MHI Blog — Last year at the MHI Annual Conference we celebrated the decades with a dance party and you asked for more. This year we've invited a band to help us create our own song and you will be part of it! Using the universal language of music, SongDivision will tie together MHI's event theme (Accelerating Change) and key objectives in an engaging and highly energetic experiential branding and entertainment program.

Bloomberg — The next time you order food using the delivery app Just Eat in London, don't be surprised if it's brought to your door by a small, six-wheeled robot.



London-listed Just Eat Plc. will join German retail chain Metro AG, logistics company Hermes Group, and U.K. food delivery startup Pronto Technology Ltd., in trialing delivery using self-driving robots. Starship Technologies, the company that makes the droids, said Wednesday that Just Eat and Pronto will be using the robots in London, while Metro and Hermes will deploy them in Dusseldorf, Germany, and Bern, Switzerland, as well as another undisclosed German city.

Forbes — Two weeks after the United Kingdom's surprise vote to bolt the European Union, impacts are nastier than I had expected. The UK economy looks ready to take a serious hit and, far worse, the political ground has turned to sand. Uncertainty is king now and nothing dampens investment plans like worry.



Dealing with uncertainty in the short run, especially in supply chain strategy terms, boils down to scenario modelling as an analytical basis for making bets on inventory, capacity and commodity prices. 

Industryweek — Manufacturers depend on information and analytics to help them deal with the complexity caused by global operations, value chains and market. Most recognize that there is tremendous opportunity to use, analyze and apply information all across the business. However, they need to do a better job capitalizing on the information that is and will become available to them and to embed intelligence in how they manage their operations and deliver products and services.

MHI Blog — MHI CTE is having its 9th Annual Educators Summit on July 11-15 in Fogelsville, PA. This highly interactive event is sponsored by MHI and hosted by the Lehigh Career and Technical Institute specifically for instructors, program directors, and associations in the area of material handling, logistics, and supply chain. 35 educators will be introduced to the latest instructional materials, teaching techniques, and partnership opportunities to advance their material handling, logistics, and supply chain programs. The targeted educators and administrators are from high schools, technical schools, community colleges, and other organizations with similar training programs.

Modern Materials Handling — Destination Maternity’s new facility brings together shuttles, mini-loads, a bomb-bay unit sorter and sophisticated software to drive a true omni-channel distribution environment.

Industryweek — The next time you order food using the delivery app Just Eat in London, don't be surprised if it's brought to your door by a small, six-wheeled robot. London-listed Just Eat Plc. will join German retail chain Metro AG, logistics company Hermes Group, and U.K. food delivery startup Pronto Technology Ltd., in trialing delivery using self-driving robots.

The ultimate goal of lean is to provide outstanding value to the customer through a flawless creation process that has zero waste. Companies that work toward these outcomes are more successful and competitive - so scrutinizing your processes using lean as a guide could mean substantial gains for your business.

 

CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE VIDEO.

Ebnonline — In the face of the changing dynamics along the global supply chain, the internal organization of companies is equally in a transformative period. As B2B supply chain relationships depend on deeper connections and automated data transfer points for improved operations and sourcing, for example, internal management and business processes must be viewed through a new lens.

Modern Materials Handling — ADC device technology continues to advance, but suppliers increasingly emphasize continuous monitoring and IoT-type sensing and analytic solutions as much as new hardware. The goal is better decision support as data capture evolves. It's accepted wisdom that what you do with the data you capture is just as important as capturing data accurately.

Supply Chain Management Review — How do Millennials in our profession think and act? What drives the successors of today's supply chain leaders? Supply Chain Management Review interviewed four up and coming 30-something managers from varied backgrounds and supply chain specializations to help answer these questions.

Retail Dive — Over the years, retailers have become very good at the supply chain-the process of getting goods from the manufacturing plant to the customer. But today, many retailers face a different challenge: taking those goods back, a process referred to as the "reverse supply chain."



Every year, 2 million tons (or 4 billion pounds) of retail returns are loaded into landfills, according to Environmental Capital Group, many of which are already brimming to capacity and contributing to environmental problems like groundwater contamination and greenhouse gas emissions.

MHL News — Amazon's search for a robot capable of advanced warehouse picking techniques is over. At the Amazon Picking Challenge, held in conjunction with Germany's Robocup in Leipiz, a robot designed by TU Delft Robotics Institute and Delft Robotics won the top prize of the best warehouse-working 'picker' machine.

Media Post — The Internet of Things is taking to the skies and many consumers seem to be OK with that. As commercial drone delivery gets closer to reality for online retail, consumers are warming up to it, based on a new study.



Retailers and drone delivery companies have been waiting for the FAA to allow commercial drone delivery, which is likely to happen by 2019. In the meantime, consumers are opening up to the idea of drones delivering their packages, according to the new study by Walker Sands.

Ebnonline — In the race to get consumers their orders at ever-increasing pace, shippers and retailers try to mitigate the financial impact. In the race to get consumers their orders at ever-increasing pace, shippers and retailers try to mitigate the financial impact. Finding the right person for the job requires more than simply posting a job opening. Supply chain recruiter Rodney Apple shares his insights.

MHL News — The 2016 Manufacturing & Logistics Report Card, conducted by Conexus Indiana for the Ball State University Center for Business and Economic Research, shows how each state ranks among its peers in several categories that are of particular interest to site selection experts for logistics.



To measure the health of the logistics industry, the researchers included total logistics industry income as a share of total state income, and the employment per capita. They also included commodity flows data by both rail and road. To this Conexus measures infrastructure spending as the per capita expenditure on highway construction. 

The Verge — Amazon has crowned the latest champion in its robotic picking challenge - an annual competition that looks for robots that could one day work in the company's warehouses. It's basically American Idol, but for robotic arms that can grab items off a shelf and put them back again. Competitors are asked to handle a range of products, from toiletries to clothes, and then scored on speed and accuracy in stocking shelves.

Ebnonline — This year, the number of connected devices will increase 30% above last year, according to Gartner’s predictions. That amounts to 6.4 billion connected things across the globe. That level of connection opens up a whole new world of possibility for greater efficiency in industry.

The Wall Street Journal — Shippers worldwide say they're bracing for delays at major ports starting Friday, when a new rule meant to improve safety on cargo ships kicks in.



The rule requires exporters in over 170 countries to report the weight of shipping containers before they're loaded onto vessels. The United Nations' International Maritime Organization, which regulates international shipping, says the rule will prevent accidents at ports and at sea caused by overloaded containers.

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.

Supply & Demand Chain Executive — The first step in achieving end-to-end synchronization often begins with the realization that modern supply chains have moved beyond enterprise resource planning (ERP). When ERP systems were designed decades ago, supply chains were much simpler and bound by the four walls of the enterprise. 



Now they are multi-enterprise, starting with consumers, retailers and distributors, and flow through an extended network of suppliers, contract manufacturers and other third parties. Managing the supply chain now means managing the end-to-end value chain, and requires visibility, planning, and execution across all trading partners.