Building a Safer Loading Dock * By Jean Feingold * Raw materials, goods and finished products enter and exit manufacturing and warehouse facilities through loading docks. Since materials, transfer and transport vehicles and people are moving around regularly, making loading docks safer is important. The goal is to prevent injury to workers while avoiding damage to products and the building. ...

Defending Against and Responding to Cyberattacks * By John Paxton, MHI COO/CEO Designate * If your company hasn’t sustained damage from a cyberattack, then you’re one of the lucky ones. According to a survey from the cybersecurity company Tenable Inc., over just the past two years, 90% of companies in the energy, health care and manufacturing sectors have suffered a ...

CSS: Combining the Knowledge and Experience of Thousands of Installations * By Stephen Murdoch *                                                                                                      In recent months, the Conveyor and Sortation Systems (CSS) Industry Group of MHI has been working diligently on publishing and promoting materials on the training, inspection, safety and maintenance of conveyors and sortation systems. The industry’s leading providers of conveyors and sortation systems have come ...

ECMA: ‘Dynamic and Growing’ Behind the Scenes * By Katie Kuehner-Hebert * Need an electrification or controlling device for your application? Consider working with the Electrification and Controls Manufacturers Association (ECMA) Industry Group of MHI. ECMA is a group of manufacturers that provides standards, safe practices and education for the use of power and control systems. “As the material handling ...

Choosing—And Achieving—A Perfect Path: Kirstin Olesen, University of Oklahoma Kirstin Olesen has a very challenging job, but her accomplishments in college suggest that she’s more than up to the task. Olesen, 23, is a software engineer for Boeing working in the B-52 Weapons division, where she focuses on systems work such as writing requirements and tests for software programs and maintaining ...

The people who work at MHI are the gears that keep the association rolling. They ensure MHI continues to be a valuable association and resource for people involved in the industry, and do so with wit, competence and a smile on their face. The goal of this column in MHI Solutions magazine is to give readers a glimpse into what ...

CEO UPDATE: The Time to Invest in Supply Chain Innovation Is Now * By George W. Prest, Chief Executive Officer, MHI  * Investment in supply chain innovation is at a critical inflection point, with a trend of declining investment from 2015 to 2018 being more than countered by a 95% increase in projected spending for 2019, according to the 2019 ...

What’s Your Level of “Supply Chain Digital Consciousness”? Sixth MHI Annual Industry Report Explores Stages, Growth of Digital Technology Adoption MHISolutionsmag.com—The sixth MHI Annual Industry Report explores the stages and growth of digital technology adoption and, new this year, includes a self-assessment tool for measuring your supply chain digital consciousness index (DCI). * By Carol Miller * After six consecutive ...

Competing in the Age of AI-centric Supply Chains Artificial intelligence (AI) is the ultimate evolution of business intelligence and analytics as it uses data to generate smart insights. At the same time, it gets smarter by learning from patterns, behaviors and feedback from various digital and human interfaces. * By Mary Lou Jay * Artificial intelligence (AI) is the ultimate ...

Flexible Automation, Robotics and Autonomous Vehicles in Warehousing Interest in automatic solutions is rising and there’s a perception that this is where the industry is headed. But questions about ROI, applications and integration are slowing down adoption. * By Fiona Soltes * Robotics, flexible automation, autonomous vehicles and the like are no longer just something “everyone else” must be doing. ...