The middle ground Australian warehouses have been asking for

Our colleagues Jackie Bibby and Ben Smith spent three days on the CeMAT Melbourne show floor this June. They spoke with Australian warehouse and logistics operators about where robotics and automation are heading next. One theme came through clearly. Many operators are looking for a middle ground - something between doing nothing and committing to a major automation project.

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Why this matters right now

Australia's warehousing and industrial sector is one of the strongest-performing property classes in the region. Analysts project the market to roughly double, from USD $19.8 billion in 2025 to USD $36.7 billion by 2034. Industrial vacancy sits at just 3.2%. Logistics tenants in Sydney and Melbourne led roughly 3 million square metres of take-up last year.

Behind those numbers sit pressures every Australian operator already knows well. Vast distances between cities, high land costs, and one of the tightest labour markets in logistics.

Vacant space is scarce and expensive. The real opportunity isn't more square metres. Getting more out of every pallet position already on the floor is the real opportunity.

Woolworths' new Moorebank Logistics Precinct cost AUD 1.3 billion. The 75,000 sqm automated hub moves over 5 million cartons a week. It shows what's possible at the top of the market.

But that scale of fixed investment was never realistic for most 3PLs, retailers and manufacturers. Which is exactly why interest in a different kind of technology is building.

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So, what is Dexory?

Dexory is a full-stack data intelligence platform. At the centre of it is DexoryView. It gives site leaders a live, accurate picture of the warehouse.

Where stock sits, how well the team uses space, and where operations are hitting friction. Updated automatically, rather than reconstructed  from spreadsheets and WMS reports.

That live picture comes from combining autonomous robots, AI-powered software and digital twin technology. The robots capture what's happening on the floor. The platform uses machine learning to turn it into something a team can act on.

Because Dexory designs, builds and deploys both the hardware and the software itself, customers get one system. One team accountable for data quality, performance and reliability.

Teams bolt nothing to the racking. The system replaces nothing that's already in place. It works with the infrastructure and WMS a site already has, from day one.

(The industry has started calling this category "Physical AI". Robots and AI that don't just move things, but constantly observe and report on what's happening across a site. Useful shorthand - but the label matters far less than what the platform actually does in practice.)

The platform is already behind global logistics providers including GXO, DHL and NFI. And manufacturers such as Stellantis, Samsung and GE Appliances, alongside customers across retail, pharma and eCommerce.

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How the platform works, day to day

• Captures a real-time, wall-to-wall view of the entire site every day. Not just what sits on a pallet, but how the team uses space and where flow stalls. Works without getting in the way of forklifts or team members, with full coverage up to 14 metres of high-density racking.
• Feeds it all straight into DexoryView, a digital twin that plugs into the existing WMS. This simplifies data management with one accurate source of truth instead of several disconnected ones.
• Turns that data into decisions a team can actually act on. That includes space and slotting recommendations and fewer manual checks. The platforms flags issues before they cause a delay. Inventory accuracy reaches up to 99.9% with a full audit trail of every location, every scan, every change.

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The economics: fast payback, no capex

Before any of that matters, Australian supply chain leaders need the numbers to work, and that's the second question that came up at CeMAT. No infrastructure to build and no capital outlay - Dexory runs as a service on top of what's already in place.

An independent Forrester Total Economic Impact™ study found a composite business could achieve 219% ROI over three years. Payback comes in under six months. Benefits of $4.3 over three years from better space use, reduced stockholding costs and fewer manual checks.

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What deployment actually looks like

One of the most common hesitations we hear from operators considering new warehouse technology is the fear of disruption. A system that requires weeks of downtime, extensive retraining or a full WMS migration isn't a solution. That's another problem, not a solution.

Dexory avoids this by design.

Deployment typically takes less than two weeks from agreement to first scan. The robots operate during off-peak hours or overnight, so live operations continue without interruption. No new infrastructure to install, no racking to modify, and no existing systems to replace.

Integration with the WMS happens through a standard connection that the Dexory team handles. Most sites are running and seeing data within days of the robot arriving on site. The onboarding process works with the existing team. No dedicated IT project, no months of internal resource required.

For Australian operators who have watched overseas technology deployments drag on for months, this is a meaningfully different experience. The Linfox deployment is a practical example. Zero disruption to daily operations, integrated into daily workflows almost immediately, with the local Dexory team available throughout.

The question isn't whether the technology works. The question is whether the deployment fits around the operation - and for most sites, it does.

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Proof on the ground: Linfox

Leading logistics provider Linfox became the first company in Australia to deploy Dexory. Linfox wanted to work smarter, enhance safety, and eliminate repetitive manual tasks across its BevChain operations.

Before Dexory, the team walked warehouse aisle with printed data sheets to check and verify stock against the WMS. Investigating discrepancies meant reviewing hours of CCTV footage to locate specific pallets. Beyond the time cost, operators were regularly walking aisles without material handling equipment - a safety risk on routine tasks.

With DexoryView in place, the robot automatically scans the entire warehouse overnight. It captures every stock location and reconciles it against the WMS in real-time. The result is a 24-hour location snapshot the team can trust. Every stock position captured with certainty, without anyone walking the aisles to check.

The impact was immediate across three areas. The team removed manual stock checks, freeing them to focus on higher-value work. Foot traffic in the aisles dropped, improving safety and reducing exposure to MHE. And discrepancy investigations - previously a multi-hour CCTV exercise - became a matter of seconds in the platform.

The rollout integrated into daily operations with zero disruption, working alongside the WMS and infrastructure already in place.

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Boots on the ground, not just on a call

One concern came up consistently with Australian operators at CeMAT. They don't want to adopt overseas technology and the manage a different timezone every time something needs attention. Dexory has a dedicated engineering and support team based in Australia. Deployment, integration and day-to-day support all happen on local time, with people who know the sites.

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Questions we heard at CeMAT

Three questions came up repeatedly across conversations on the show floor. They're worth addressing directly.

"We already have a WMS. Why do we need another system?"

DexoryView doesn't replace the WMS - it makes it more reliable. The WMS records what should be happening. DexoryView captures what is actually happening on the floor and reconciles the two automatically. Most teams find that the gap between those two pictures is larger than they expected, and closing it is where the immediate value sits.

"Our operation isn't large enough for this kind of technology."

Warehouse size isn't the deciding factor - the value of knowing what's happening across a site is. Real-time visibility delivers value regardless of warehouse size. Expensive stock, demanding SLAs or limited labour create the same need whether the site is large or small. In some cases more, because there's less margin to absorb the cost of errors.

"How long does it take to see a return?"

The Forrester TEI study puts payback at under six months for a composite business. In practice, teams notice results immediately.

Stock discrepancies that were invisible before. Space the WMS wasn't showing as available. Manual checks that once consumed hours simply disappear. The financial case builds from there.

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What we took away from CeMAT

Australia's distances, land costs and labour market are driving some of the most interesting logistics thinking in the world. The appetite at CeMAT wasn't for bigger buildings or another fixed system. The appetite was for a fast, low-risk way to know exactly what's happening across a site, every single day.

Dexory fills exactly that gap. Dexory doesn't replace people or existing racking. It gives site managers ground truth over the operations and space they already have. If that's the kind of alternative your team was hoping to see more of at CeMAT, we'd like to keep the conversation going.

Learn more about what Dexory does here.