Field guides, operational how-tos, and market analysis for warehouse and 3PL operators.
Published by American Warehouse Index. All data is sourced publicly, all analysis is ours, and none of it is written for or influenced by vendors — no product rankings, no affiliate links, no sponsored placements. The longer field guides are maintained: we revise them as rules and market conditions change.
Nearly every WMS RFP template on the first page of Google was written by a vendor. This guide gives you a structured RFP process you can run on your own terms — no product rankings, no affiliate links.
Most warehouse KPI lists are written by people selling software. This guide covers the eight metrics experienced operators actually run on, how to calculate each one honestly, what good looks like for different operation types, and the measurement mistakes that make a number worse than useless.
OSHA renewed its warehousing National Emphasis Program on July 31, 2026, extending targeted inspections for another five years. This is the standing reference for the 29 CFR 1910 standards that actually get cited in warehouses — what each one requires, and where operators get caught.
The base rent on a listing flyer tells you almost nothing about what you'll actually pay. This guide breaks down NNN, CAM, escalation clauses, and the lease provisions that matter most for warehouse operators.
Peak season will test every assumption you made in July. This guide walks through building an operational peak playbook: demand curves, temporary staffing math, dynamic slotting, carrier cutoffs, and equipment freezes.
Between tightening lithium-ion battery rules under NFPA 855 and aggressive enforcement of high-pile storage flue spaces, fire marshals are walking warehouses with a sharper eye this fall. Here is what changed and what to inspect.
When a warehousing RFP is vague, the cheapest bid is simply the one that understood your business the least. Here is how shippers define profiles, SLAs, and pricing models that make 3PL proposals truly comparable.
Two separate things get called "state warehouse regulation," and they work nothing alike. One covers every operator in the state. The other stops at 100 employees.
Your pickers know which SKUs are in the wrong place. This is how to prove it with the data you already have, and move them without breaking picking for a week.
OSHA replaced its 2023 warehousing emphasis program on July 31, 2026 and reset the clock to 2031. Two things came out of it, and the trade coverage is getting both of them wrong.
AI assistants now take 9.5 billion visits a month, up 70% in a year. But the honest read for warehouse operators is more complicated than the panic headlines suggest — and the part that should worry you isn't the part being sold.
The most expensive misunderstanding in 3PL insurance is assuming general liability covers damage to a customer's goods. It doesn't. This guide separates the policies operators actually need, and explains warehouse legal liability — the one that covers the thing you were worried about.
There's a growing industry selling warehouse operators AI visibility. Google's own documentation says most of what they're selling isn't required. Here's what structured data is, what it genuinely does, and what actually decides whether an AI tool can recommend your facility.
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