What is the Future of Industrial Real Estate?
Advancements in technology are disrupting the function and design of industrial real estate. Since these advancements are believed to be exponential, perhaps to an extent, the industrial real estate of tomorrow promises to be very different than today. Technologies such as autonomous vehicles, 3D printing, robotics, and the internet of things (IoT) exist and will disrupt industrial real estate and supply chain. However, with exponential advancements in technology disruption the future of industrial real estate is very likely to be disrupted by new technological silos which do not exist today.
The most disruptive existing technology to impact industrial real estate in the next five to fifteen years will be autonomous trucks, beginning with autonomous platooning and ending with fully automated tractor-trailers. Site selection will change with autonomous trucks. So will the design of industrial facilities.
Perhaps the most disruptive quality of autonomous trucks will be their interaction with other technologies such as robotics and 3D printing. Autonomous trucks can be sent on milk runs to deliver packages using drones and robots to a multiple customers at the same time. They may also encourage automation in the distribution center by connecting to an internet of things (IoT) within the warehouse, which will coordinate the unloading and loading of the trailers and material handling in the warehouse by robotics. Autonomous trucks may also team with 3D printing to manufacture parts while on the road to the destination.
While the impact of existing technologies on the supply chain and industrial real estate is not fully known, the most impact will most likely come from how these technologies can interact and work together.
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