Why Warehouses Avoid Change and What It Takes to Fix It

Warehouse systems didn’t get complicated overnight, but now they’re deeply interconnected, constantly changing, and harder to validate than ever.

In this episode of The New Warehouse Podcast, Josh Owen, Co-Founder of Cycle Labs, joins live from Manifest to unpack how we got here and why most organizations are stuck playing defense when it comes to change.

He walks through the shift from manual operations to layered systems like WMS, TMS, OMS, and WES, and explains why traditional testing methods can’t keep up. The conversation challenges a common assumption: that testing is just a checkpoint. Instead, Josh makes the case for continuous, automated validation as the foundation for innovation.

If your team hesitates before every update, upgrade, or integration, this episode shows what’s really holding you back and what it looks like to move faster without breaking things.

Watch the full episode

“We’ve created a systems complexity problem and our response has been to avoid change unless we absolutely have to.” ~Josh Owen

Still testing the old way?
You can keep slowing down every time something changes. Or you can build the confidence to change anytime you want. Explore how enterprise test automation makes that possible.

This article was adapted from The New Warehouse Podcast episode, “Enterprise Test Automation for Managing Warehouse Change.”