The question arrives early in every conversation: how long does this take. The answer STOKA publishes is single and firm: installation takes 3 to 4 months from the purchase order. What cannot be published is how long each stage lasts on its own, because that split changes with the type of system, the size of the project and the condition of the building. What can be explained is which stages exist, in what order they happen, which ones depend on the client and usually cause the delays, and how assembly proceeds without stopping the operation.
The only timeline STOKA publishes
Three to four months from the purchase order to a running system. That is the figure, and it is the only time number you will find on this site. Any other figure in circulation, that engineering takes so many weeks or assembly so many days, would be an invented average: it depends on whether it is a pallet or a carton warehouse, on how many machines, on whether the building already exists or is being built, and on how firmly the layout is defined at signature. Publishing that detail without backing would be exactly what STOKA does not do. What matters for planning is different: understanding what happens inside those months and what happens before the clock starts.
How long does it take to install an automated warehouse system?
It takes 3 to 4 months from the purchase order, but that answer is incomplete unless you say where the count begins. The clock starts when the order is signed and issued, not when someone requests a quotation. Before that point there is a survey, a diagnostic, a scope definition and an investment decision, which can take longer than the installation itself and depend entirely on how fast the client decides. After that point the schedule is a shared responsibility: STOKA coordinates engineering, manufacturing, import logistics, assembly and integration, and the client has to meet its own deliverables. If anyone promises a total timeline without having seen the warehouse, they are guessing.
The stages and the order they happen in
The sequence is always the same, even if the overlaps change. First, detailed engineering: the layout is frozen, structures are calculated, interfaces with the building and existing systems are defined. Then manufacturing of equipment and structure. In parallel, import logistics, with its documentation, its customs tariff code (NCM, the code that classifies each product for customs) and its transit and clearance times. Then on site assembly, starting with structure and continuing with equipment. Then software integration, meaning connecting the system to your warehouse management system (WMS, the software that decides what is stored where and in what order each order is picked) and to your ERP, the administrative system where purchasing, sales and book stock live. And finally commissioning and training for the team that will run it.
What depends on the client and usually causes delay
Almost every delay we have seen has the same origin, and it is not on the equipment side. First, layout definitions: any change after engineering is frozen moves calculations, drawings and sometimes manufacturing again. Second, prior civil works: floor repairs, loading yards, enclosures, drainage. Third, electrical availability, arranged with the utility and running on its own timetable, which paying more does not accelerate. And fourth, the window in which the warehouse can stop or reduce activity, which is almost never when it suits technically but when demand allows. Those four are scheduled at the start of the project, with dates and owners, precisely so they do not turn up as a surprise halfway through.
How to install without stopping the operation
Most warehouses cannot stop for three months, and they do not need to. Assembly is planned by sectors: an area is cleared, assembled there, that part is commissioned, and only then is the next one cleared. Meanwhile the operation continues in the rest of the building under a provisional layout agreed in advance. That requires defining beforehand where displaced goods are consolidated, how forklifts circulate during the works, which aisles stay closed and how areas are segregated for safety. It also pays to use the low season: in a warehouse with marked seasonality, assembling in the demand trough costs far less than assembling at the peak, even if the project calendar stretches a little.
What happens before the purchase order
Financing depends on the lender’s assessment and the current product conditions. Compare deposits, instalments, currency, rates, guarantees, fees and purchase options in a written offer; STOKA does not guarantee credit approval.
When the timeline is a reason not to automate yet
Payback is calculated using the full investment and your operation’s net savings. Separate genuine expense reductions from capacity available for growth; freeing space or time does not automatically save cash.
In short: one firm figure and a shared schedule
Installation takes 3 to 4 months from the purchase order. Within those months, in this order, come detailed engineering, manufacturing, import logistics, assembly, software integration, commissioning and training, with overlaps that depend on the project. What stretches the calendar is almost never the equipment: it is layout definitions, prior civil works, electrical availability and the window in which the warehouse can stop. If those four are scheduled at the start, with dates and owners, the timeline holds. And if the process is not yet in order, that is what should be fixed first.
Frequently asked questions
Three to four months from the purchase order to a running system. That window covers detailed engineering, manufacturing, import logistics, assembly, software integration, commissioning and training. It does not include what precedes the order: survey, diagnostic, preliminary design and the investment decision are counted separately and depend on how fast the client moves.
Because that split changes with the type of system, the number of machines, the condition of the building and how firmly the layout is defined at signature. An average number of weeks per stage would be an invented figure, and STOKA does not publish numbers without backing. The total timeline, by contrast, is a firm commitment held project after project.
Generally no. Assembly is planned by sectors: an area is cleared, assembled, that part commissioned, and then the next one cleared, while the operation continues in the rest of the building under a provisional layout. That requires agreeing beforehand where displaced goods are consolidated, how forklifts circulate and which areas stay segregated for safety.
Four things, and none of them is the equipment: layout changes after engineering is frozen, prior civil works that did not start on time, electrical availability when the process with the utility begins late, and the lack of an operational window for assembly. All four are scheduled at the start of the project, with defined dates and owners.
Usually yes. In a warehouse with marked seasonality, assembling in the demand trough reduces the impact on the operation and allows whole sectors to be cleared with less friction. It sometimes stretches the project calendar a little, but it lowers the risk of disrupting dispatches at the moment when failure is most expensive.