Modex observations from Monday

Supply chain transformation. Software and pouch sorters. The Internet of Things. Innovation. And, sustainability. Those were the five topics that came up in my visits with suppliers on the floor yesterday. Let’s look at them one at a time.

1. Supply chain transformation: In recent years, MHI, the industry association that produces Modex, has embarked on a transformation from a materials handling association into a supply chain association. While from my perspective, Modex is still very much a materials handling show, I do believe our industry is finding its seat at the supply chain table. That came up in a conversation with J.J. Schambeau at enVista. We discussed one of her enVista’s clients, a retailer of sporting goods that replenishes its network of retail locations from one brand new distribution center in the Southeast – yes, a network of one. But the project, and the processes inside that one building, were the result of a supply chain transformation project that began with how the retailer collaborates with its suppliers in Asia followed by how inventory is allocated before it hits the water and a Panama Canal shipping strategy. After all of that work was done, the retailer designed a distribution center to enable its new strategy.

2. Software and pouch sorters: At Dematic’s press conference, CEO Ulf Henriksson and VP Jim Stollberg, gave an overview of Dematic’s global growth in the last year, driven to a large degree by one factor Henriksson attributed to all markets: Distribution is getting closer and closer to the mass markets it serves, driving the demand for a new level of software – hence, Dematic’s acquisition of WES software provider Reddwerks at the end of last year – and new levels of automation. While the backdrop for the press conference was a piece-picking robot capable of picking 1,200 pieces an hour from totes that were working in conjunction with a multi-shuttle, the technology that fascinates me the most was the pouch sorter. These allow for very dense buffering of unit level items, especially in verticals like apparel and jewelry, that can then be delivered in sequence to a packing station. I first saw a pouch sorter at Knapp’s booth at Modex two years ago and also saw a video of the technology in use in Europe at a visit to wrh last fall. I’m wondering if pouch sorters will be the next multi-shuttle.

3. The Internet of Things: If you’re a reporter, you love buzz words. Manufacturing 4.0. Big Data. And the Internet of Things, or IoT. You also wonder how you should cover these things. Yes, they’re the hottest buzzwords out there, but, is anyone really doing anything with these concepts and do they have anything to do with us? Remember the year that every solution provider from the lift truck companies to pooled pallets to casters and carts were all about RFID? I put that question to John Ashodian, a marketing manager at SICK. As a leading provider of sensors and data collection technologies, SICK is at the intersection of the movement of goods and the software that will use the data about the goods. They make the connectors for the Internet of Things. So, is the materials handling world abuzz with IoT, or are we a little over our skis? According to Ashodian, SICK is asking that question as well. The company, he said, has been building intelligence into its sensors and data collection products for years in anticipation of a world of connected devices. And, clearly there is a hunger for visibility and transparency, whether it’s into the processes inside the four walls of the warehouse or across the supply chain. But, at this point, “I’m not sure that customers are tapping into the data that’s available to them or implementing the systems that can take advantage of that data.” That is certainly the way I see it at this point as well.
4. Innovation: Innovation is another of those buzz words, one that I’ve come to think of as a new way to say: New product development. Still, continuous improvement of businesses and products is the only way a company continues to grow and thrive in this economy. So it’s no surprise that we continue to see innovation in our industry, even in surprising ways. I visited with Hue Schlegel at Wildeck yesterday, who showed us a new line of guard rail the company was coming out with along with features that were, hey, just better than in what they’d been doing before. Hue also had an innovative safety gate that the company had demonstrated last year at Promat. “You have to keep innovating,” Schlegel said, and it’s true even for industries we would think of as mature.

5. Sustainability: We don’t hear as much about sustainability today as we did before the recession. But, there are still companies for whom sustainability is a competitive differentiator. During a visit with AeroVironment, Director of Product Marketing Jonah Balin-Teeter talked about the solution his company had developed to measure the electricity used to charge electric lift truck fleets that had converted from fossil fuels and then calculate the impact on the company’s carbon footprint. In terms of day-to-day operations, the solution can also analyze the energy usage of the fleet and identify areas for improvement. The example he used was the discovery of a lift truck using no energy, meaning no one was operating it. When the company looked into the matter, it discovered that the lift truck operators had essentially mothballed the truck because it had the wrong type of forks – of course, they were paying a lease charge every month. They company replaced the forks and put the truck back into action.

I’m off now for Day 2.