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DCS’s design and engineering team has more than 40 years of experience creating unique parcel handling systems for diverse customer applications. With installations including semi-automated handling in small city distribution centers and fully automated, integrated hubs with advanced conveyor and sorter equipment, DCS routinely thinks outside the box.
DCS designs and implements end-to-end warehouse automation solutions for e-commerce and multi-channel retailers that address numerous workflow challenges. This includes solutions for receiving, putaway, storage, replenishment, order fulfillment, picking, packing, sortation, and outbound shipping. Our custom integrated warehouse, distribution, and fulfillment systems draw from a deep pool of conventional, semi-automated, and automated material handling technologies.
Whether an operation is considering the construction of a new distribution or fulfillment center, or a retrofit or expansion of an existing facility, it’s important to create a solution that fits the overarching supply chain strategy. DCS has four decades of experience designing and integrating comprehensive, end-to-end material handling solutions that meet a multitude of operational goals. Whether conventional, semi-automated, or fully automated, DCS can help your organization implement a custom solution that meets its goals while maximizing return on investment (ROI).
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DCS offers a broad range of material handling equipment and automated system design, installation, and integration services for a multitude of projects. These include retrofits, expansions, upgrades, and more. While every project is unique, our system design and execution processes are the same, encompassing meticulous attention to detail, frequent communication, and a dedicated partnership with our clients.
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Designed Conveyor Systems (DCS) has 40 years of experience serving major clients in multiple industries by providing material handling, full-scale warehouse operations, and conveyor design solutions that are custom crafted for their needs. DCS does not sell ready-made conveyor systems but builds relationships that empower collaboration to craft custom warehouse designs together. DCS utilizes consulting, engineering design, project management, installation services, and client support to ensure our customers can keep their promises to deliver on time.
With more than 40 years of experience providing automated system design, installation, and integration services, DCS has created solutions for companies throughout the United States in a broad range of industries and markets. We’ve completed more than 1500 projects ranging from greenfield facilities with completely new systems to expansions and retrofits of existing operations.
# Geopolitical Landscape in 2025: Four Areas to Consider
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Geopolitical Landscape in 2025: Four Areas to Consider
**Date Posted:**
01.07.25
It’s the first full work week of January, which means it’s time for predictions about the New Year. What does 2025 have in store for those in the supply chain industry? From my perspective, the geopolitical forecast shows both potential challenges and opportunities for companies within our field. Here are the four forces that seem most likely to impact supply chain trends in 2025 and beyond.
1. **Tariffs and Sanctions Likely:**
The decisive outcome of the 2024 Presidential election made the future a little less cloudy insofar as trade agreements. The incoming Trump administration has indicated a high likelihood that additional tariffs of around 10% will be imposed on imports from China and Asia.
It also suggested imposing tariffs of up to 25% on our neighboring countries, Canada and Mexico. That would effectively eliminate the ), which established free trade in July 2020 and is slated for renewal in 2026. Additionally, sanctions may very well be imposed on other products and goods imported into the U.S. from Asia, notably steel, electronic components, and software.
For companies that buy goods and materials from these countries, costs will go up. To minimize the impact on the bottom line, companies need to consider and/or develop a business continuity strategy.
Take inventory levels as an example. How does the cost of the tariff compare with the carrying costs of purchasing a year’s worth of goods now? How would acquiring that additional inventory affect their storage capacity and operational processing? The average carrying cost is anywhere from 15% to 30% of the total inventory value; will the tariffs or sanctions be large enough to warrant that kind of purchasing shift? These are the kinds of questions every company will need to consider, regardless of their place in the supply chain.
The new tariffs being considered and discussed may be added to the existing tariffs outlined in the graphic below.
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2. **Inflation and Consumer Price Index Lower**
Over the past year, inflation had largely slowed as global supply chain disruptions eased post-pandemic. That, along with the dip in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) to roughly 2%, should spur consumer demand and purchasing. With nearly , the economy should be strong in 2025.
Lower inflation should likewise prompt the Federal Reserve to continue to lower interest rates. That, in turn, typically inspires higher investor confidence in businesses, real estate, and other ventures. These are all good signs for companies involved in the logistics and supply chain industry.
At the same time, however, tariffs levied by the new Trump administration could potentially be passed on to consumers in the form of higher prices. Those rising costs could also dampen investor confidence. Conversely, this may prompt more companies to bring manufacturing operations back to the U.S. — or to other trade-friendly countries unimpacted by the tariffs, such as those in the European Union. Businesses need to consider both possibilities when determining their approach to 2025.
3. **Regional Conflicts Continue**
Unfortunately,  for 2025. The war in Ukraine continues, while the Middle East remains a hotbed of turmoil and unrest. And those are just the two regions that get the most press. Africa, the Caribbean, and Southeast Asia all have their own geopolitical conflicts.
European supply chains have already been impacted, as cargo ships originating in Asia are often being rerouting around the southernmost tip of Africa (Cape of Good Hope) to avoid instability in the Suez Canal. By adding another 3,500 nautical miles to the journey, shipments now take up to two weeks longer to arrive.
Further, as we all experienced over the past few years, prices rise when key global shipping routes are disrupted or damaged — whether due to regional conflict, extreme weather, port strikes, or blockades. It’s become that much more important for companies to have a  for assessing and mitigating these risks.
4. **Workforce Shortages Persist**
It wouldn’t be an article about the logistics and supply chain industry if we didn’t talk about workforce shortages. Our industry continues to face a lack of available in-person labor, which is driving increasingly higher wages. That trend appears poised to continue in 2025.
On top of limited worker availability and increased wage rates, the overall labor market imbalance has been exacerbated by increased turnover and growing peak season demands associated with e-commerce growth over the past decade. To overcome these hiring and retention challenges, companies have opted to develop operational solutions and utilize technology.
In response, as the cost of automation and robotics technologies continues to shrink, they’ve increasingly been adopted by more operations in the U.S. The integration of  solutions into the distribution and fulfillment space has provided strong business cases and solutions to these labor challenges. Among them:
* The use of material handling equipment (MHE) certainly can help companies remove redundant activities that hamper productivity and throughput, such as travel through an operation to fill orders (this can encompass anywhere from 50% to 70% of a warehouse associate’s productive time).
* Solutions that incorporate high-density automated storage and retrieval systems (AS/RS) can improve inventory management while also enabling facilities to increase their storage capacity without expanding their existing footprint.
* Operational  can help a company to better direct their workflows, increase visibility within functional areas, track and manage labor, and provide reporting and analytics on 
As companies consider automation, robotics, and software solutions to help address operational challenges, it will be important to factor in the timing of the projects. If the prospective technologies are China-sourced, they will likely incur some price hikes due to tariffs. Spare parts costs and availability could also become an issue for the same reason. Alternatively, companies may consider looking at suppliers who source their solutions from locations outside of Asia.
**Join the Conversation**
Ultimately, leveraging supply chain technologies like automation and software can help companies be better prepared to manage and perform amid any geopolitical scenario. Have any thoughts to share about the geopolitical outlook for 2025?  to join the conversation.
**AUTHOR:** Chris Mehl, Sr. Director of Sales, DCS
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