Solutions Spotlight

MHI announced the addition of new charter members to the recently formed MHI Industry Group: Scan, Label, Apply, and Manifest (SLAM).

Safety is paramount for the operation of any equipment in a warehouse space, but it takes on particular gravity in the field of underhung cranes and monorail systems, which are installed in facilities for overhead material handling and load movement.

Robots can be equipped with a variety of interchangeable end effectors tailored to handling specific kinds of products, which is making them invaluable on the warehouse floor and in other material handling environments.

At warehouses and distribution centers, the migration toward automation is taking on greater urgency in 2022, and late adopters are realizing they can’t afford to sit on the sidelines any longer.

Product Spotlight— Until SLAM got underway at the beginning of 2022, no MHI industry group specifically sought to optimize what practitioners sometimes call the “last 100 feet” in warehousing, distribution and fulfillment applications. SLAM—an acronym for Scan, Label, Apply and Manifest—now targets expertise regarding this critical supply chain component. It’s important because as e-commerce distribution systems increase in importance, especially ...

As high labor turnover continues to create an array of stiff challenges, the importance of devoting resources to safety in the field of overhead lifting cranes and hoists has never been more in focus. MHI’s Overhead Alliance, which includes the Crane Manufacturers Association of America (CMAA), the Hoist Manufacturers Institute (HMI) and the Monorail Manufacturers Association (MMA), is leading the way in providing safety education and resources.

The pandemic has shed light on the importance of cutting-edge technologies and products among members of MHI’s Loading Dock Equipment Manufacturers. LODEM members are aiding warehouse managers, grocers and other customers with a number of innovations, from IIoT technology to optimize operation.

Safer Handling BY TOM GRESHAM Operators of factories and warehouses increasingly are seeking to integrate industrial lift devices with other components of their spaces. No longer do lifts operate in relative isolation. In that way, lifts are “a piece of the overall machine now,” said James Johnston, director of engineering at MHI member Autoquip and chair of Lift Manufacturers Product ...

Product Spotlight BY MICHAEL SENECAL The key to understanding sustainability in any industry is understanding the direct relationship between efficiency and the environment—improvements in one also mean improvements in the other. As enterprises with material handling needs strive to become more productive and efficient, they turn to members of MHI’s Automated Storage and Retrieval Systems (ASRS) Industry Group for tools ...

BY TOM GRESHAM Link to digital version of article in MHI Solutions. Twenty years ago, ergonomics “was kind of a nice thing to do,” said Jim Galante, chair of MHI’s Ergonomic Assist Systems & Equipment (EASE) Industry Group, but it was not an area that attracted close attention in material handling. In the decades since then, however, he said an ...