SOFTWARE AS A KEY DIFFERENTIATOR IN WAREHOUSE AUTOMATION
SOFTWARE AS A KEY DIFFERENTIATOR IN WAREHOUSE AUTOMATION
Sutharshan Nadarajah, Technology Director, and Timo Eberhard, Head of Digital Transformation & Project Management Office (PMO), at Element Logic, explore their organisation’s key ambitions in the lead up to 2025.
lement Logic is a leading provider of warehouse robotics and automation solutions, all of which are located within the four walls of the distribution centre. It was established in 1985, but last year saw the company double both its turnover and number of employees. Growing ecommerce organisations need to automate their warehouse operations to be competitive in the market, which is where Element Logic can assist.
Sutharshan Nadarajah, Technology Director explains, “Our mission is to make our customers more profitable by optimising their warehouse performance. We are the world’s largest provider of AutoStore-based solutions, as well as offering a one-stop shop including software for warehouse
automation. We only provide automated solutions to our customers. We build the software around the hardware from our partners to provide a solution that fulfils the needs of our customers.”
Existing software products in Element Logic’s ecosystem include eManager, eOperator and eController, and the internal R&D team is constantly working on new developments. The company is a one-stop-shop for warehouse automation, and alongside the software focus, they are experts in AutoStore, the robotic piece-picking arm and conveyors.
Element Logic has developed eLogiq, the data platform that collects and combines the huge amounts of internal and external data from the company’s software and hardware solutions to
provide more data-driven services to its customers for optimising warehouse performance.
Sutharshan says, “We must think one step further from data visualisation and reporting to utilising data to provide data-driven services to optimise warehouse performance. We must help our customers to work smarter and not harder. We have several ambitions that we are working towards for 2025. One of the most important goals is software as a key differentiator in warehouse automation. Our software should be one of the key reasons for our
customers to select Element Logic. To achieve this ambition, we are continuing to develop a fully connected, integrated software ecosystem. We have defined six golden rules that our software products need to follow.”
The R&D department is responsible for developing all of Element Logic’s software products designed to optimise warehouse performance. Timo Eberhard, Head of Digital Transformation & PMO, is driving the transformation process within R&D together with other functions across the company. He says, “With increasingly interconnected data sources, there are greater possibilities to make our hardware more intelligent with the software products we have available. The customers can therefore experience more added value and increasingly optimise their warehouse performance. We want to ensure every customer has the possibility for the right individual value that is the best fit for them and their specific stage of development. Customer data gives us the possibility to provide customised value.”
So, how are digital transformation, product-centricity and product
“WE MUST THINK ONE STEP FURTHER FROM DATA VISUALISATION AND REPORTING TO UTILISING DATA TO PROVIDE DATA-DRIVEN SERVICES TO OPTIMISE WAREHOUSE PERFORMANCE. WE MUST HELP OUR CUSTOMERS TO WORK SMARTER AND NOT HARDER”
Sutharshan Nadarajah, Technology Director
management interconnected? Timo answers, “Digital transformation refers to the use of technology to drive a fundamental change. Productcentricity and product management practices are a catalyst to drive this change. Organising cross-functional tech and product teams along the value chain gives us even more possibilities to drive value for the customer, eg through continuous and iterative approaches and feedback loops, and ultimately results in a clear product-market fit.”
Besides being very customer oriented, Element Logic has started its journey to being more product centric by encouraging a stronger productcentric mindset in the company. Sutharshan explains, “Developing more scalable products ensures market fit and also helps to increase recurring business. It is all about having a product factory mindset. We must build the products needed by our customers based on great market insight, starting with defining a particular problem and finding solutions to it.”
Sutharshan highlights the importance of leveraging leading-edge technology to optimise warehouse performance. He says, “If you don’t understand the technology trends, you will be forced to change your strategy. Technology changes how we do things, and it changes the business environment, which again imposes changes in the strategy of a company. So, we need to understand the technology trends to be able to change our strategy before we are forced by our business environments. It is one of the golden rules for our software products. We have to base our solutions on leading-edge technology in order to be efficient and competitive.”
The six golden rules that all Element Logic software products must focus on include:
1. User-centricity
2. Standard and scalable
3. Modularity
4. Seamless experience
5. Tech-first and first mover
6. Value and data-driven.
Timo adds, “Being at the forefront of technology is in the DNA of Element Logic because we were the very first distributor of AutoStore-based solutions. We were also the very first to offer a robotic piece-picking solution integrated with AutoStore. Consequently, it is important for us to deliver the best-in-class solution with leading-edge technology to our customers.”
Element Logic prides itself on its strong cross-functional collaboration between the various teams within the company. Sutharshan continues, “Our pre-sales engineering team talks directly to the customer and understands their needs. We ensure we have strong collaboration with them because they are bringing the customer needs closer to us. Then we have the product management and technology teams, which develop
the products. Internal collaboration is essential, but also collaboration with our partners, as our solutions include their technology. Hence, we promote strong collaboration with the product management, R&D and engineering departments of our partners.”
Element Logic has developed an autonomous pick-and-place solution for its customers. Sutharshan says, “Having piloted a robotic arm for two years, we successfully delivered to Swedish pharmaceutical company, Apotea. The pharmaceutical industry with lots of small pickable items is one of our sweet-spot customer segments for our robotic piece-picking solution, and now we have a very good case for it. It's an exciting time for us!”
Looking ahead to Element Logic’s principal ambitions for the next few years, Sutharshan reinforces the fact
that the company’s focus will be on what it means to be a productcentric organisation with crossfunctional collaboration. He concludes, “With software as one of our key differentiators, we have done some careful thinking about how we want to develop our interconnected software ecosystem. Becoming a productcentric organisation with product factory mindset will help us to achieve our ambition and be able to deliver even better value for our customers.”
For further information on Element Logic, visit www.elementlogic.net
ABOUT ELEMENT LOGIC
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Element Logic is a technology company that optimises warehouses for customers to gain a competitive edge. The company was founded in 1985 and is headquartered in Norway. They operate worldwide, and it is the world’s first and largest AutoStore partner. Element Logic offers its customers automated and robotic solutions, software and consulting services. Their total revenue for 2021 was EUR 304 million.
“BEING AT THE FOREFRONT OF TECHNOLOGY IS IN THE DNA OF ELEMENT LOGIC BECAUSE WE WERE THE VERY FIRST DISTRIBUTOR OF AUTOSTOREBASED SOLUTIONS”
Timo Eberhard, Head of Digital Transformation & PMO