Why Productivity Fails Without Profit Visibility, with Dwight Klappich
February 4, 2026
In part 2 of The Performance-Driven Warehouse, Dan Keto continues the conversation with Dwight Klappich, former Gartner Fellow and Principal at DK Advascent, on what separates warehouses that report metrics from those that actually run profitably. The discussion digs into why monetizing labor is non-negotiable, how unified data exposes hidden cost pools traditional KPIs miss, and why leaders must optimize processes before investing in automation. This episode lays out a practical, financially grounded approach to turning operational complexity into measurable advantage.
In part 2 of The Performance-Driven Warehouse, Dan Keto continues the conversation with Dwight Klappich, former Gartner Fellow and Principal at DK Advascent, with a sharper focus on execution. The discussion centers on why most warehouse leaders struggle to translate productivity metrics into real profitability—and how unified warehouse performance management closes that gap.
Dwight breaks down how engineered assumptions, siloed reports, and inconsistent data lead teams to optimize the wrong problems. He explains why monetizing labor costs exposes waste hiding in plain sight, why consistency across facilities is required to scale best practices, and how poor data leads to misguided automation investments. For operations executives evaluating labor strategies, automation, or network-wide improvement initiatives, this episode delivers a pragmatic, financially grounded playbook for making better decisions with real business impact.
What You’ll Learn:
- Why standardizing metrics across your network is harder than it looks
- How to stop blaming labor when the real issue is process, layout, or visibility
- The monetization advantage: why efficiency means nothing without attached dollars
- How to leverage top-performing sites as blueprints across your entire network
- Why lifting the middle of the workforce drives more value than replacing people
- How to avoid automating broken processes by using real operational cost data
Dwight Klappich, retired Research Vice President and Fellow, is a 25-year veteran of Gartner Inc. Mr. Klappich is a leading authority on supply chain technology, most notably in logistics and fulfillment. With decades of insight into emerging technologies and logistics innovation, Dwight has played a pivotal role in shaping industry discourse and guiding enterprises through digital transformation in logistics, warehousing, and fulfillment operations.
His thought leadership continues to influence automation strategies across global supply chains. Dwight also launched Gartner’s intralogistics smart robot research coverage and continues to be a leading authority on how logistics operations can exploit smart robots to support business transformation.