Automation and robotics
Automating pays off when the building has run out of usable volume, when order picking cannot keep up even after adding people, or when the operation depends on two or three people who know where everything is. There is no minimum size: what decides is which of those three situations you have.
The decision
All three are solved the same way: an automated storage and retrieval system —ASRS— where the equipment goes and fetches the load and brings it to the operator, instead of the operator walking over to it. What changes from one case to the next is which architecture fits.
The building is full but the volume above it is empty. Automating upwards can multiply the capacity of the same building by up to 3 times and free up to 66% of the floor. This is the case where the numbers work fastest, because every square metre you do not rent or build goes straight into the calculation.
Peaks are handled with more people and more hours, and orders still go out late. When the goods travel to the operator instead of the operator walking to them, picking stops depending on how many people you manage to hire.
The one who knows where everything is is a person, not the system. An automated warehouse with management software keeps that knowledge somewhere that does not go on holiday: inventory accuracy comes to depend on the automatic recording of every movement rather than on someone remembering.
The alternative
The three classic ways out all buy new square metres: you pay for them every month, or you pay once and keep maintaining them. Automating does not buy square metres: it uses the ones you already have and are not using, which is the volume above the reach of the forklift.
It is the fastest way out and the one that never ends: the cost repeats every month and goes up at every renewal. It also splits the operation in two, with the transfers between sites and the double stock that forces you to hold.
It solves the problem for many years, and it costs the land, the works and the time until it runs. It is the right call once growth is proven, not while the current building still has unused volume.
It swaps one building for another, and in between there is the move, the downtime and a learning curve that rarely shows up in the budget. The underlying problem travels with the operation if it was not solved first.
The three families
Automated storage and retrieval systems — AS/RS, meaning racking where a machine puts goods away and picks them out without anyone walking to the shelf — come down to a handful of families, and choosing between them is not a catalog question: it is settled by four facts about your operation. How much density you need, and what access you are willing to trade for it. How big the load unit is: a pallet, a container, a case or a loose part. Whether you hold a few SKUs in large volumes or thousands of SKUs in small ones. And how much clear height there is between the floor and the lowest point of the roof. Those four facts rule out whole families before money is even discussed.
7 to 40 mWorking height
A machine travels up and down inside the aisle and reaches every position on both sides of it. It fits when the load unit is a full pallet, when you need to reach any SKU without moving others first, and when there is height to use: the working range runs from 7 to 40 m. It enforces FIFO — first in, first out — without anyone having to remember. It gives high density without giving up access, and that is also its limit: if your problem is thousands of small SKUs, this is not the family.
No aislesThe rack becomes solid
The robot travels into the channel and stacks pallets one behind another, so the aisle disappears and the floor yields far more: this is the family that can multiply density by up to 3x when there is height to match. It fits a few SKUs with high volume each, because every channel holds a single SKU. It works in cold storage down to −25 °C. In exchange, access to one specific SKU is not direct: with a thousand SKUs of two pallets each, the density you gain is lost again in handling.
up to 66%Floor space released
When the load unit is a case or a loose part and there are thousands of low-volume SKUs, the architecture changes: a closed tower of trays that stacks goods as high as the roof allows and delivers them through a window at operator height, or a grid of stacked containers that robots travel across on top. Both release up to 66% of the floor that light shelving occupies today, and both remain possible when the roof does not reach 7 m. The limit is size: whatever does not fit in a tray or a container does not belong here.
The manufacturer’s track record
These figures belong to the manufacturers we work with, not to STOKA. Our own projects are published as case studies as they close, with the client named and the figures measured on site.
Capabilities
We integrate solutions across the full spectrum of logistics automation, from pallet to tote.
Stacker cranes, pallet shuttle and miniload for high-density storage at any scale.
We adapt to the management software you already have: there is integration experience with SAP, Oracle and Tango. If you do not have one, or yours does not reach the location-level detail the system needs, we develop it to measure. The software that coordinates the equipment —the WCS, which issues the orders to each machine— is always part of the project scope.
CE and ISO certified equipment. The expected availability of your installation comes out of the assessment, with your working regime and your maintenance plan.
Systems for positive and negative cold and for the pharmaceutical cold chain. The range is set by the equipment: stacker cranes go down to −30 °C and shuttle systems down to −25 °C.
Before installing
There is no minimum clear height, floor flatness or load capacity that applies to every system: each piece of equipment has its own and its manufacturer sets it. What there is, is an order for measuring them, during the assessment and before quoting, and a way out for each case where the value falls short.
Actual clear height is measured to the lowest point: beams, sprinklers, lighting and ducts. Automated pallet systems work in a band from 7 to 40 m, and each family has its own range within that band. If the height does not allow the family that would suit best, the assessment proposes the one that does fit.
Both are set by the manufacturer of the chosen equipment, not by STOKA, and are verified by a licensed professional with instruments. They are measured during the assessment. If the floor does not comply, the way out is surface treatment or a new slab in the area of the system, and that goes into the budget as one more line.
