Peak season is here, do you have the best tools?
Every logistics company talks about the “holiday surge” like it’s a yearly disaster, predictable in timing, miserable in impact, and almost always worse than the year before. Volume spikes, labor gets tight, error rates climb, and the cost of mistakes skyrockets.
You can’t brute-force your way through peak season anymore. The only way to stay ahead is to simulate, plan, and optimize before the chaos hits. That’s where Siemens Tecnomatix and Teamcenter come in.
Why does the holiday rush break most logistics operations?
Peak season hits operations with a triple threat:
- More volume than the system can handle.
- Less labor available to respond.
- Zero delay tolerance (customers are watching order tracking like hawks).
The result: bottlenecks, mis-picks, safety issues, slowdowns, and expensive overtime that kills margins. Simulation is the only way to see what’s going to break before it actually does.
How can logistics teams prepare for success?
Peak-season labor is mix-and-match, seasonal workers, temps, staff from other departments. That’s risky. Tecnomatix Process Simulate Human helps you:
- Build ergonomic, realistic human workflows for picking, packing, palletizing, truck loading, and sorting.
- Identify safety risks early, including fatigue, overreach, and repetitive strain.
- Train seasonal staff faster, using virtual workflows for consistent, low-cost onboarding.
Trust the tools, optimize your process.
How can Tecnomatix Process Simulate help?
Robot-assisted workflows explode in value during peak season:
- Validate robot picking, palletizing, and sorting before deployment.
- Test hybrid human-robot interactions safely, including shared work zones and conveyor handoffs.
- Ramp up automation for temporary peak loads, focusing resources where they’ll have the biggest impact.
Stay ahead of the surge with the right software.
How can PLM help?
Teamcenter, a PLM, is the digital backbone that ties it all together:
A true digital twin, keeps product, process, and production data connected through the entire lifecycle. Let’s review why it matters:
- A single source of truth for all workflows, robot programs, and operational data.
- Change management that works, so updates propagate instantly without confusion.
- Collaboration with partners so everyone is working from the same data.
The real power: human + robot + process data in one ecosystem.
When Process Simulate (Human & Robot) and Teamcenter work together, logistics companies can:
- Predict bottlenecks months in advance.
- Optimize labor + robotics for maximum efficiency.
- Test multiple layouts in hours, not weeks.
- Reduce training time and injury risk.
- Improve order accuracy and throughput.
- Keep margins intact during the most expensive season of the year.
ROI: Measurable benefits from simulation
Companies leveraging Tecnomatix + Teamcenter for peak-season planning are seeing real, measurable returns:
- Cycle Time Reduction: 15–25% faster order fulfillment during peak season.
- Labor Efficiency: 20–30% faster onboarding for seasonal workers, fewer errors.
- Error Reduction: Mis-picks and safety incidents cut by 40–50%.
- Overtime Savings: 25–35% less spending on overtime.
- Automation ROI: Payback in 6–9 months from pre-validated robot workflows.
Case in point:
A mid-sized e-commerce logistics provider simulated their packing area with Tecnomatix and Teamcenter. They uncovered a bottleneck that caused 15% of orders to miss delivery promises. After layout adjustments and robot-human workflow changes in simulation, that risk dropped to less than 2%, saving over $150,000 in one peak season.
Ready to stop firefighting your way through peak season?