverage cases.

Beverage Industry: Around this same time, Block One laid the digital foundation for beverage-first automation — launching WMS (2012) and pioneering vision QA (2014). These were the first steps toward adapting modern robotics to the unique complexities of Direct Store Delivery (DSD).

 

2015 – Ocado Smart Platform

  • Company: Ocado

  • Solved: Full-stack grocery automation at CFC scale; robotic storage & picking at high density.

  • Limitations: Enormous upfront investment; long build times; less suited for mid-size distributors.

 

2015–2016 – AMR Wave (Locus, 6 River, Geek+, Exotec)

  • Companies: Locus Robotics, 6 River Systems, Geek+, Exotec Skypod

  • Solved: Flexible, fast-deploy solutions for picking, transport, and 3D goods-to-person.

  • Limitations: Best for each-pick/e-commerce; less impact on palletized beverage workflows.

Beverage Industry: In 2016, Block One advanced with labelless sortation/conveyor and the first WCS deployments — proving that orchestration software could manage beverage’s SKU-heavy operations without conveyor-heavy redesigns.

 

2020 – Symbotic at Walmart & C&S

  • Company: Symbotic

  • Solved: High-density pallet/case automation, AI-directed sequencing; optimized store-ready loads.

  • Limitations: Complex integration; tailored to large-scale DCs with billions in throughput.

Beverage Industry: By 2024, robotic deployment in beverage was a reality. Savannah Distributing (Atlanta, GA) installed its first RoboArm™, Clark Distributing (KY) deployed two for palletization, and FEB Distributing and Capital City Beverage (MS) went live with ACR systems. These were the first steps toward a true Pallet Factory™ in beverage.

 

 

2025 – Pallet Factories™ Emerge

  • Companies: Symbotic, Ocado, Exotec, AutoStore (all scaling variants of full-stack automation).

  • Solved: Combining ASRS, AMRs, and AI orchestration into end-to-end fulfillment.

  • Limitations: Still complex and capital intensive; scale economics required.

Beverage Industry: In parallel, Block One’s Pallet Factory™ went live at scale. Savannah Distributing expanded with ACR, Del Papa Distributing (TX) began implementing the full Pallet Factory™, and King Beverage (WA) deployed dual RoboArms™ for redundancy in high-volume picking. For the first time, DSD beverage had a fully modular goods-to-robot tech stack — storage, sortation, and palletization — powered by AI and orchestrated through Block One’s WES.

 

Takeaway

Each innovation solved a real pain point — mis-picks, labor inefficiency, storage density, order complexity — but also came with trade-offs.

Today, we see the culmination: AI and software directing RoboArms™, ASRS, and AMRs into Block One’s Pallet Factory™ — the first full goods-to-robot tech stack built specifically for DSD beverage.

Beverage may adopt later than retail, but with the right partner, it stays on pace with the state of the art.