If the operation is refrigerated, the range is defined by the equipment: stacker cranes work down to −30 °C and shuttle systems down to −25 °C. It is confirmed against the actual temperature of your chamber, not the nominal one in the project.
Available power, switchboard, earthing, and how the equipment gets into the building. It is what most often forces the schedule to move, and what gets looked at least before signing.
Scope
STOKA does the engineering, the sizing, the import, the assembly, the commissioning, the integration with the management system and the support of the installed system. When a part is needed, STOKA sources it.
Manufacturing, the data sheet, the maintenance plan and the installation tolerances belong to the equipment manufacturer, and a licensed professional verifies them. STOKA runs the project end to end.
Total cost
Comparing purchase prices is the worst way to decide, because the invoice is only a fraction of what you end up paying. Total cost of ownership — TCO: what the system costs you across its whole working life — adds up equipment, civil works, integration with your systems, training, maintenance, energy, the headcount you still need, the cost of every error that reaches the customer and the cost of the hours the operation stands still. On the other side of the ledger are the square meters you stop needing: in the AMBA — the Buenos Aires metropolitan area — premium industrial space rents at USD 7.33 per square meter per month (CBRE, Q2 2026), and building a new warehouse costs between USD 180 and USD 430 per square meter (OneMake, June 2026). That calculation, run on your own numbers over ten years, is what decides.
Reference payback across the projects we assess. The figure for your operation comes from the survey, with your volumes and your costs, not from an average.
Floor space that can be released by going upwards. Every square meter you neither rent nor build enters the ten-year calculation.
Inventory accuracy with every movement read automatically. The cost of error — returns, rework, a wrongly shipped order — is the one almost nobody budgets for.
That ten-year cost is also weighed down by response time when something fails, getting technicians to site and waiting for a spare part, and all three depend on where the engineering and the service are. Compared with European alternatives, the acquisition cost can be up to 40% lower: the difference is in the cost structure, not in technical quality.
View available tax benefits →The other side of the calculation
The reference payback of the projects we assess is 18 to 36 months, and it comes from three sources. Which one weighs most depends on your operation, and it is measured during the assessment with your figures, not with an average.
Every square metre freed up by going vertical is one you do not rent, do not build and do not maintain. In operations where space was the constraint, it is usually the largest of the three sources.
When the goods travel to the operator, the walking that today eats much of the shift stops. The saving is not counted in people: it is counted in hours per order, and it shows most during peaks.
Every return, every rework and every wrongly dispatched order carries a cost that almost never gets budgeted. With automatic reading of every movement, inventory stops depending on manual counts.
A payback period without declared assumptions is an opinion. The three that have to be put on the table: how much floor is freed and at what price per square metre, how many hours per order are saved and at what labour cost, and how many errors are avoided and what each one costs. If any of the three is not measured, the period means nothing.
In stages
Almost nobody automates in one go, and there is no need to. You come in at the step your budget allows, and each stage is designed with the next one in mind.
Layout, locations, slotting and processes. Without buying equipment. It is what most often solves the whole problem.
Racking and shelving, mezzanines and management software. The volume starts being used without automating yet.
Conveyors and vertical storage. Goods start moving on their own along the stretches where most walking happens.
Stacker cranes, shuttle robots, mobile robots and the software that coordinates them. This is the step this page is about.
Each stage is designed with the next one in mind, according to system compatibility. Which equipment installed today will later accept an automated system is validated by engineering case by case: it is not a general promise.
See how we work in stagesA single point of contact
The factory builds the equipment and we commission it and maintain it in your warehouse. You are not dealing with a plant on the other side of the world — you deal with STOKA: the same people who surveyed your operation, in your language and in nearby time zones, answering for the system after the sale.
Engineering, importation, assembly, commissioning and service are handled by the same team. If something fails, you know who to call.
The whole process —survey, design, installation and support— in Spanish and in nearby time zones.
Experience integrating with the ERPs we work with: SAP, Oracle, Tango and in-house systems.
The other side
If the assessment does not support it, we say so. These are the three situations in which automating today would mean spending more than you need to.
If what fails is where everything is rather than how much fits, reorganising locations and standardising the load unit solves it without buying equipment. Automating a mess turns it into a faster mess.
If the product mix, the volume or the building are going to change in the short term, the system gets designed on a figure that will no longer exist when it goes live. It is better to wait for the figure to settle.
An automated system pays for itself with movements. If the operation does not have them yet, the investment pays back over a period that does not work. That is when it makes sense to grow in stages: organise first, equip next, and automate when the volume asks for it.
FAQ
We design them, size them, commission them and maintain them. The system engineering, the assembly, the integration with the software and the ongoing support are done by STOKA.
Yes. The warranty covers the installed equipment and STOKA carries it out: you claim here and it is resolved here. Its scope and term are declared in the documentation of the equipment chosen, and are handed over with the project.
Visiting a reference installation requires the consent of whoever operates it, so it is arranged case by case and never offered in advance. Write to us and we will tell you clearly what we can arrange in your situation.
International certifications (CE, ISO). It is not a new platform with no history: it is a proven product line, and here it is backed by STOKA's engineering team, which installs and maintains it.