A clear line of sight in warehouse management

For automotive manufacturers, keeping production moving is a constant operational challenge. Assembly plants depend on the right components arriving at the right place and time, often within tightly coordinated just-in-time and just-in-sequence supply chains. When material availability cannot be verified quickly and accurately, warehouse teams spend valuable time searching for parts, investigating discrepancies and resolving issues that can disrupt production schedules. 

Even small warehouse inaccuracies can have significant consequences. Components that are misplaced, incorrectly recorded or difficult to locate can delay replenishment, slow outbound movements and create bottlenecks that ripple across operations. When mission-critical components, such as EV batteries, powertrain assemblies or specialised parts are involved, those issues can escalate into production disruption and line stoppages that can cost a carmaker anything up to £1.7m ($2.3m) per hour. 

Maintaining uninterrupted material flow therefore depends on having a clear, real-time understanding of warehouse operations. Yet many facilities still rely on periodic manual checks and fragmented data, making it difficult to identify issues before they affect production. 

Warehouse intelligence company Dexory helps address this challenge through autonomous robots that rapidly capture warehouse data and feed it into an AI-powered platform that creates a live digital twin of the warehouse. The result is continuous visibility into inventory, storage utilisation and operational activity, enabling teams to identify issues earlier, make faster decisions and keep materials moving efficiently through the supply chain. 

Operational blind spots

From the time an automotive part enters a warehouse to the moment it leaves, there are numerous opportunities for delays, misplacements and process inefficiencies to occur. Complex storage layouts, including block stacking and double-deep racking, can make inventory harder to locate and verify, reducing productivity and increasing the risk of disruption to material flow. 

Warehouse space is also frequently underutilised because inventory is not stored where systems indicate it should be. As discrepancies accumulate, teams spend more time searching for parts, investigating issues and manually validating records, diverting resources away from higher-value operational activities. 

Time is also lost through reliance on manual inventory processes. Barcode scanning of stock keeping units (SKUs) can bring inventory accuracy down to between 65-70%. Manual inventory checks can also take weeks or even months to complete, consuming an average of 6,500 hours per year on cycle counts and stock audits. Errors that occur between checks often remain undetected for months, creating a growing disconnect between reported and real inventory data. 

Traditional manual cycle counts and small-sample scanning also create a false sense of security. As a rule, warehouse teams scan 10% of the total inventory as a sample for accuracy and extrapolate from that for the rest of the warehouse. That leaves 90% of the warehouse unverified and relying on data that is outdated by the time it is reviewed. When an item cannot be found, teams must investigate, re-pick, reorder or delay shipments.

Without complete and current operational data, warehouse teams are forced to make decisions based on assumptions rather than facts. In automotive supply chains, where material availability directly influences production schedules, even minor discrepancies can create knock-on effects across inbound logistics, sequencing operations and vehicle assembly. 

Greater robot reach

Maintaining efficient material flow requires continuous visibility into warehouse operations. With Dexory’s high-fidelity data capture, companies can move from reactive periodic manual checks to proactive real-time monitoring and a comprehensive operational view on which to base more informed and timely decisions.

Dexory’s autonomous scanning robots, which can reach up to 18 metres and are equipped with sensors and cameras, gather large amounts of data from the warehouse. Each robot can scan up to 10,000 pallet locations an hour, enabling customers to achieve frequent, high-quality visibility across large warehouse operations. At the same time, they run safely alongside people and other warehouse equipment. 

Robot requirements are typically determined by operational complexity, scan-frequency demands and the number of warehouse sites, rather than solely by facility size. This enables deployments to scale efficiently across customer networks while maintaining consistent operational visibility. 

The technology is already supporting automotive manufacturers, including Stellantis at its Sterling Heights Assembly Plant (SHAP) in Michigan. There, Dexory’s autonomous robot and AI-powered DexoryView platform work alongside warehouse teams to provide real-time visibility into inventory and material availability. By continuously updating inventory data, identifying items that require attention and providing instant insight into part locations, the system helps teams make faster decisions, maintain material flow and support the uninterrupted supply of parts needed for vehicle production. 

