U.S. and Global Outlook Remain Positive for Material Handling and the Overall Economy By Jason Schenker, CMT, CFP, ERP, CVA, Prestige Economics, LLC The outlook for material handling remains positive, as long as the outlook for the U.S. economy remains positive. In a recent analysis, we found that nominal U.S. GDP is over 90 percent correlated with material handling. This ...

Turntables Reduce Worker Strain and Increase Productivity By Jean Feingold The constant moving required of workers engaged in manual material handling (MMH) can cause injury. One particularly stressful movement is reaching out or forward from the body while lifting. In fact, the likelihood of injury when reaching out is greater than when bending forward, noted Jim Galante of MHI member ...

The Industry 4.0 ‘Horse Is Out of the Barn’ By Katie Kuehner-Hebert Industry 4.0—incorporating the Internet of Things (IoT) into intelligent industrial machines—is set to transform the fulfillment process, greatly boosting visibility, efficiency and accuracy of shipments, and in turn, customer satisfaction and everyone’s bottom line. IoT is “a fait accompli,” says Kevin Reader, director of business development and marketing ...

The Importance of Hoist Safety By Stephen Murdoch The safe use and application of a hoist will go a long way to reducing workplace injuries. All too often, hoist-related accidents could have been prevented by providing comprehensive training to the operators and through proper hoist inspection and maintenance. In recognition of this, the Hoist Manufacturing Institute (HMI) is working diligently ...

Catching up with an MHEFI Scholarship Recipient Juan Ma, Oklahoma State University The next time you DVR a television show on CNN, TBS or TNT, think twice about fast-forwarding through the commercials. Instead, watch the ads and appreciate the handiwork of Juan Ma, who is using data analytics to ensure that the right commercials end up in just the right ...

New and Improved: Solutions Community Aims to Be Resource for MHI Members, User Community By Brian Reaves, MHI Executive Vice President Come together, right now, for efficiency. Well, that’s not exactly how the famous Beatles lyric goes, but in the case of the MHI’s three solutions groups, it makes perfect sense. When the MHI Solutions Community was created this past ...

Roadmap 2.0 is intended to serve as a crib sheet to help business leaders plan for an increasingly uncertain future as it pertains to material handling and logistics. By Patrick Davison, MHI Director of Education and Standards This fall, the Class of 2030 started kindergarten, and this past June, the Class of 2017, who started kindergarten in 2004, graduated from ...

Anyone who attended ProMat 2017 experienced it. Technology is disrupting supply chains and transforming them into more digital, connected and intelligent models. And there is no end in site. Consumers are driving this trend as they demand more buying options and faster service from supply chains that are always-on. Sensors that enable the collection of massive amounts of supply chain ...

The next generation models of the supply chain will be “successfully combining automation and digital technologies to drive superior performance,” according to MHI’s recently released 2017 Annual Industry Report titled “Next-Generation Supply Chains: Digital, On-Demand and Always-On,” developed in collaboration with Deloitte Consulting. The Internet of Things (IoT) and Industry 4.0 are concepts that are key to gaining the efficiency, ...