A design figure is not a throughput figure
Peak capacity signed off on paper and sustained real-world output under the target's own SKU mix are two different numbers. Only the second one earns money.
Technical due diligence · Intralogistics & warehouse automation
Deep dive into the asset before you own it.
An independent, operator's read on the asset — the physical system, the software behind it and whether the numbers in the model survive contact with a peak week. No vendor ties, no stake in the outcome.
The problem
What financial diligence cannot see
Commercial and financial DD tell you what the target earned. Neither tells you whether the automation producing those earnings will still hit its numbers in year three — or what happens the first time volume goes 30 % above plan.
The WMS may not be a product
A code base carrying one customer-specific branch per site has a maintenance cost — and a key-person risk — that rarely appears in the model.
Ramp-up risk lands after closing
A system that has been accepted is not a system that performs. The gap between the two is measured in months of lost volume.
In an automated warehouse, the operating model and the machinery are the same object. You cannot value one without reading the other.
The risk
Four things that surface after closing
Every one of these is findable before signing. None of them is findable from a data room alone.
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Throughput that was never achievable
Capacity demonstrated on a clean test profile, never under real order structure, real seasonality and a real SKU mix. The shortfall is permanent and it is structural.
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A ramp-up curve built on optimism
Final acceptance and full performance are different milestones. The distance between them is volume the business case has already spent.
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Software that is a project, not a product
Per-site branches, undocumented interfaces, licence exposure and two people who understand the material flow logic. One of them is close to retirement.
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Service and spare parts
Frequently the most profitable line in the target and the least examined. Vendor contract terms decide whether that margin survives the transaction.
Why me
I have sat on all three sides of this table
Most technical diligence in this sector is written by people who have read about these systems. Here is where my judgement comes from.
Vice President Food Retail
SSI SchäferRan the vendor side of the table globally, carrying an order intake above €100m a year and negotiating contracts at that scale.
I know how a throughput figure gets built into a proposal and which assumptions are quietly doing the work.
Integration and commissioning
SSI Schäfer · VanderlandeCommissioned and ramped up automated distribution centres in the US, Europe and Australia, including two systems that had never been built before.
Hired and led the resident maintenance teams. I have watched these systems fail at three in the morning.
Senior Director Software Solutions EMEA
KION GroupOwned the intralogistics software portfolio across EMEA — product strategy, development, rollout.
Ran technical due diligence on KION's own M&A candidates, up to and including the recommendation put in front of the board.
Independence
Independent of every vendor in the market
Twenty years of that experience was earned on the vendor side. That is exactly why the read is sharp — and exactly why the question of bias deserves a straight answer rather than silence.
No vendor relationships
No agency agreements, no reseller arrangements, no referral fees or commissions from any equipment supplier or software vendor. Nothing about my income depends on which system you end up with.
Not a system integrator
I do not design, supply or install the equipment I assess. There is no follow-on implementation contract waiting behind the report, so no incentive to find work rather than find facts.
Paid for the opinion, not the outcome
Fixed fee per phase or a daily rate, agreed before the work starts. No success fee tied to whether a deal completes, so "walk away" costs me nothing to write.
Conflicts declared before engagement
If I have worked with the target, the vendor or the incumbent integrator, you hear it before you appoint me — not in a footnote afterwards.
Scope
Four lenses on the same asset
The physical system
Automated storage and retrieval (ASRS), shuttles, conveying, AMR and AGV fleets, robotics, sorters. Condition and remaining life, spare-parts exposure, bottleneck analysis and realistic sustained throughput measured against the target's own order profile — not the vendor's test profile.
The software
WMS, WCS and material flow control (MFC) architecture, down to the PLC and SCADA layer. Product or project? Release and DevOps discipline, interface debt, licensing exposure, documentation quality and how much of the material flow logic lives in one person's head.
Operational reality
Availability and its causes, maintenance maturity, staffing and shift model, change-request backlog and whether the KPIs in the data room match what the floor actually runs at during peak.
The commercial position
Vendor contracts, acceptance status, open claims and penalties, service and spare-parts agreements and what the stated CAPEX plan is genuinely committed to versus what it has deferred.
How it works
Three ways to bring me in
Scoped to the deal stage, so the cost sits in proportion to the decision it supports.
Red flag review
5–10 working days- For
- Screening and IOI stage or when you need to decide whether the asset is worth a full look.
