PROMAT

Material Handling Industry

Latest Updates On MODEX
WOW! That sums up ProMat 2019 perfectly. From, WOW, those attendance numbers were incredibly record-breaking to, WOW, that was one show worth its weight in gold. Attendance numbers were upwards of 45,000, exhibitor numbers were tallied at more than 1,000 and the number of networking opportunites -- priceless and off the charts.  

If you missed ProMat 2019 or just want to see some of the daily coverage we offered, check out the ProMat 2019 enewsletter archive. Or, scroll down to see some of our top articles, as well as some coverage of ProMat 2019 from other sources.
 
  
MODEX 2020 will be March 9-12 at the Georgia World Congress Center and will attract more than 30,000 manufacturing and supply chain professionals from more than 140 countries. Plus, over 80% of MODEX attendees attend no other industry trade events — 86% have buying power and more than 34% are planning to spend over $1,000,000. Start making your plans now!
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Two years from now when ProMat returns to Chicago's McCormick Center, there will be a new solutions center. Called the Robotics and Automation Solution Center, it will be located in the North Hall  and will address everything from AS/RS and G2P to AGVs and AGCs to autonomous mobile robots and articulated robotic arms. To learn more about this exciting new addition to ProMat 2021 and to be added to the list to receive updates as they are finalized, visit promatshow.com/robotics.
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“Each year the show has grown and each year OPEX has achieved its goals in attending. Leads and digital impressions have improved in both quality and quantity. People are looking for solutions and everybody is looking for something better. I love the conversations we have.” — Tim Osman, Director of Marketing, OPEX Corporation


 “We were thrilled to showcase two newly released warehouse scale products at ProMat to the record-breaking sellout crowd. Traffic was great and interest in our solutions was high.” — Greg Bredahl, OEM Sales Manager, Product Inspection, Thermo Fisher Scientific 


“Being named as an Innovation Award finalist was great recognition for our team, who have been working so hard to bring autonomous robotic piece-picking to bear on real-world problems. Winning our category from among the various innovations that were under consideration was both gratifying and humbling. We appreciate MHI’s efforts to highlight innovation and to create a culture of shared achievement across the industry.”— Leif Jentoft, Co-Founder, RightHand Robotics 


“Thank you to MHI and the full team who made ProMat 2019 possible. The Seegrid team had a fantastic experience connecting with many of our valued customers, talking with thousands of prospective customers about their material flow challenges and, most importantly, seeing current customers talking with our prospective customers about their experiences with Seegrid. The Seegrid booth showcased the new Raymond Courier 3030 Automated Stacker that we launched as part of our strategic partnership with Raymond just this week. The 3030 Stacker combines Seegrid’s expertise in automation with Raymond’s end-to-end warehouse solutions and lift truck proficiency. Visitors to the Seegrid booth also learned about Seegrid’s production mile odometer. Seegrid vision guided vehicles have logged nearly 2 million infrastructure-free production miles. We are extremely proud of our odometer, and even more so given every mile is accident-free. Seegrid looks forward to sharing our latest innovations next year at MODEX 2020!” — Jeff Christensen, VP of Product, Seegrid 


“We were here to demonstrate we have a value proposition from end to end. We exceeded our expectations for collecting leads. Very good discussions.” — Mark R. Cohen, Americas Vice President, Datalogic 


“We were pleasantly surprised (by how busy it was). Sometimes it was five-six people deep around our booth. Tuesday, we were busy all day; we were slammed! We love this show.” — Richard Kat, Engineered Lifting Systems and Equipment, Inc. 


“We talked to a lot of engineers. The show was busy. We were busy! There was a good steady flow of people. We also participated in Student Days and we’ve had a bunch of students come back to visit with us.” — Elizabeth Dempsey, Marketing Supervisor, DMW&H 


“While we haven’t had a chance to fully analyze all ProMAT results yet, it’s clear that this year’s event was another success, with strong footfall on our booth from day one. As a provider of reliable IT hardware and services to the logistics and warehousing sector, ProMAT is a key event on our US trade show calendar and an ideal platform to connect with both existing customers and new prospects. We also see it as a great place to learn about new market developments and stay tuned to evolving customer challenges. This year we saw a lot of interest in our added service offering as customers are looking for ways to increase their efficiency." — Matt Meersman, VP Sales, JLT Mobile Computers, Inc.


“Where else can our company meet with customers, prospects, partners, media, analysts and suppliers all in the space of four days in one busy swirl of material handling and automation conversations? ProMat is the place to be – and we’re grateful to MHI for helping promote our business and others across the industry.” — Vince Martinelli, Head of Product, RightHand Robotics


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Best of MODEX Daily
  

This first gathering of minds at ProMat 2019 was opened by Brett Wood, President of MHI and President & CEO at Toyota Material Handling North America, who set the stage for Harvard Business School’s  Karim R. Lakhani  with his introduction:  “They always say surround yourself with smart people. I am going to be standing next to one in a few minutes!” Lakhani started his presentation with a call for audience participation. It seemed fitting, as it is many of the attendees who will also have to actively participate in the implementation of the presentation’s topic for it to work: blockchain. Lakhani’s asked the audience if they thought blockchain would impact their companies or businesses in the next five year, 10 years or never.

