The "lights-out warehouse" is a little like Bigfoot: a mythical idea everyone in the material handling industry has heard about but few have actually seen. It's been a buzzword for years, yet just a handful of companies have made the leap to a fully automated distribution center, despite abundant indications that it would increase efficiency and profit margins.

With the global economic outlook still far from certain, companies across all industry sectors are focused on delivering efficiency gains across their supply chains. This means that today's forklift trucks - for so long the workhorse of any well executed logistics operation - are expected to work harder for longer and with minimal downtime.

To most people, and even many C-level retail executives, warehouses are those large, far-flung structures where raw materials and manufactured goods are kept. They're the places where forklifts move pallets around and guys wear hardhats.

The logistics company DB Schenker's new logistics centre in Japan is its largest facility in that country. It is located at Baraki, only 25 kilometers away from central Tokyo next to the Wangan Expressway.