Shortage of labour, land, robotization… The new challenges of logistics

At first glance, the building looks like a classic warehouse: long aisles with yellow safety markings on the floor, imposing storage shelves and a continuous ballet of trolleys transporting pallets from storage space to another or directly to the docks, where trucks are waiting ready to hit the roads. This distribution center, located in Moissy-Cramayel, in Seine-et-Marne, came out of the ground a little less than two years ago. This is where Samada, the logistics subsidiary of Monoprix, operates. The brand has 700 stores in France, nearly half of which are located in Ile-de-France, the region for which non-food products only – with the exception of drinks – are intended, stored in the 100,000 square meters of site.

Nothing out of the ordinary, then. Except that this warehouse, built by the giant of the sector Prologis, is the first logistics platform labeled “zero carbon” in the world. “On the one hand, we carried out a life cycle analysis and, on the other, a dynamic energy simulation. The building, in its most classic version and operated by Samada, should have emitted 150,000 tonnes of CO₂ on fifty years”, figure Paul Janssen, construction manager of Prologis. But, thanks to a state-of-the-art geothermal system coupled with heat pumps, the logistics specialist claims to have reduced CO₂ emissions related to heating by five compared to a gas solution.

On the ceiling, dimmable LEDs, which adjust automatically according to the outside light, allow more than 50% energy savings. On the roof, there are 36,000 square meters of photovoltaic panels. Finally, after the construction was carried out in part with recycled materials and following the energy consumption plan established for the next five decades, 20% of emissions remained, which the company offset with carbon credits and through reforestation in The Landes.

The innovations don’t stop there. By traversing the immense surface available, one comes face to face with an army of small robots circulating on the ground in an autonomous way. Monoprix uses here the technology developed by Exotec, the first French industrial unicorn. A hundred copies of its Skypod system help center employees every day to prepare orders for the brand’s e-commerce site. More than 400 bins are distributed on racks up to 10 meters high, where the 50-kilogram robot can climb with disconcerting ease.

A changing sector

This one-of-a-kind warehouse alone illustrates the desire for change in logistics. A booming sector, but facing many challenges. Starting with the human factor. In all businesses in the territory, the labor shortage is intensifying. And the profiles sought are not those that we imagine. “Today there is a need for dual skills: in logistics (including transport), as well as in mastery and knowledge of information systems. Managers regularly say they have difficulty finding this type of candidates”, points out Bruno Durand, lecturer in logistics and supply chain management at the University of Paris-Nanterre. “Shortages are found in almost all categories. We are in a profession that now requires much more agility and daily decision-making. The reality is much more dynamic and less predictable than before”, adds Adel Ouederni, associate of EY-Parthenon.

Once the rare pearls are finally found, they don’t last forever. To remedy this, robotization is one of the answers. “In terms of recruitment, we are unable to retain these people in simple positions, but difficult to manage physically. It is a task that wears out. We realize that we must provide good logistical tools so employees stay for a while, says Renaud Heitz, the co-founder of Exotec, which has deployed nearly 6,000 robots in 86 installations around the world.It’s an industry that needs to work better, keep doing more, but with limited resources. A veritable movement towards automation has thus been taking place in French warehouses for the past ten years. It should expand. “We could compare this development to what has happened in more complex industries, such as the automobile”, predicts Eric Hémar, president of Union TLF, the professional organization representing all trades in the transport chain. and logistics.

Growing demand

Constrained by the lack of human resources, the sector must at the same time respond to growing demand. “You have today, in a hypermarket or on sale on the Internet, many more references than in the past. Having the products available in advance has become a key issue, it was less the case about fifteen years ago. years”, emphasizes Eric Hémar. In addition to e-commerce, which represents only 10% of its activity, it is above all the reindustrialization policy desired by the government that will lead to new needs. However, without logistics, there is no industry. “We are in a movement of return of industries which accelerated post-Covid, then with the war in Ukraine. This will require strong investments”, anticipates Thomas Moreau, partner of EY, specialist in the optimization of the supply chain.

But, to expand, it is still necessary to be able to build new warehouses. This is where the problem lies. Another shortage is currently brewing: that of land. Afilog, the professional association bringing together players in logistics real estate, has long been asking the State for planning. “There is still an awareness on the part of the public authorities. We think that at the level of each region we must already look at what the territorial project is, what economic activity we are going to host, translate this into meters logistics squares that we would need, then evaluate the existing offer, which is currently very low, explains Diana Diziain, deputy director of Afilog.An industrialist who wants to establish himself, necessarily looks at the site where he wishes to settle, the pool of jobs, but also logistics. We think that this can constitute a real obstacle to the reindustrialization of France.”

In response, the Minister of Industry, Roland Lescure, recently launched with the Minister of Energy Transition, Christophe Béchu, “a mission on the mobilization of industrial and logistics land, entrusted to the prefect Rollon Mouchel-Blaisot, to identify the available land, qualify the needs of companies and prepare tools for carrying land projects”. “Unsurprisingly, it will be necessary to build differently in the future. Multi-storey warehouses are an interesting avenue. There is also the rehabilitation of wasteland, which will make it possible to have additional land”, explains Roland Lescure. But, as long as the space necessary for the construction of new warehouses is lacking, a whole section of the economy finds itself blocked. “In logistics, companies do not own the buildings, unlike industry. If you cannot expand, you stay on your premises and you cannot accept new contracts”, regrets Diana Diziain, of the Afilog.

The competitiveness of France in question

Yet reindustrialization is an issue of sovereignty. “Logistics is an essential lever of competitiveness for the economy. The sector represents 10% of GDP, more than 1.8 million jobs and 150,000 companies. Its role is crucial as a lever of industrial sovereignty, and it has increased since the health crisis of 2020”, recalls Minister Roland Lescure. And, compared to its European neighbors, France is behind. “In the past, you had to make very specific products for the French, the Spaniards and the Italians. This had consequences in terms of logistics at the national level. Now everything is becoming very European. Of course, we are not in competition with the Chinese , on the other hand, we are in direct competition with the Dutch, the Germans and even the Poles, who have the capacity to offer very operational solutions”, supports Eric Hémar, of Union TLF.

However, France has significant advantages. “France has a geographical position which is quite favorable and has a good motorway network, notes Thomas Moreau, of EY. On the other hand, on the maritime and rail part, we are a little behind and we have some brakes to rise compared to our European neighbours.” Finally, there remains a major challenge: the energy transition. As with many other sectors, the war in Ukraine has acted as a catalyst. “It is rather the economic criterion that ended up accelerating the movement. With the very significant increase in energy costs, controlling your bill has become a priority. When you are building a new building, the requirements today do not are not the same as ten years ago. You are obliged to have increasingly efficient and well-insulated warehouses”, observes Adel Ouederni, of EY. The average lifespan of a warehouse is thirty-five to forty years. The more time passes, the more the existing park becomes obsolete and energy-consuming. A race against time that the sector will have to face sooner or later.