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“I am not a coder.” Not exactly the first thing you’d have expected to hear keynote Reshma Saujani— founder and CEO of Girls Who Code—say when she stepped on stage for her presentation Tuesday morning. She also admitted to crashing as a lawyer (“I just quit.”) and failing in her run for Congress (“Best 10 months of my life, but I was broke, humiliated… and had no contingency plan.”). Hmmm… still wondering where this is leading and how it will connect to Saujani achieving her lifelong goal of wanting to “change the world and give back to this nation that saved my parents’ life (who came as refugees to the United States in 1973).”  How did a “non-coder” make coding cool – and accessible – for girls? It started with a simple step...
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Every year, the MHI Annual Industry Report reveals some interesting and even surprising results. This year’s report – the sixth in the series – lived up that expectation. The 2019 survey results and the digital and printed versions of the report were released Wednesday morning during a session moderated by Scott Sopher, Principal with Deloitte Consulting LLP’s Supply Chain practice, and George W. Prest, CEO of MHI. “The most surprising data point we had in the survey: planned investment,” said Sopher. The survey, titled MHI 2019 Annual Industry Report—Elevating Supply Chain Digital Consciousness, revealed that after a trend of declining investment from 2015 to 2018, the 2019 numbers show a 95% increase in projected spending. That was just one of the WOW moments presented in the survey results.

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Invisible? Maybe. Memorable? Absolutely.

Marcus Lemonis’s keynote presentation had just about everyone wondering what was going on when he started out with the question, “What’s it feel like to be invisible?”--and the stage was completely empty.  “It is not a magic trick, it is how you feel,” he explained. This very memorable opening was indicative of how the rest of his presentation would progress. “Down to earth and 100% brutally honest,” as shared by MHI President Brett Wood during his introduction, was spot on.
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The 2019 MHI Innovation Award winners were revealed during Industry Night. More than 108 submissions were received this year! The four finalists in each category were announced prior to the opening of the show, but the winners of the most innovative products in each category were not revealed until Wednesday night.


Best Innovation of an Existing Product—RightHand Robotics: RightPick, The Piece Picking Solution
Best IT Innovation—KNAPP, Inc.: redPILOT
Best New Innovation—CMC srl: Pick2Pack

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Prior to Craig Ferguson taking the stage, a few well-deserved awards were given out at Industry Night:

Young Professional Award (YPN)
Rosales Brown, Rasco Industries Inc. 

Outstanding Young Professionals Award
Ben Moyer, Hytol Conveyor Co.

Trip of a Lifetime
Elizabeth Buza, Raymond Corp.

Trip of a Lifetime #2?
Also,it was shared that this is the last MHI show for Tom Carbott, MHI Senior Vice President - Exhibition. "He is the ultimate professional and has done an absolutely incredible job," said Prest. As a token of appeciation for his 27 years with MHI, Tom was also awarded a Trip of a Lifetime.

As for the Craig Ferguson show...
Suffice it to say, Craig had the audience rolling in his "coveted 6 o'clock in the evening spot" with corporate America. A Scottish-American actor and comedian, Craig is best known as the host of the CBS late-night talk show, The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. But, after spending an hour with the ProMat crowd, he might be remembered as the RightHand Robotics jokester who doesn't cuss. "No cussin’, I wasn’t cussin!...I’ll say fudge, but you’ll know what I mean." And you might want to watch your tweets about "hola, amiga," too. If you were there, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about!

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MODEX Insights
Modern Materials Handling—While it appeared attendees were anxious to learn about new solutions, are they really ready to invest? The simple answer is yes
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Material Handling & Logistics—Blockchain could develop into a transformative technology for the supply chain, but it will take time to fully mature.
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TheRoboReport—There were many commercial robots at Automate and ProMat 2019, but which ones stood out? The Robot Report culled the following observations from discussions with engineers, supplier, and analysts at Automate/ProMat.
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Supply Chain Dive—In the annual MHI Industry Report, which was released at ProMat 2019, the numbers reveal that supply chain professionals who say they're currently using predictive analytics at their company has grown a lot.
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Logistics Management—Blockchain is already here and growing for supply chains, but it will take time for its full potential to take shape, presenters at Monday keynote said, including Karim R. Lakhani of Harvard Business School, who led off the session with insights on blockchain, followed by a panel discussion.
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Robotics Business Review—Navigation improvements and software updates help mobile robots improve productivity in warehouses.
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TheRoboReport—There were many commercial robots at Automate and ProMat 2019, but which ones stood out? The Robot Report culled the following observations from discussions with engineers, supplier, and analysts at Automate/ProMat.
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Material Handling & Logistics—Computing is where the jobs are, said ProMat 2019keynote speaker Reshma Saujani, CEO of  Girls Who Code, and where they will be in the future, but fewer than 1 in 5 computer science graduates are women.
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Modern Materials Handling—Despite deep cultural hurdles that make it difficult to close the gender gap in technology professions, progress is being made in encouraging more women to enter tech careers, Reshma Saujani, founder and CEO of Girls Who Code, said at her keynote presentation at ProMat 2019.
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Supply Chain Dive—The average warehouse worker spends only 20% of his or her shift performing the activity that generates revenue for a business: picking. The remaining 80% is spent walking in the warehouse, Karen Leavitt, the CMO at Locus Robotics, said at ProMat 2019.
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Modern Materials Handling—With a record number of exhibitors and attendees seen at ProMat 2019, MHI anticipates more of the same at Modex 2020—the industry’s premier supply chain event.
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Supply Chain Digest—The advances being made in robotics of all sorts for distribution are incredible, and this was viewable first-hand at ProMat 2019.
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Logistics Viewpoints—There were some companies making big splashes at ProMat 2019 and some were the “elephant in the room.” Here is a sampling of some of the exhibits at the show.
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