- You get
- A short written opinion naming the material technical risks, the questions to force into management sessions and the SPA, plus a clear view on whether deeper work is warranted.
Full technical DD
3–5 weeks- For
- Confirmatory phase, once the asset is worth the spend.
- You get
- Site visits, vendor and management interviews, a written report against each of the four lenses, a quantified risk register, plus a CAPEX and OPEX view across the intended hold period.
Post-merger support
Scoped per mandate- For
- After signing — for the remediation the diligence identified or for a programme without an owner.
- You get
- Integration management, interim leadership of the automation programme, vendor and claim management or oversight of a ramp-up that has stalled.
What actually happens
The full engagement, end to end. A red flag review stops after step three and compresses the rest into a short written opinion.
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Discovery call
Thirty minutes on the asset, the timetable and what you already suspect. No charge and no obligation.
Day 0 -
Data room review
Layouts, throughput specifications, acceptance protocols, availability records and vendor contracts. I come back with a targeted document request rather than a generic checklist.
Week 1 -
Site visit
The system running under real order profile, ideally during a peak shift. Interviews with operations, maintenance, IT and the vendor.
Week 1–2 -
Technical evaluation
Sustained throughput modelled against the target's own SKU mix and seasonality. Software architecture, interface debt and licence exposure assessed. Spare-parts and obsolescence review.
Week 2–4 -
Executive report
Findings against each of the four lenses, a quantified risk register with cost and probability, plus a CAPEX and OPEX view across the intended hold period.
Week 4–5 -
Decision support
A debrief with the deal team, the questions to force into management sessions, the clauses worth putting into the SPA and a view on price impact.
Before signing
Evidence
Selected projects from 25 years in the field
M&A evaluation · Global intralogistics group · China
Finding and validating an acquisition target
The mandate. Identify the right partner for a global intralogistics group to invest in, in order to add AMR technology to its product portfolio.
The work. Market analysis of the AMR landscape. A shortlist built against defined partner criteria. Management interviews, site visits and hands-on evaluation of the products and the underlying technology. Negotiation of the cooperation agreement.
The outcome. Recommendation prepared and presented to the board. The group invested in the recommended partner.
The same method a fund needs on a target: screen the market, build the criteria, then go and look at the machines.
- Context
- Portfolio gap in autonomous mobile robots
- My role
- Led the evaluation end to end, through to board recommendation
- Technology
- Autonomous mobile robots including fleet controller software
- Outcome
- Investment in the recommended partner completed
Project rescue · Deep-freeze producer · Belgium
Three months from stalled to accepted, with no penalties
The situation. A deep-freeze installation that had not reached final acceptance. Open points across both software and mechanics, with a project that could not be closed.
The work. Took over project responsibility, then worked directly alongside the software team and the mechanical team to drive every remaining open point to closure.
The outcome. All open points closed within three months. Final acceptance achieved and the project closed with no penalties.
This is exactly the condition a technical due diligence exists to find — before you own it.
- Asset
- Automated deep-freeze channel storage, Belgium
- Technology
- High-bay channel storage, pallet conveying system, WCS
- My role
- Took over project responsibility from the incumbent project manager
- Outcome
- Final acceptance achieved, project closed without penalties
The first fully automatic case picking installation of its kind
Managed commissioning and ramp-up of the entire system and solved the problems that come with unproven technology. Hired and led the 16-strong resident IT, PLC and mechatronics team and ran a structured lessons-learned process back into the equipment and software.
Technology: Automated multi-level shuttle, delayering robots, case wheelers, case stacking robots, WCS, pack-pattern generator.
Outcome: Ramped to full performance. Final acceptance on schedule and in budget.
The first 3D-Matrix SCP system of its kind
Owned the sales and design process, contract negotiation and overall project management with P&L responsibility — then carried the new technology's teething problems through to a clean handover.
Technology: Automated multi-level shuttle, delayering robots, case stacking robots, WCS, pack-pattern generator.
Outcome: Successful sales process and installation management, handed to the commissioning team on time.
Two fully automated distribution centres serving 800 stores
Managed commissioning and ramp-up of both systems across two sites in the United States and built the resident maintenance organisation — 70 FTE across IT, PLC and mechatronics.
Technology: Automated high-bay warehouse, automated receiving with decant and tilt-tray sorter, miniload with zone picking, GTP picking with carousel storage, automatic tote stacking, WCS.
