Current Features

Industry Focus The retail supply chain has weathered a major transition jumpstarted by COVID. But what’s next? BY TOM GRESHAM Like many industries, retail experienced a major transition during the COVID-19 pandemic as its customers’ shopping preferences and behaviors underwent radical changes. Now, the industry is weighing what the lessons of the pandemic were—and what should come next. For retailers, ...

Feature BY JASON SCHENKER, PRESIDENT, PRESTIGE ECONOMICS AND CHAIRMAN, THE FUTURIST INSTITUTE® With record-breaking hot temperatures this summer, the focus on climate change, emissions reduction and sustainability will likely face renewed pressure. This focus could engender increasingly stringent environmental regulations for the supply chain, material handling and logistics industries. We expect these regulations will increasingly promote emissions transparency, the adoption ...

DEI Feature BY CHRISTIAN DOW, EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT OF MEMBERSHIP AND INDUSTRY LEADERSHIP, MHI Unconscious biases (also called implicit biases) are the engrained social stereotypes about other people or groups that everyone carries without being aware of them. These attitudes can be related to age, race, gender, religion, culture, sexual orientation, appearance, political affiliation and many other attributes. Why does ...

Higher Education BY JOANNA LEON, CICMHE MANAGING DIRECTOR In today’s fast-paced world, efficient material handling is crucial for thriving industries. Whether it’s manufacturing, warehousing or logistics, organizations rely on effective handling and management of materials to streamline operations, reduce costs and improve productivity. MHI’s College Industry Council on Material Handling Education (CICMHE) plays a vital role in driving advancement in ...

Experience three new opportunities to learn through access to research-driven industry information from WERC. BY MICHAEL MIKITKA, EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT OF MHI’S KNOWLEDGE VALUE CENTER AND WERC Key to the Warehousing Education and Research Council (WERC) is our mission to create unparalleled learning experiences, networking opportunities and access to research-driven industry information. To that end, I wanted to make sure you ...

Feature The 10th edition of the MHI Annual Industry Report found that nearly 74% of companies are increasing their supply chain technology investments, many with an eye on expanding their use from enhancing resiliency to improving sustainability. BY CAROL MILLER, CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER, MHI The past three years have seen unprecedented changes in supply chains. As documented in the most ...

Feature The 11th Annual MHI Innovation Awards’ 12 finalists—four in each of three categories—brought strong competition to ProMat. BY GREG BAER, VICE PRESIDENT OF SALES, MHI Of the hundreds of transformative, game-changing technologies that filled each and every aisle at ProMat, three supply chain and material handling solutions stood out among the 156 entries to MHI’s 11th Annual Innovation Awards ...

Feature BY MARY LOU JAY Over the last few years, the definition of last-mile delivery has been expanded to encompass many different methods of getting goods to customers. These include delivery services dropping off packages at front doors, the white glove unboxing of large items like furniture inside a home, consumer pickups from lockers, curbside or retail store locations and ...

Feature End-to-end supply chain visibility increasingly is seen as the means to achieving critical business goals, from boosting operational efficiency and the bottom line to meeting sustainability targets and building the resilience needed to weather future disruptions. Collaboration with supply chain partners and ‘data democracy’ are key prerequisites. BY DAVID COBURN When Bill Wappler thinks about the current state of ...

By The Numbers Accenture considers two forms of visibility. Structural visibility is achieved through supply chain mapping, classic risk management, network assessment and modeling. Dynamic visibility is gained through monitoring of the supply chain in real time, leveraging predictive and prescriptive capabilities to gauge and avert potential supply chain disruptions, and autonomous execution utilizing artificial intelligence, machine learning and robotic ...