PART 1 – Designing Large-Scale Goods-to-Person (GTP) Automation: How Modern Fulfillment Centers Make the Leap

By: Chris Mehl, Senior Director and Account Executive, Designed Conveyor Systems 

High-volume e-commerce continues to push conventional fulfillment models past their limits. Labor shortages, rising facility costs, and next-day delivery expectations put enormous strain on manual picking processes—no matter how optimized they are. At a certain point, adding more people or stretching existing workflows simply won’t close the gap between demand and output, especially during peak season and operational surges. 

Large-scale goods-to-person (GTP) warehouse automation changes that equation. These systems eliminate travel time, increase throughput, and free employees to focus on the highest-value activities. Instead of walking miles per shift, team members stay at ergonomic workstations while automated storage systems deliver the right stock-keeping unit (SKU) at the right moment. The result is a safer, faster, and more predictable fulfillment environment that improves the overall efficiencies and throughput within the operation.

For large retailers and SKU-intensive operations, the move to a high-capacity GTP platform isn’t a nice-to-have—it becomes inevitable once the operation hits key performance ceilings or when customer service level agreements (SLAs) are not being met. Additionally, these solutions can further enhance the operation and extend the life of the building by improving overall throughput and supporting future business growth requirements.

When Goods-to-Person Warehouse Automation Becomes Essential

Large-scale GTP becomes the logical next step when operations repeatedly collide with barriers such as:

• Labor dependency: Throughput growth that relies on labor the local market can no longer supply—at any wage.
• Space limitations: A building that has maxed out its floor-level storage but still has unused vertical cube.
• Throughput requirements: Manual pick paths that can’t push past 400+ lines per hour, especially during peak season.
• Accuracy challenges: Picking errors that erode customer trust and drive up return costs.

In high-SKU environments (100K+ SKUs), the combination of volume, complexity, and seasonal pressure makes GTP the only sustainable way to scale.

Designing the Optimal Large-Scale Goods-to-Person Warehouse Automation System

Designing a large-scale GTP system involves more than simply selecting a robot or choosing a storage and picking technology or solution type. Instead, it requires engineering the entire fulfillment engine around real operational demand. 

At this scale, every decision must be rooted in data: how SKUs behave, how orders flow, and how peak season truly stresses the building. A successful automated warehouse design balances throughput, density, flexibility, and labor strategy from day one, ensuring the system not only performs at go-live but remains scalable for years to come. Understanding the up- and down-stream dependencies is critical and helps ensure the goods-to-person automated picking solution is sized and designed to support the overall operation, not just one functional area. This is where the right analysis—and the right partner—set the foundation for long-term performance. 

Data-Driven Operational Assessment

A successful GTP design starts with data—real, complete, and detailed. The DCS design team digs deep into a customer’s product profile (SKU/item master database) to understand dimensions, weights, case and pallet quantities, and movement behavior. This analysis reveals how products truly flow through the building from a velocity and storage requirement perspective.

Velocity profiling (A/B/C) informs how the system stores, sequences, and delivers items. Order profiles—single-line, multi-line, split-case, or case-pick—shape workstation design and throughput requirements.

Above all, developing an overall design based on operational requirements drives the engineering model. In some instances, a large-scale GTP system will be designed to support the highest throughput hour of the heaviest peak season. Many retailers select systems that can handle up to three times their peak volume to avoid service-level failures when it matters most. Ultimately, designing and sizing the GTP is both “art and science,” working in balance to support the overall operations requirements. 

Choosing the Right Goods-to-Person Warehouse Automation Technology

A few technologies currently dominate large-scale GTP deployments:

• Automated Storage & Retrieval Systems (AS/RS): Shuttle-based systems and mini-load cranes deliver maximum density and exceptionally high throughput. These systems are ideal for buildings with tight space constraints and predictable order patterns.

• Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMRs): AMR-based GTP systems offer speed to deployment, layout flexibility, and scalability. These characteristics make them ideal in dynamic SKU environments where product mixes frequently change.

• Cube-Based AS/RS (Grid-Style GTP): Grid or “Top Load” GTP systems offer ultra dense, tote-centric automation. Robots travel on top of a cube/grid, dig down to retrieve totes of stored product, and deliver the totes to perimeter pick ports.

• Other GTP solutions: Vertical Lift Modules (VLMs), Horizontal Carousels, Vertical Carousels

GTP Technology Comparison

While multiple factors—budget, installation and deployment timelines, available space—inform the selection of one technology or the other, SKU data is frequently the driving consideration. SKU velocity, weight distribution, storage requirements, and order consistency directly influence the selected storage medium, necessary robot or shuttle performance, workstation design, and maximum throughput per zone. 

Ultimately, there is no one-size-fits-all GTP platform. That’s why DCS works to determine the right platform as informed by the operation’s actual data.

Designing the Physical Footprint

Large-scale GTP fundamentally reshapes a warehouse’s layout. Traditional aisles shrink (or even disappear) as vertical storage becomes the primary driver of design. Every layout decision must consider cube utilization, the placement and ergonomics of workstations, efficient replenishment flows, optimized material routing paths, and clearly defined safety zones with accessible maintenance points. 

This holistic approach ensures the system maximizes storage density, supports smooth operations, and keeps both people and equipment safe. The goal is to minimize movement for both people and machines while maximizing throughput.

If the GTP solution can help increase the operation’s storage density, there may be an opportunity to reduce some of the overall physical footprint and provide some savings from an overall lease perspective.

Let DCS Design Your High-Volume Goods-to-Person Fulfillment System 

As SKU assortments expand and customer expectations accelerate, the demand on fulfillment centers only intensifies. Large-scale goods-to-person warehouse automation has become the technology foundation for operations that want to stay ahead of that curve.

Engaging DCS to help your operation proactively plan, accurately size, and strategically implement the right GTP solution ensures your facility can absorb peak pressure year after year. Connect with DCS to make this transition with confidence.