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Lenokers/Services/Automation & Consulting/Warehouse Automation Consulting
Warehouse automation consulting for OR, WA, CA and beyond: our team matches the system to your orders and space, then designs and installs it.
Reply within one business day
Your first site visit is free
Portland-based, serving OR, WA, CA and beyond
We reply within one business day.
years installing racking
racking installations completed
our core service area, with projects beyond it
1.6 yr
Payback of the recommended option
$690k
Saved a year
5
Options scored the same way
Example site
45,000 sq ft, 1,800 lines/day
Options compared
5, manual to robots
Scored on
Cost, rate and payback
“It was a pleasure working with Dmytro and his team to improve our warehouse! Timely communications and service.”
Kristin Bowen, Google review
First visit free · our team replies within one business day
Your order data shows what is worth automating and what stays manual.
The chosen system drawn into your building, with the rate it will hit.
Cost, savings and payback month by month, on your own volumes.
Our team installs the system and proves its rate before you sign off.
Your part: the address, your volumes, and what is holding you back.
We see every process, agree the scope, and analyse your orders and SKUs.
We score the systems that fit, with cost, rate and payback for each.
We design, quote and install it, and test the rate before sign-off.
Your total effort: one walk-through, an order export, and a yes on the design.
Tall storage engineered for seismic loads, with rack anchoring by our team.
The high-piled storage permit and in-rack sprinklers, planned with the racks.
Robot zones, crossings and speeds set to the ANSI/A3 R15.08 standard.
Interlocked VRC gates, guardrails and permits for every platform level.
Explore services
4 services
Find the bottlenecks, then plan what comes next.
Coming soon
Forklift, parts and equipment services are on their way. Need one now? We’ll still quote it.
Dmytro and Lenokers went above and beyond my expectations. We were looking to liquidate a good amount of pallet racking from our warehouse and between our first contact and our warehouse being cleared of our racking, barely a week had passed! They were kind, courteous, and more than professional for the entire experience. I would not hesitate working with them again!
Lenokers did a great job for us. Professional and timely. I recommend there services.
Dmytro was great to work with
All went smoothly
Will definitely be calling again
Tim
Steel Tek
We had to move some inventory around very quickly to make room for a new customer and we ran out of rack space. I called Lenokers and they had exactly what we needed. Within 3 hours we had our racking and we're back to getting organized!
Thanks guys!
It was a pleasure working with Dmytro and his team to improve our warehouse! Timely communications and service.
How much does warehouse automation cost?
The first site visit is free, and the consulting work gets a fixed price for the scope agreed on that visit. The system itself can be anything from a pick-to-light zone to a high-bay AS/RS, so your business case gives your number: cost, yearly saving and payback for each option that fits.
How long does a warehouse automation project take?
It depends on the project. You see the options that fit soon after the visit and the data review, and the install schedule is set in the quote, with larger systems going in phase by phase.
Is automation worth it for a small warehouse?
Often, when the step fits the size: a VLM, a pick-to-light zone or a few AMRs can pay back where a large system never would. Sometimes a better process or layout comes first, and a warehouse efficiency audit shows where.
AS/RS, AMRs or conveyors: which is right for us?
It depends on your order volume, SKU mix, building height and how steady your flows are. As a rule of thumb, long walks call for goods-to-person or AMRs, a full floor with height to spare calls for AS/RS, shuttles or VLMs, and a shipping bottleneck calls for conveyors and a sorter.
Do you design and install it too?
Yes. Our team designs and installs shuttle racking, mezzanines, conveyors, vertical conveyors and everything else the system needs, so you work with one company from the first visit to a system that runs. We choose the equipment that fits your operation from the suppliers we work with.
What do you need from us?
A walk-through with someone who knows the floor, and an export of order lines and your SKU list from your WMS or ERP, ideally including a peak period. Building drawings help if you have them.
Will installation disrupt our operation?
We plan it so you keep shipping. The cutover is phased and written into the schedule, and work in a live zone is timed with you around your shifts.
What about permits, fire code and seismic?
