David King, owner of Warehouse Design, has been laboring alongside Charles H.W. Edwards, director of the North Carolina Center for Global Logistics, for several years in an attempt to increase awareness and build the future workforce of the supply chain and logistics industry. Little did he know he soon would find one of the next generation’s greatest advocates in his ...

Although more than 11 million people work in the supply chain—representing 8.6 percent of the nation’s workforce— a shortage of skilled workers persists. An estimated 600,000 manufacturing positions in the United States are unfilled for a lack of qualified workers. Further, the U.S. Roadmap for Material Handling & Logistics predicts that by 2018 there will be 1.4 million new jobs ...

Have you ever asked yourself how you started your supply chain career? You may be surprised by the answer. In my particular case, I was asked to “run the warehouse,” mainly because no one else would do it. Imagine that— one of the key links in any supply chain and no one wanted to manage the warehouse. That was a ...

MHI—along with the Material Handling Equipment Distributors Association (MHEDA)—works closely with schools throughout the U.S. to support education in material handling, logistics and supply chain. Our programs help high schools, technical schools, community colleges, universities and other training organizations to build and sustain a skilled workforce that’s in high demand throughout our entire industry. In addition to providing educational programs ...

There is a sea change coming, one that will require retailers to respond. And when they do, they’ll no doubt be leaning heavily on companies throughout the supply chain to assist. “Right now, Baby Boomers are providing the large proportion of sales for retailers,” said Sue Yasav, vice president, research insights leader at Synchrony Financial. But it won’t stay that ...

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So, exactly how much economic impact does the supply chain have in the United States? Well, the answer is—we don’t really know all that precisely. Every year, the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP) publishes its Annual State of Logistics Report. And the most recent edition says the cost of U.S. business logistics is 8.3 percent of U.S. GDP, ...

How to attract and retain the next generation of supply chain workers to our industry is a frequent topic of discussion. So perhaps it’s no surprise that MHI’s Young Professionals Network (YPN) is dedicating an entire educational track to the subject at MODEX 2016. On Tuesday, April 5, the “New Generation Supply Chain Workforce” event includes two panel discussions and ...

The outlook for U.S. economic growth in 2016 and 2017 softened in the second half of 2015, as forward-looking manufacturing and material handling data reflected a significant slowdown in activity. While U.S. manufacturing has weakened, the U.S. service sector has remained solid, which bodes well for growth through at least the middle of 2016. At the same time that the ...

Experts agree: Our industry is in the early stages of a talent crisis. With baby boomers retiring, and unemployment low, the impacts of this crisis are being felt throughout the supply chain. We need to find ways to attract the best and the brightest students to pursue careers in our industry. But how? How do we get young people excited ...