MHI Blog — The use of automation and robotics in the supply chain is not new, but it is increas ingly identified as both a disruptive force and a competitive advantage by supply chain leaders.



In the 2016 MHI Annual Industry Report, 51 percent of survey respondents said the technology has the potential to disrupt the industry and offer an advantage to companies that leverage it appropriately. While adoption of robotics is currently only 35 percent, that number is expected to rise to 74 percent in the next six to 10 years. 

Modern Materials Handling — Conference to feature four keynotes and six conference tracks, each with a 'class' session and 'lab' session with interactive, hands-on experiences. MHI is focusing on the theme of accelerating change in supply chains for its 2016 Annual Conference, October 17-19, 2016 in Tucson, Ariz. The conference will focus on key themes identified by the US Roadmap for Material Handling & Logistics and the MHI 2016 Annual Industry Report including:

MIT Technical Review — A German firm called Magazino believes it has built a better warehouse robot: the Toru. Unlike the robots used in Amazon warehouses that help locate items for shipping by moving entire shelves, Toru robots can pick up individual items.

The Wall Street Journal — Thousands of companies across the U.S. are trying to rebrand manufacturing as a high-tech industry full of opportunity. Their target audience: smartphone-wielding millennials and their parents who still think of manufacturing jobs as high-risk for moving offshore or as a backup career if one can't become a doctor, lawyer or teacher.

Quartz — Amazon acquired Kiva for $775 million in 2012 but only started using the orange robots in its warehouses in late 2014. The deal was expected to make inventory management more efficient. It's now beginning to become clear by how much.



The "click to ship" cycle used to be around 60-75 minutes when employees had manually to sift through the stacks, pick the product, pack it, and ship it. Now, robots handle the same job in 15 minutes, according to a Deutsche Bank note published Tuesday (June 14) based on Amazon's metrics.

MHI Blog — B2B, distributed inventory networks and "less than truckload" shipping: Could uberization of the supply process be next?

Seneca Medical introduced a voice picking system into its warehouses, which led to increased productivity and employee satisfaction, while cutting costs.

Industryweek — Looking at what changes will impact supply chain management, Logistics Viewpoint highlighted a few young companies that are working on robotics, IotT and the sharing economy.

The Wall Street Journal — The giant Panama Canal expansion opens June 26 amid much fanfare and one of the worst shipping industry slumps ever. While it won't do anything to help the dire state of the industry near-term, the changes are critical to Western trade in the long run.



The canal, which handles about a third of Asia-to-Americas trade, had no choice but to expand. As the industry copes with its downturn, major shipping companies are pooling their resources and using fewer but much bigger ships-ones that are too large to fit through the pre-expansion Panama Canal.

Logistics Management — The young companies that are poised to transform the supply chain management profession fall into a relatively few categories. The most interesting start-ups we are seeing have business models based on the sharing economy, the Internet of Things (IoT), predictive analytics, and robotics.

Ebnonline — The Panama Canal's $5.3 billion expansion should have a significant effect on the worldwide supply chain, while those who pay for shipping will likely see benefits in the long term.



In the immediate future, the Panama Canal's infrastructure upgrade will help to make shipping more efficient upon its scheduled completion this month. The main advantage is the canal's new capacity to handle mega-container ships, with capacities of 6,000 to 13,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) and carrying loads up to 12,600 containers.

Spend Matters — Companies are increasingly embedding sustainability resources into their supply chain organizations. The latest State of the Profession  report from GreenBiz, which examines how the role of sustainability executives has evolved over the years, shows a growth in supply chain sustainability efforts.

The Wall Street Journal — At a shopping mall here one recent Friday, six-year-old Ruby Dowling made friends with a friendly egg-shaped robot. Her sister Layla, five, even patted the robot on its glossy white tummy. "This robot is nice," said Ruby, as a group of children encircled it. It wasn't surprising that the bot, named K5, inspired this response-it had been designed to look approachable.

Industryweek — For third-party logistics, 2015 was a year dominated by mergers and acquisitions, ample carrier capacity, and sagging fuel prices. Overall gross revenues had a muted 2.2% increase, primarily due to reduced fuel prices in 2015 versus 2014 and the resulting reduction in fuel surcharge revenue for non-asset domestic and international transportation managers.

MHI’s new Career Forum  enables manufacturing and supply chain professionals to view current job postings of MHI member companies. Go to http://www.mhi.org/careers to find the perfect opportunity for you.

Ebnonline — Technology and processes are the one-two punch needed to take a disorganized dumpy warehouse into its full potential. Workers need to be disciplined about doing things just right. Technology and processes are the one-two punch needed to take a disorganized dumpy warehouse into its full potential. Workers need to be disciplined about doing things just right. Are you a passionate supply chain professional?

Industryweek — Despite the economic slowdown in the industrial sector over the past year, the incidence of actual and planned automation investment is very high in American manufacturing, according to a new report from the MAPI Foundation. The survey findings show that the high incidence of automation investment spans various company sizes and manufacturing subsectors.

The Wall Street Journal — Transportation companies are bracing for a difficult stretch as freight volumes have stagnated heading into what is normally the industry's peak season. 



Omaha, Neb.-based Werner Enterprises Inc. said Monday it expects earnings per diluted share to be between 21 cents and 25 cents for the quarter ending June 30, or roughly half its earnings from the same period a year earlier.