Fulfillment

If you pay attention to media headlines, you might think that airborne drones, autonomous, self-driving vehicles or crowd-sourced private vehicle owners will be delivering your online purchases to your doorstep within the next few months. Practically daily there are announcements of new developments and investments in these technologies and services from all segments of the market. Among them: Retailers Amazon ...

As e-commerce continues to grow, regulators and consumers are increasingly demanding that online retailers and fulfillment centers prove that their products are, indeed, authentic—and firms within the supply chain are employing emerging technologies to accomplish just that. The technology creating the biggest media buzz is blockchain, says Rick Fox, president and chief executive of MHI member FOX IV Technologies Inc. ...

Dynamic product valuation; are B2B and B2C ready to value their products like commodities—where accessibility, deliverability, location and availability are considered on parity with the intrinsic value of the product produced? Or—SHOULD they value their products as commodities? It depends, says Shana Relle, marketing director, global marketing—logistics and material handling team at MHI member Intralox LLC. “As the importance of ...

B2B, distributed inventory networks and “less than truckload” shipping: Could uberization of the supply process be next? “We have seen the advent of the shar­ing economy explode—the concept that companies don’t necessarily need to own the entirety of their supply chain,” says David Schwebel, MHI manager, solutions and product groups at MHI. “Consumer’s demand fulfillment imme­diacy will steadily shift omnichannel verticals ...

Certified track and trace using blockchain or other emerging technologies—is there an actual case for this in the next three years? A growing number of experts are certainly bullish on the prospects, and there is movement among the manufacturing and retail industries to explore how to best leverage such technologies for use within their own supply chains. “Track and trace ...

As the number of SKUs continues to proliferate, many distribution centers are turning to alternative strategies to handle the massive explosion in volume. Many companies are expanding their supply chains through such methods as direct-store delivery, direct-store drop ship and drop ships by third-party logistics providers, says David A. Schwebel, MHI manager, Solutions & Product Groups. That way, companies don’t ...

Distribution centers are growing massively in size due to the explosion of SKUs and increasing demands to supply goods to customers as soon as possible. There are many reasons for this change. New online portals into supply chain visibility allow consumers to see inventory availability, order status, as well as product evaluation prior to the final purchase, says Brian Keiger, ...

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 ...

In 2015, MHI will introduce Solution Groups to its offering of product-specific Industry Groups. Solution Groups will collect information on trends and issues from the market and provide solutions and thought leadership, enabling MHI and its member companies to be the authoritative resource on material handling and supply chain topics. “We see this as an effective approach for engaging the end-user ...