They are part of the design from the start. Tall automated storage is high-piled storage and a seismic structure in Oregon, Washington and California, so the high-piled storage permit, sprinkler planning and rack anchoring are handled within the project.
Send your volumes and what’s slowing you down, and we set up the free visit.
First site visit at no cost
Options scored on your own numbers
One team from design to a running system
Prefer to talk? Call 971-337-6608 · Mon–Fri 8am–5pm
We reply within one business day.
Warehouse automation consulting answers one question before you spend: which system will pay back in your building, with your orders? Our warehouse automation consultants start from your order lines, SKUs and floor, compare the options that fit, and put cost and payback next to each. Then the same team designs and installs the system and tests its rate before you sign off. Lenokers provides warehouse automation services from Portland for operations across Oregon, Washington, California and beyond, and the first site visit is free.
A warehouse automation consultant, sometimes called a material handling consultant, turns the way your warehouse works today into a decision you can defend. The work runs in order: read your order and SKU data and watch the floor; find which processes are worth automating; match the systems that fit; build a business case on your own volumes; draw the chosen system into your building with the rate it must reach. With Lenokers it does not stop at a recommendation. Our material handling consultants hand the design straight to the team that installs it, so the system you approved is the system you get, and it is rate-tested before go-live.
What is warehouse automation? Any equipment or software that takes walking, lifting, searching or sorting off people. It comes in levels, and most operations climb them one step at a time. Manual, done better: re-slotting fast movers, better pick paths and pick lists; no machines, often the quickest payback. Mechanised: conveyors, carton flow, vertical conveyors and mezzanines move goods so people carry less and walk less. Semi-automated: pick-to-light, VLMs, pallet shuttles and AMRs do the travelling and searching while people pick. Fully automated warehouse: stacker cranes, shuttle storage and goods-to-person robots store and retrieve without anyone in the aisle; people work at stations.
The right level is the one your volumes pay for. Many companies automate warehousing in stages, starting with the process that costs the most hours today and adding the next level when volume justifies it.
Warehouse automation systems are easier to judge when you see them run. Each loop below shows one of the automated warehouse systems we design and install, working at real dimensions and real speeds, with what it fits and what to watch for.
Pallet shuttle. A forklift sets the pallet at the front of a deep storage lane. A battery shuttle runs under it on the rails, lifts it slightly, carries it to the deepest free position and comes back for the next. Many pallets of the same SKU fit in one block with no forklift aisles between them.
Stacker-crane AS/RS. An automated storage and retrieval system for pallets. A crane runs on a floor rail in a narrow aisle, travelling and lifting at the same time, and puts each pallet into a rack many levels high; it brings pallets back out to a pick-up station at the end of the aisle. Nobody works in the aisle, so it can be as tall as the building allows.
Vertical lift module (VLM). A tall enclosed cabinet with trays stored front and back. On request, a lift in the middle pulls the right tray and brings it to a waist-high opening, where a light points to the item. Small parts that filled rows of shelving move into a few cabinets, and the picker stops searching.
Conveyors and sortation. Belt and roller conveyors carry cartons from picking and packing past a scanner; a sorter reads each label and pushes the carton onto the lane for its dock door. Shipping stops depending on people walking cartons to the right trailer.
Vertical conveyor (VRC). A lift for goods, not people, that moves pallets and carts between the floor and a mezzanine. Gates at every level open only when the carriage is there, so a mezzanine gets used for storage or picking without forklifts on stairs or ramps.
Pick module with pick-to-light. Carton-flow racks on two levels, a tote conveyor running past them. When a tote arrives in a zone, lights show which locations to pick from and how many; the picker picks, presses the light, and the tote moves on. Pickers stay in their zone and the conveyor does the walking.
AMR pick-assist. Autonomous mobile robots carry totes from pick to pick and on to packing, while each picker stays in one area. They find their own way and slow down or stop when a person crosses.