Outcome: Ramped to full performance and beyond. Final acceptance on schedule and in budget, followed by two years of profitable after-sales operation.
Performance improvement across a live multi-area warehouse
Analysed the operation for process and storage efficiency and reworked the interaction between the equipment supplier's WMS and the customer's ERP system.
Technology: Automated high-bay warehouse, miniload, GTP picking with carousel systems, hanging sorter, WMS and WCS.
Outcome: More than ten actions identified to improve product flow and reduce personnel cost, then implemented under my oversight and tracked against purpose-built KPIs.
Deep-freeze SCP installation in Scandinavia
Owned the sales and design process for the system, negotiated the contract and handed the project over to the realisation team.
Technology: Automated shuttle storage, delayering robots, case stacking robots, WCS, pack-pattern generator.
Outcome: Successful sales process and contract negotiation, clean handover to realisation.
Multi-area automated warehouse — building included
Owned the sales and design process for the whole facility including the building itself, negotiated the contract and handed over to the realisation team.
Technology: Building, automated high-bay warehouse, shuttle system, pallet conveyor, multi-zone picking, AGVs, WCS.
Outcome: Successful sales process and contract negotiation, clean handover to realisation.
Track record
Where the judgement comes from
25
years in intralogistics and warehouse operations
€100m+
annual order intake carried as VP Sales
2
first-of-a-kind systems commissioned
70
FTE in the largest resident team built and led
Sectors
- Drugstore chains
- Grocery wholesale
- Grocery retail
- Multichannel retail
- Deep-freeze logistics
- Intralogistics groups
Geographies
- Germany
- United Kingdom
- Belgium
- Norway
- United States
- Australia
- China
- Thailand
Further services
Beyond the transaction
The same experience applied to your own operation: from planning through vendor selection to running the system.
Project management
From data analysis through to handover into the service phase.
Project planning
- Data and process analysis
- Material flow design
- Facility planning and layouting
Vendor selection
- Functional tender documents
- Vendor-specific tender documents
- Evaluation of vendor proposals
Project execution
- Progress monitoring and reporting
- Supplier management
- Change management
- Functional, availability and final acceptance
- Transition to the service phase
Operations optimisation
Run an existing system faster, more reliably and at lower cost.
Process optimisation
- Data and process analysis
- Process and technical simulation
- Process design and implementation
- Identifying automation opportunities
- ROI calculations
Operations consulting
- Identification of meaningful KPIs
- Design of KPI monitoring systems
- Decision support systems
- Workforce planning and management
- Change management
M&A and interim
Scrutiny before the transaction, delivery after it.
Due diligence
- Software assessments
- DevOps analysis
- Licensing models and software valuation
- Business model verification
- Market analysis
Integration and interim management
- Post-merger integration consulting
- Integration management
- Interim leadership of automation programmes
- Vendor and claim management
Profile
Matthias Merz
Matthias Merz Dipl.-Inform. (FH) · Founder, LogistiXpert
- Based
- Thailand — supporting projects worldwide
- Languages
- German (native), English (fluent, contractual level)
- Education
- Diplom-Informatiker (FH), THM Giessen, 2000
- 2025 – Founder and Principal LogistiXpert — intralogistics consulting, interim management, M&A advisory
- 2018 – 2024 Senior Director Software Solutions EMEA KION Group AG / Linde Material Handling GmbH, Aschaffenburg
- 2016 – 2018 Vice President Food Retail SSI Schäfer Automation GmbH, Giebelstadt — global
- 2015 – 2016 Director Business Consultancy SSI Schäfer Noell GmbH, Giebelstadt
- 2015 Integration Manager Vanderlande Industries GmbH, Mönchengladbach
- 2012 – 2014 Director Integration Management SSI Schäfer Noell GmbH, Giebelstadt — global
- 2006 – 2012 Site Manager / Manager Logistics Operations SSI Schaefer Systems International, USA
- 2001 – 2006 Head of Software Development mbi GmbH, Hüttenberg, Germany
- 2000 – 2001 Systems Analyst Lilly Deutschland GmbH, Bad Homburg
Contact
Let's deep dive together.
Happy to walk through a live situation under NDA or to run a short red-flag read on something already on your desk.
Confidentiality is a given. A mutual NDA can be in place before the first
substantive conversation.