Shawn sequeira. senior manager - grant thornton
Tell us who you are.
A Senior Manager in Grant Thornton Australia’s supply chain and management consulting team, based in Sydney. I’ve spent the last 18 plus years designing, fixing, and occasionally rescuing supply chains across retail, FMCG, healthcare, and logistics, including warehouses, DC builds, automation programs, and the governance that stops them going sideways. Before consulting, I cut my teeth in delivery roles at a leading intralogistics provider, so I’m as comfortable on a warehouse floor as I am in a meeting room debate about best practice.
What is your primary market in ANZ?
We work where the supply chain is business-critical and the trade-offs are real: retail and consumer, FMCG, healthcare, and industrial businesses investing in distribution centres, automation, and productivity uplift.
What is the most significant macro-level shift or challenge that is currently driving customer investment?
Volatility is now constant rather than exceptional, challenging traditional approaches to warehousing and transport as sudden shifts in demand become common. Labour shortages have become a persistent structural issue across Australia's economy, directly impacting logistics operations such as staffing, safety, and wages. Space remains another ongoing challenge: low industrial vacancy rates mean simply expanding facilities is less viable, so businesses are focusing on maximising existing space, increasing throughput, and enhancing flexibility.
However, as the past eight weeks of volatile global events have demonstrated, operating amid significant energy uncertainty is proving to be the most influential factor affecting costs and driving outcomes but with tailored investment.
How does your company help them to overcome it?
We help clients take uncertainty out by building options that work across scenarios.
Our work usually starts with an end-to-end diagnostic that maps operational reality to commercial impact. We translate what’s happening on the floor into what it means for their EBIT, service, and working capital, then we prioritise the moves that actually shift those outcomes.
From there, we’re comfortable sitting across strategy and execution. If the answer is “fix the operating model and processes first”, we’ll say it. If the answer is “invest but do it in a way that protects flexibility, scalability and cashflow”, we’ll build the case and the delivery path. On every project, we embed our team with our clients to ensure optimal results.
How is your company deploying or preparing for the integration of AI-driven solutions in industrial automation?
We treat AI the same way we treat automation. If it cannot be operated, governed, and measured in a live environment, it’s theatre. So, our preparation is grounded in the unglamorous stuff: data quality, system integration across ERP/WMS/TMS, and the capability to interrogate operations with analytics (Power BI, SQL, financial models) so decisions are based on evidence, not gut feel.
The Australian market is also telling a clear story: many operators expect technology to take cost out, but legacy systems and workforce readiness are major barriers to getting value from AI investments. That gap between “buying” and “benefiting” is exactly where we tend to be most useful.
Beyond existing product roadmaps, what transformative technology or concept will have the greatest disruptive impact on the Australian and New Zealand industrial sector in the next five years?
It's not just one machine - it's an integrated system that drives major disruption.
Successful organisations will be those that coordinate automation, people, software, and exceptions across diverse environments without a single point of failure.
Australia's policy and industry focus on resilience, productivity, and data supports technologies and operating models built to adapt quickly to disruption, rather than only excel in stable conditions.
How does your company culture support innovation and adaptability in such a rapidly evolving industry?
We are most effective when we maintain transparency and integrity in our work. This involves relying on evidence-based approaches, implementing iterative cycles of testing and improvement, and delivering results that provide practical value to executive teams.
Additionally, it requires addressing challenging issues directly. For instance, if a client requests automation but is experiencing significant issues with master data or inbound variability, we address these concerns candidly rather than overlooking them. Engaging in honest discussions early helps prevent costly setbacks in the future.
What strategies have you found most effective in attracting and retaining top talent?
We give our capable people real challenges early and let them see the broader impact of their work. Engagement grows when team members understand the entire process, not just isolated tasks, helping them develop valuable judgment.
Flexibility is important, but it is also paired with guidance - effective teams maintain high standards, give fast feedback, and support growth without setting members up to fail.
What’s your long-term vision for the role of automation in your sector?
Automation will become a core part of how Australian operations manage risk and service, not a side project with a go-live date.
The long-term shift is towards operations that can scale up and down, protect safety, and keep service reliable even when labour availability, demand patterns, and space constraints move against you.
In that world, the best automation is the one that stays valuable when the business changes. Product mix shifts, channels evolve, leases roll, customers demand tighter windows. If the system cannot adapt, it becomes a stranded asset.
As a leader in a field defined by constant technological advancement, what is the most important principle or philosophy that guides your decision-making and long-term planning?
We begin with the promise - what customers expect and what the business aims to achieve. We then build backwards through the operating model, data, process, and technology. When this approach is clear, we can pinpoint operational changes, their impact on the P&L, and justify investment. If the explanation isn’t straightforward, we shouldn’t spend yet.
What’s one thing you know now that you wish you’d known when you first started in this field?
That technology is rarely the reason a program succeeds or fails. The people, integration, governance, data discipline, and the Day 2 operating model are the reasons.
I used to think the “big decision” was selecting the right automation solution. Now I think the big decision is designing how the business will run when the project team is gone and it’s raining, peak has started early, two people are off sick, and a supplier shipment is late. If the new world still works under that pressure, you’ve built something worth owning.
