The final stage of operations evolution, and where this guide comes to an end, is continual expansion of your physical footprint. With enough scale, adding the fourth or more FC will prompt meaningful cost savings and improved customer experience on the margins, which will become the key areas remaining for continual margin improvement or revenue growth.

With each new node added into your network, most of the prior projects must be recalibrated. The way in which you route orders, manage splits, promote delivery promises, place inventory, and so on will change with each new FC.

Therefore one way to think about adding new physical nodes is to separate projects between "in the building" efforts and "out of the building" efforts. Yes, things like labor and robots and pick-and-pack lines are critical to the success of the FC. But ensuring technology that manages your network can easily assimilate a new physical node is just as critical.