27 August 2025 | Interaction
In an exclusive interview with Robotics Business News, Brendan Blennerhassett, Chief Product Innovation Officer at Symbotic, shared insights into the company’s latest breakthrough in warehouse automation—the next-generation storage system. He explained how this innovation addresses critical customer challenges such as space efficiency, deployment costs, and operational speed, while integrating advanced safety features and retrofit flexibility. Blennerhassett emphasized that the new storage technology not only delivers measurable gains in density and performance but also reinforces Symbotic’s long-term strategy to provide a complete, end-to-end warehouse infrastructure that empowers customers to scale faster and smarter.
What prompted Symbotic to develop this next‑generation storage structure, and which customer pain points is it designed to resolve?
Our next-generation storage technology was strategically designed to enhance the performance of our industry-leading warehouse automation system and deliver increased efficiency and lower costs for our customers.
Storage takes up a significant portion of our warehouse automation platform so by making that component of the platform more efficient and significantly more dense, we can help make a real difference to our customers’ real estate costs. Specifically, this technology can reduce customers’ storage footprint by up to 40% of its original size, enabling customers to fit considerably more products into a fixed space, or attain a target storage volume in an even smaller footprint.
Additionally, we recognize that a significant portion of customers’ costs is incurred during the deployment stage – that’s why we’ve engineered this technology for rapid deployment, with pre-assembled, precision-manufactured sub-components that will reduce the number of on-site assembly parts by over 90% and lower system implementation time at customer sites.
How does the new design achieve up to a 40% reduction to storage footprints from Symbotic’s original storage system without sacrificing capacity? Can customers choose denser storage or smaller facilities?
This is primarily due to the technology’s innovative design. We’ve removed all of the vertical columns and compressed the horizontal support columns that support the shelving in the current system, removing the physical obstructions that have historically made the structure larger in size. Thanks to the expertise of our engineers, we’ve been able to redesign the support structure – and that design enables our customers to benefit from increased storage capacity and/or a reduced footprint, all while maintaining structural integrity.
In what ways does increased storage density translate into faster case handling by your robots?
In developing the next-generation technology structure, we implemented both hardware design improvements and software enhancements to achieve faster case handling.
On the hardware side, by creating smaller, denser footprints, our robots have less distance to travel. On the software side, we’ve implemented a new set of routines which allow us to “carpool,” or transport more cases in a singular trip. By making physical and software improvements in parallel, customers experience significantly better density and fewer robot transactions, enabling faster case handling.
Can you describe the benefits of using pre-assembled subcomponents—which reportedly cut on-site assembly parts by over 90%?
The subcomponents of the next-generation storage system are pre-assembled through automated assembly lines well before they make their way to a customer’s site. This process ensures superior quality control, enabling simpler installation methods and significantly reducing system implementation times at customer sites. By leveraging pre-assembled components we expect to deliver significantly increased speed of deployment.
In short, customers can put our automation technology to work faster, more easily and more efficiently.
What safety and structural enhancements—like fire suppression and seismic adaptability—are integrated into the new storage system?
Safety is our top priority. We’ve consistently made safety and structural enhancements to our platform, and our next-generation storage technology further evolves these efforts with additional safety features.
For one, fire suppression features are now integrated within the structure, as opposed to being designed around the structure. While sprinkler systems have historically run through the system – taking up valuable shelf space – the new design frees up that space and ensures case density is not affected. We’ve also designed the technology in a way that enables structural strengthening options, which are easy to retrofit, to provide flexibility for our customers to meet seismic requirements.
How does the built-in leveling system reduce site preparation requirements, especially in retrofit applications?
Unlike other systems, the next-generation technology platform reduces site readiness costs through a unique leveling system that minimizes floor preparation.
This site leveling system has been designed to ensure simple installation methods at customer sites by reducing the need for civil groundwork at installation. Specifically, our platform does not require grouting around the support posts and has been designed with best in class leveling and alignment capabilities. By removing this time- and labor-intensive step in the critical installation process, we are able to deliver significant cost reductions to customers, as well as cutting the time needed for system implementation.
Can this storage solution be retrofitted into existing Symbotic installations as well as deployed in new greenfield facilities? How does that flexibility impact deployment strategy?
Yes, the system can be retrofitted into existing platforms. This process will have no impact on our existing platforms, as the different platforms can be installed side by side and work in parallel.
How does this announcement reflect your broader strategic evolution from being seen as a “case robot company” to an end-to-end warehouse infrastructure provider?
This technology is another piece of our ongoing work to deliver a full, end-to-end warehouse solution to meet customer needs. We’ve already made significant progress on this plan, including through the establishment of GreenBox in 2023 which delivers Symbotic’s advanced A.I. and automation technology to customers through its “warehouse as-a-service” model. The new next-generation storage technology builds on that plan by providing significantly enhanced performance, more efficient organization and reduced costs to customers.
This new structure, and the rapid deployment it enables, represents a major leap forward in our mission to help customers improve efficiency, speed and resilience – all while accelerating return on investment.
