Feature The 10th edition of the MHI Annual Industry Report found that nearly 74% of companies are increasing their supply chain technology investments, many with an eye on expanding their use from enhancing resiliency to improving sustainability. BY CAROL MILLER, CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER, MHI The past three years have seen unprecedented changes in supply chains. As documented in the most ...

Feature The 11th Annual MHI Innovation Awards’ 12 finalists—four in each of three categories—brought strong competition to ProMat. BY GREG BAER, VICE PRESIDENT OF SALES, MHI Of the hundreds of transformative, game-changing technologies that filled each and every aisle at ProMat, three supply chain and material handling solutions stood out among the 156 entries to MHI’s 11th Annual Innovation Awards ...

For the first time, WERC’s annual DC Measures Study and Report surveyed the current application of Environmental, Social and Governance frameworks in warehousing. BY MICHAEL MIKITKA, EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT OF MHI’S KNOWLEDGE VALUE CENTER AND WERC For 20 years, the Warehousing Education and Research Council (WERC) has conducted an annual benchmarking study of the key warehousing and distribution metrics operations professionals ...

BY DR. FABIO SGARBOSSA, PROFESSOR OF INDUSTRIAL LOGISTICS, DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICAL AND INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING, NORWEGIAN UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY (NTNU) Efficient utilization of material handling equipment (MHE) significantly impacts the productivity, profitability and flexibility of production systems. For instance, machine performance could be impacted when a forklift driver is unavailable, or unit loads in the unloading station are still waiting ...

Feature BY MARY LOU JAY Over the last few years, the definition of last-mile delivery has been expanded to encompass many different methods of getting goods to customers. These include delivery services dropping off packages at front doors, the white glove unboxing of large items like furniture inside a home, consumer pickups from lockers, curbside or retail store locations and ...

MHI Solutions Community BY CHRISTIAN DOW, MHI EXECUTIVE VP OF MEMBERSHIP AND INDUSTRY LEADERSHIP With the current state of the labor market—and the ever-increasing need for efficiency in operations—questions about making warehouse automation successful abound. Plenty of folks are feeling pressured, yet are still on the fence about what to do, how to do it and even when. As Matt ...

Feature End-to-end supply chain visibility increasingly is seen as the means to achieving critical business goals, from boosting operational efficiency and the bottom line to meeting sustainability targets and building the resilience needed to weather future disruptions. Collaboration with supply chain partners and ‘data democracy’ are key prerequisites. BY DAVID COBURN When Bill Wappler thinks about the current state of ...

Economic Market Analysis BY JASON SCHENKER, PRESIDENT OF PRESTIGE ECONOMICS AND CHAIRMAN OF THE FUTURIST INSTITUTE® High interest rates threaten the outlook In the wake of significant interest rate increases, the economic outlook includes high uncertainty. This is true across economies globally, but it is especially true in the United States, where the Fed has worked hard raising rates to ...

Safer Handling BY TOM GRESHAM As warehouses and distribution centers increasingly aim to incorporate automation into their operations, the interest in Automatic Guided Vehicles (AGVs) and Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMRs) has escalated, leading to robust growth in the industry. For MHI’s Mobile Automation Group (MAG), it is essential that growth is accompanied by an emphasis on safety. In fact, MAG ...

By The Numbers Accenture considers two forms of visibility. Structural visibility is achieved through supply chain mapping, classic risk management, network assessment and modeling. Dynamic visibility is gained through monitoring of the supply chain in real time, leveraging predictive and prescriptive capabilities to gauge and avert potential supply chain disruptions, and autonomous execution utilizing artificial intelligence, machine learning and robotic ...