One of the more common tasks in material handling is people lifting objects. Historically this manual material handling has been done without assistance from lifting or positioning equipment. Unfortunately, encouraging workers to “lift correctly” has provided little measurable benefit in reducing the use of improper lifting procedures. Improper lifting can result in injuries, accidents and a loss in productivity. In ...

Building the future doesn’t always come naturally to people. Too often, we are harshly confronted or otherwise assaulted by a changing present before it registers that our future will be different. And we need to do something about it now. Material handling and logistics are not exempt from this. Fortunately, some of the early detection work of what the future ...

Adaptable. Vital. Inclusive. Three words you might not typically hear to describe an organization celebrating its 70th anniversary in 2015. And yet, those are just a few of the descriptors used by three of MHI’s board members when discussing some of the reasons behind our association’s continued importance to the supply chain, material handling and logistics industries. What started in ...

See the latest, greatest manufacturing and supply chain solutions at ProMat 2015. When you attend ProMat, you can expect to uncover new business potential: Speed time to market Cut costs and maximize efficiency Streamline your operations Engage industry professionals and build business partnerships Find the latest innovations and exciting new technologies Meet top providers face-to-face. Finding the right solution is ...

Since 2010, the global economy has been experiencing modest growth, and we expect the same in 2015. In fact, we encourage firms to consider that 2015 could look remarkably similar to 2014. Along those lines, a number of critical market dynamics are likely to seem extremely familiar, including modest U.S. growth and the gradual removal of accommodative Fed monetary policy, ...

The Storage Manufacturers Association is developing ANSI specifications. The effort has helped double its membership. With the recent addition of two new members, the Storage Manufacturers Association (SMA) Product Group of MHI has doubled its membership—from seven to 13 members—in the past six years. Among the reasons for the membership surge is SMA’s three-year-old commitment to developing American National Standards ...

It is a challenging time for manufacturers and retailers that must fulfill e-commerce orders faster and faster without compromising accuracy or economy. Members of the Order Fulfillment Solutions (OFS) Industry Group of MHI provide order fulfillment solutions to these challenges by helping to manage rising transportation costs, improve channel strategies, create deeper visibility into the supply chain and develop automated ...

We often describe the global economy as a supply chain. Generally speaking, the United States and Europe are key consuming economies at the most downstream point in the global supply chain, while China occupies one of the critical midstream positions, and commodity producing economies are at upstream points in the global economy. The good news is that the outlook for ...

Supply chain innovation is becoming a deliberate strategy for companies, rather than an accidental occurrence. and the MHI Executive Summit and Annual Conference in San Diego helps to highlight just how important that trend will be in the next few years to cope with the rate of change in business. We’re all familiar with the Fortune 500 list of the ...

Back in March, at MODEX 2014, we released the MHI Annual Industry Report: Innovations That Drive Supply Chains. That report, which is still available as a free download on www.MHI.org, was the first of a series of yearly studies that MHI has partnered with Deloitte to conduct. The Annual Industry Report separates the buzz from the reality surrounding five hot ...