Turning data into operational intelligence

The data the robots collect is fed into an AI-powered platform called DexoryView, which creates a live digital twin of the warehouse. By providing a dynamic visual representation of inventory locations, storage utilisation and warehouse activity, the platform gives operators a real-time operational view of how materials, space and workflows are performing across the facility. This enables teams to identify issues before they affect fulfilment or production and provides a single source of truth for warehouse operations.

For automotive manufacturers and suppliers, this can support more reliable management of critical inventory, from high-value EV battery components to fast-moving production parts required for just-in-time and just-in-sequence operations. 

Dexory’s AI-enabled software continuously compares real-time data captured by the robots against WMS records to quickly identify misplaced stock, missing items or count discrepancies. This enables warehouse teams to take targeted corrective action before issues impact downstream operations.

“Automotive supply chains depend on having the right component available exactly when it is needed,” says Oana Jinga, co-founder and chief commercial & product officer at Dexory. “Through the DexoryView platform, autonomous robots continuously capture inventory and warehouse data, which is then analysed using AI-powered insights to help operators improve goods flow, space utilisation, outbound planning, slotting verification and congestion management. The result is greater visibility, faster issue resolution and the ability to act before inventory problems affect downstream operations.” 

By combining continuous visibility with actionable operational intelligence, Dexory enables customers to make faster decisions, improve on-time in-full (OTIF) performance, increase fulfilment capacity and drive greater day-to-day efficiency across warehouse operations. 

Well-organised warehouses Beyond visibility, automotive operators need the ability to continuously optimise how materials move through the warehouse. Dexory’s technology helps customers improvewarehouse operations across the full inventory lifecycle, from inbound receipt through to outbound fulfilment. 

DexoryView enables customers to optimise warehouse layouts using AI-driven slotting verification, congestion analysis and operational insights generated from daily autonomous scans. For automotive operations managing thousands of components across complex storage environments, these insights can help ensure critical parts are positioned for efficient replenishment and retrieval. Within the first few weeks of deployment, customers have achieved replenishment cycles up to 20% faster and reduced WMS-related inventory errors by 15% through improved stock placement and more efficient layout. 

 “On inbound, the platform helps ensure stock is stored in the correct locations and identifies opportunities to improve slotting efficiency,” explains Jinga. “As inventory moves through the warehouse, DexoryView analyses movement patterns, congestion and space utilisation to reduce unnecessary travel and improve operational flow.”

Seamless assimilation

DexoryView is also designed to integrate with existing warehouse and supply chain technology environments through application programming interfaces (APIs), enabling real-time inventory and operational data to flow between systems. Integration with manufacturing execution systems (MES) depends on each customer’s infrastructure and requirements. DexoryView is designed to connect with existing warehouse and supply chain technology environments, enabling real-time inventory and operational data to flow between systems and providing teams with a more accurate, up-to-date view of warehouse operations. 

For outbound operations, the Dexory platform helps position fast-moving inventory more effectively to support faster and more efficient fulfilment. It also helps customers identify operational issues such as damaged inventory or poor warehouse hygiene through features including Storage Health, enabling teams to address problems earlier and maintain operational standards. 

With Dexory’s technology, customers can monitor trends in occupancy, inventory accuracy and stock movement over time, enabling more proactive decision-making and earlier identification of operational inefficiencies. That nips discrepancies in the bud before they escalate into larger operational problems. Customers have reported issue resolution times up to 45% faster and significant reductions in the manual effort required to investigate inventory discrepancies.

Rather than spending valuable time searching for components and resolving avoidable disruptions, warehouse teams can focus on maintaining efficient material flow, supporting production requirements and continuously improving operational performance. For automotive manufacturers, suppliers and logistics providers facing increasing supply chain complexity, that visibility can help reduce risk, improve responsiveness and support uninterrupted production.