Where are companies making investments in the distribution operations?

A research report from Tompkins Associates and the Supply Chain Consortium provides some insight. The graphic below shows planned capital investments by percent of budget in four categories, versus the historical level of investment. So, versus historic levels, investments in software/IT and mobile material handling systems (fork trucks, reach trucks, etc.) are rising versus historic percentages, while investments in fixed material handling systems (conveyor systems, etc.) and facilities (new buildings, expansion, layout, storage) are going down.

Source: Tompkins Associates/ the Supply Chain Consortium’s
DC Costs and Performance Metric Monitoring Focus Report

The changes are relatively small, so we don't read too much into it, other than there clearly has been an upsurge in logistics software spending in the past two years. In an age of very dynamic supply chains, companies are often reluctant to invest too much in hard physical assets.

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