Today’s pharmaceutical sector looks healthy on the surface. It’s growing and expanding into new markets. It’s taking advantage of increased understanding about diseases and treatments, and society increasingly relies on “better living through chemistry.” But this industry is prone to some side effects, too. And, at the risk of sounding like a pharmaceutical ad, these side effects could include impacts ...

A year ago, the MHI Board of Governors and the members of the Annual Conference Workgroup—the committee responsible for planning the event—unveiled a modified format for the MHI fall gathering. Historically known as MHI’s Annual Meeting, the consensus among MHI’s volunteer leadership was that the event could offer additional membership value. Most of the work conducted at the Annual Meeting, ...

The economic climate for the balance of 2015 and 2016 is likely to be characterized by solid U.S. economic growth, an improving global economy, modestly rising commodity prices and continued foreign exchange rate volatility. In the new Material Handling Equipment Manufacturing (MHEM) forecast models, strong equity markets, low interest rates and continued manufacturing expansion are supportive of new orders. However, ...

A professor walked into a faculty meeting at Bradley University eight years ago waiving a Wall Street Journal article in the air and saying, “We must do something about supply chain management.” The faculty agreed, but where to start? Supply chain management is a hot new field for universities, and we knew that we’d need to take an innovative approach ...

During the March 25 keynote at ProMat 2015, MHI released the 2015 MHI Annual Industry Report: Supply chain innovation—Making the impossible possible. In this second report, MHI again partnered with Deloitte to conduct a survey of the decision makers responsible for one of the most critical components of business success today: the supply chain. Managers of traditional supply chains should ...

A resource for reducing injuries associated with manual material handling (MMH) your company may have overlooked is your insurance carrier. Many insurance companies offer their policyholders no cost programs designed to analyze MMH tasks and develop solutions to minimize worker stress while saving money for their employers. Motion is Money® Motion is Money® from CNA begins when Brian Roberts, director, manufacturing ...

Since the dawn of time, we’ve all known that two halves make a whole. Yin and yang, peanut butter and jelly, Siskel and Ebert. It is all about synergy; igniting new ideas and partaking in unexpected debates that lead to revolutionary breakthroughs. The byproduct? Financial results. In today’s enterprise market, the two halves are the supply chain professional (or end-user) ...

Think of a monorail as a people mover, and it’s easy to imagine all sorts of people inside. In the same way, a monorail used for material handling can move a great variety of products, parts and components in the manufacturing and distribution environment. Typically mounted to an overhead structure or ceiling, monorail systems help lift and transport heavy items ...

Order fulfillment solutions are progressing to new levels, as manufacturers have become “truly focused on reducing end-user labor utilization and improving accuracy, throughputs and ROI,” says Ed Romaine, vice president sales and marketing at MHI member SI Systems. Romaine and Austin Power, business development manager, MHI member Retrotech, led an Order Fulfillment Solutions (OFS) Council educational seminar on the “latest ...

Although automation and use of robots to improve efficiency, productivity and employee safety are the norm throughout the manufacturing industry, the warehouse and distribution industry has been slower to adopt automation technology. While the same benefits of automation apply, barriers such as cost justification, flexibility of systems and lack of awareness of emerging technologies are reasons for continued reliance on ...