Goods-to-person robots. Low robots drive under shelf pods, lift them and bring them to a station at the edge of a fenced zone. The station lights the shelf face; the operator picks into a put wall; the robot takes the pod back. The operator walks almost nothing, and the shelves come to them.
| System | Fits when | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|
| Pallet shuttle | Many pallets per SKU, dense storage, cold rooms | Lanes need several pallets of one SKU; forklifts still feed it |
| Stacker-crane AS/RS | High pallet volume and plenty of height | Big up-front investment; storage, building and sprinklers designed together |
| VLM | Thousands of small parts, floor space short | Each opening has a rate; high volume means several units |
| Conveyors and sortation | High carton volume, many doors or carriers | Fixed paths; sized for the peak, not the average |
| VRC | Goods moving to and from a mezzanine | Goods only, never riders; gates interlocked |
| Pick-to-light module | Fast movers, many small orders | Replenishment from the back has to keep up |
| AMR pick-assist | Long pick walks, growing volume, flexible layout | Aisle widths, Wi-Fi and the WMS link |
| Goods-to-person | Many SKUs, many small orders, high peaks | Flat floor, a fenced zone, enough stations |
Equipment names are named as they are in the industry, so this works as a short guide to warehouse automation equipment as well as a picture of what we build.
Warehouse robotics has moved from fixed tracks to robots that find their own way. AGVs (automated guided vehicles) follow a fixed path, such as tape, magnets or reflectors, and stop when something is in the way; they suit repeat moves like pallets from the line to the dock. AMRs (autonomous mobile robots) build a map of the building, plan their own route and drive around obstacles; they suit picking, where the next stop changes every minute. Warehouse robots work in two ways: pick-assist, where AMRs travel with totes and people pick, and goods-to-person, where robots bring the shelf to a person at a station. Robotic warehouse automation works best where people and robots have clear rules: marked crossings, set speeds and zones a robot does not enter. Robotic arms picking single items are growing too, mostly at fixed stations with a narrow range of products.
Search for warehouse automation companies and you meet three kinds: equipment makers, who build one line of machines; warehouse automation integrators, who combine several into a system; and consultants, who advise and then hand the job to someone else. Lists of top warehouse automation companies rank them by size, but size doesn’t tell you who will make your system hit its rate.
Lenokers works as one warehouse automation company from the first visit to a running system. Our team plans the material handling automation solution, chooses the equipment that fits your operation from the suppliers we work with, designs it into your building and installs it: shuttle racking, mezzanines, conveyors, vertical conveyors and everything else the system needs. One company is answerable for the plan, the timeline and the rate, and when the system is tested, it is tested against what was agreed. In intralogistics automation, the costly problems sit where one supplier’s scope ends and the next one’s begins; with one team, there is no such seam.
Warehouse automation cost is set less by the robots than by the whole system around them: equipment (racking, shuttles, cranes, conveyors, robots or VLMs); controls and software (the system that runs the equipment and its link to your WMS or ERP); installation and the building (assembly, power, floor, sprinklers, permits and anchoring); and running costs (maintenance, spare parts, software support and training).
Warehouse automation ROI comes from fewer hours walked and searched, fewer errors, more orders out at peak without extra shifts, and space you don’t have to lease. Payback is the investment divided by the yearly saving. For example, a system costing $450,000 that saves $300,000 a year pays back in a year and a half. That’s why the business case scores every option the same way, on your own volumes, and why the cheapest system that reaches the rate often wins.
Small warehouse automation rarely means a high-bay AS/RS. It means the one step that removes the biggest cost: a VLM that turns rows of shelving into one cabinet, a pick-to-light zone for the fast movers, a few AMRs taking the walking out of picking, or a vertical conveyor that opens a mezzanine. Each can start small and grow with volume, and each is scored on the same payback as a large system, so a smaller operation pays only for what pays back.
Automating a slow process makes it slow faster. Order fulfillment automation pays back best when the process under it is right first, so many projects start with a warehouse efficiency audit that finds where the hours go. Before a large investment, 3D warehouse simulation runs the chosen system on your real orders to prove it reaches the rate. If the question is bigger than one system, such as planning a new building, a move or your wider logistics and supply chain automation, logistics consulting plans the whole operation. All of it belongs to our warehouse optimization services, so fulfillment center automation is planned together with the building it runs in.
