Three takeaways from Day 1 at MH&LC

Yesterday was Day 1 of Dematic’s Material Handling & Logistics Conference in Park City, Utah. I was trying to think of a catchy opening sentence about all the cheap tricks I saw on display (Cheap Trick, the classic rock rock band was last night’s entertainment) or how other hotels are Bush league (the ex-president is tonight’s speaker) compared to the Canyons, but I came up empty. Or, maybe not.

After a day of listening to speakers and talking to solution providers last night before dinner, I came away with three quick takeaways.

Ignore global markets at your peril: Nick Vyas, director of the Center for Global Supply Chain Management at USC, told attendees that any company looking for growth rather than treading water in developed markets has to have a global strategy that includes its supply chain processes, such as distribution and transportation. Vyas had 5 great takeaways that I’ll write more about later. But one key was that you cannot operate in emerging markets without understanding the culture where you’re doing business. We have often talk about understanding the customer from the perspective of the types of products you offer. But Vyas pointed out that culture can impact the success of your supply chain as well. One example: McDonald’s received criticism in China about a filler it put in its hamburger meat. McDonald’s launched a new marketing plan touting local sourcing of its products; more importantly, Vyas said, it had to have a flexible and agile supply chain to get the new product into its distribution centers and then out to its stores.

Automation remains on a tear: I wrote yesterday about how our industry has far outstripped the national GDP over the past six years. Here’s a data point. Kurt Huelsman, a senior vice president of sales for Flexible Material Handling, a maker of flexible conveyor, pointed out that customers are replacing their conventional flexible conveyor with the company’s automated solutions - especially e-commerce customers. “Anyone doing e-comm is trying to bring down their costs to compete with Amazon,” Huelsman said. “Using automated conveyor for truck loading instead of manual conveyor speeds up that process. We keep preaching fluid trailer loading.” Similarly, I had a conversation with Kevin Franz, channel business manager for Vocollect Solutions, about how end users are extending voice beyond picking to other work flows in the DC.

Network security is becoming a big issue: If you’re like me, you hear Rockwell Automation and you think PLC. But at Rockwell’s booth, Business Developmentn manager Robert Weeks, was talking about the company’s network security services, including monitoring - think of it as ADT for your automation system. With the Internet of Things, he explained, we’re all putting IP addresses on the equipment on the floor. That also opens up our systems to people with bad intent. “Network security is something you’re going to hear us talking about a lot in the future,” Weeks said, adding that Rockwell is working with Cisco on secure switches for networks.

I could go on, but that would be Bush League. Or, a Cheap Trick.