A recently released Warehouse Specialists Inc, LLC (WSI) survey of 306 supply chain, operations, and logistics leaders at U.S. manufacturing companies found that 75% agree their warehouse network evolved organically over time rather than being designed strategically. Another 73% say their current warehouse model was built for a different operating environment than the one they face today.
In many U.S. manufacturing companies, warehouse networks began as practical extensions of the plant. Production happened in one place, and finished goods moved next door, down the road, or into a nearby building that could hold inventory until a truck arrived. The logic was straightforward. Keep storage close to production, keep costs down, and add space when the business outgrows the existing network.
Over time, that approach created networks that worked well enough but were never meant to add up to a national distribution strategy. The footprint was built for yesterday’s assumptions, and the operating environment has changed around it, creating a quiet crisis plaguing manufacturing warehouse networks during a highly turbulent time.
The network legacy problem
Manufacturing warehousing has always been shaped by control. Products may be heavy, hazardous, high value, temperature sensitive, lot controlled, rail served, or difficult to handle without specialized equipment and trained labor. For decades, those requirements reinforced the idea that warehousing belonged close to the production floor and, often, under internal management.
WSI’s survey, How Manufacturers Are Structuring Warehouse Operations in 2026, reflects that legacy. Nearly half of manufacturers still operate their primary U.S. warehouse or distribution center with their own internal teams. Another 32% use a company-owned or leased facility operated by a 3PL provider, while smaller shares use dedicated contract warehousing or mixed models.
This self-reliant model has advantages. It gives manufacturing leaders direct visibility into inventory, tighter coordination with production, and more control over processes that can carry real compliance or customer risk. But it also leaves companies managing infrastructure that may no longer match where their customers, suppliers, labor pools, or cost pressures now sit.
The survey found that 83% of manufacturers have highly or somewhat centralized warehouse networks. That centralization usually tracks production, with inventory clustered where products are made. Yet only 35% have their primary facility within 10 miles of production, even though 59% say proximity to the plant is very important.
That gap matters. A centralized network can be efficient when production, storage, labor, and outbound transportation are aligned. It becomes much harder to defend when the plant, the warehouse, and the customer base are all pulling the network in different directions.
The external pressure is no longer theoretical
The warehouse problem is not happening in isolation. U.S. manufacturing is being pushed by a wider set of forces that are changing where companies p