Industry Trends

Many of us, myself included, are too mired in our day-to-day activities that we can’t afford to give ourselves the time to ponder what the future holds for us. But imagine taking a look around the current landscape, identifying the emerging technological, consumer, workforce and infrastructure trends, and extrapolating how those trends would influence what the year 2030 would have ...

Just a scant three years after the debut of the original U.S. Roadmap for Material Handling & Logistics, Version 2.0 of the report and action plan will be released at ProMat 2017. As an update of the preceding document, U.S. Roadmap for Material Handling & Logistics 2.0 (Roadmap 2.0) is intended to help the supply chain industry determine how it ...

Escalating on-demand customer requirements and industry consolidation impacts food and beverage supply chains. Food and beverage has undergone a transformation in recent years. More flavors of the same product. Different sizes and promotional packaging. Changing ingredients to meet consumers’ preferences. While these trends have been changing what consumers see on the store shelves, another trend has been quietly transforming the ...

While the term “Industry 4.0” is appearing more frequently both in mainstream media and on the minds of corporate leaders worldwide, its meaning—or its ultimate impact—aren’t well understood. To help companies gain a better grasp on the coming of the fourth industrial revolution, MHI Solutions sat down with Markus Lorenz, partner and managing director of The Boston Consulting Group’s industrial ...

Consumer-centric” is the key to success in today’s omni-channel environment. As retailers strive to meet consumer demand for a seamless shopping experience across all channels—brick and mortar locations and online—the winners will be material handling professionals who understand the need for new approaches to distribution and fulfillment centers. “Over the past 10 or 15 years, we’ve seen traditional retailers add ...

Outsourced logistics services have shifted into overdrive. Also known as third-party logistics, or 3PL, market research firm Armstrong & Associates tags it as a $161.2 billion industry in the U.S. alone. It is a behemoth of an industry. According to Armstrong, revenues were up in 2015, thanks to lower fuel prices compared to the previous year. A number of mergers ...

What does your supply chain need? Is it automation? A new process? A breakthrough technology to enhance efficiency? Find your “X” at ProMat, the manufacturing and supply chain industry’s largest trade event. At ProMat you’ll see the latest innovations from 850+ solution providers. You can also network with your peers and learn from industry thought leaders in keynotes and over ...

Today’s transportation landscape has been infused with technological innovations that are both disruptive and ripe with possibilities. Driverless vehicles, 3D printing, cyber security advances, artificial intelligence and other developments will impact this industry in yet-to-be-seen ways. Ask those in the trenches now, however, and the current “trends” that come to mind are the everyday challenges: dealing with regulations, fuel prices ...

It doesn’t take much to uncover the biggest issues facing the healthcare sector. It’s likely something covered in today’s news. Price pressures have trickled down throughout the sector—leaving no aspect of the vast system, which accounted for 17 percent of the U.S. gross domestic product in 2015, untouched. Skyrocketing costs and reductions in government reimbursements have created challenges throughout the ...

If the sharing economy came to supplier/vendor-customer relations, the speed of product development based on rapid information transfer would dramatically rise. The typical approach to research and discovery by those seeking a clear path towards a procurement decision is often built on existing relationships and less on spreading a wide net for thought leaders, and much less on collaboration opportunities. ...