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Top Story
MHI Updates
The Warehousing Education & Research Council (WERC) recently announced the availability of the 2022 DC Measures report. DC Measures captures 36 key operational metrics for warehouse and distribution center operations. The metrics are grouped into five balanced sets—customer, financial, capacity/quality, employee and perfect order index metrics—plus the additional sets related to cash-to-cash cycle measurement.
   
The labor shortage is impacting every level of business, from the warehouse floor operator on up to the C-suite. The result is that organizations are embracing all types of technology to help improve warehouse labor productivity. From advanced software to robotics and everything in between, this progression has big advantages.
Technology and Innovation
A lot is happening and changing in mobile automation, with emerging technologies bringing even greater value to warehouse managers and new products coming to market. Just a few short years ago it was unique to see a mobile robot in a warehouse, but it’s not so unique anymore.
Of the hundreds of transformative, game changing technologies jam-packed across each and every aisle at MODEX, three supply chain and material handling solutions stood out among the 121 entries to MHI’s 10th Annual Innovation Awards competition. Top honors went to Phantom Auto for Best New Product, Ancra Systems BV for Best Innovation of an Existing Product and Veryable for Best IT Innovation. Learn their stories.
Storage is an ever-changing challenge and commodity in almost all industries. Cantilever shelving omits the front uprights, so the shelves are only attached at the back of the unit. This has various benefits including maximization of shelf and floor space, flexible configuration and increased worker safety.
Education & Professional Development
When MODEX 2022 overlapped with spring break week, a MODEX exhibitor engaged his son in their version of “Take Your Kid To Work Day: Tradeshow Edition.” MODEX was not only a first chance to see a big range of material handling equipment and technologies, but also it was the first ever tradeshow or exposition of any kind he had ever attended.
Supply Chain Trends
The effects of COVID-19 are palpable and front-of-mind for many in the industry: it has exacerbated the labor shortage, caused material and finished goods scarcity, shifted customer demands with increased e-commerce sales, and created general uncertainty. For many, making projections on sales and operational needs has been greatly complicated—it’s nearly impossible to know how long any of these impacts will last. That’s where automation and digital solutions step in.
From EaaS to PaaS and SaaS to XaaS and beyond, an alphabet soup representing an array of “as a service” providers have rapidly entered the supply chain vernacular at a speed so fast that even the most knowledgeable of industry insiders have, at times, been befuddled with the smattering of consonants and vowels preceding “aaS.”
Everything from dental floss and cookware to refrigerators and sofas can be bought online now. This has made pickers' jobs more physically demanding as they select items across a huge range of shapes, sizes and weights to fill orders. As the types of products handled by pickers have shifted, so too have the designs of ergonomic lift assist equipment and the end effectors they use to connect the lifting device to the load.
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