Until recently, small to midsize distributors weren't expected to invest in high levels of automation, but changing customer expectations driven by e-commerce and improving technology capabilities have brought robotics within reach. Goods-to-person and robot-to-goods picking systems can now affordably deliver the same levels of service for business-to-business purchases as for business-to-consumer ones. One example is Top Notch Distributors Inc., which has deployed robots from 6 River Systems. Honesdale, Pa.-based Top Notch Distributors is a wholesale distributor of architectural door hardware to residential and commercial dealers. As recently as eight years ago, the company was operating without a warehouse management system…
How do you design a warehouse to support sales of €1 billion ($1.16 billion U.S.) per year? That warehouse will have to support multiple business channels, including regional business-to-business customers as well as a global distribution network. That was the question put to the logistics team at HARTING Technology Group in 2012. “After 20 years, the software running our existing European distribution center was unstable, and we needed more space and throughput capacity,” recalled Achim Meyer, managing director of logistics at HARTING Technology Group. The German company is the logistics arm of HARTING, one of the world’s largest suppliers of…
When Modern Materials Handling (a sibling site to Robotics 24/7) is interviewing companies for a “System Report,” one of the questions we always ask is: What were your goals for the project? After all, most distribution teams have a bulleted list of three or four high-level goals for a project or a new facility. Typically, they are along the lines of increase productivity without increasing headcount or improve order fulfillment times by 25%. Every now and then, we come across a company with a far-reaching vision for its operations that extends beyond pick and error rates. For instance, we covered…
The “2021 MHI Annual Industry Report,” conducted with Deloitte, opens with a quote from John Paxton, CEO of the Materials Handling Institute. “Supply chain resilience has never been more important,” he wrote. “Companies that made investments in digital technologies prior to the pandemic were more prepared and able to adapt, survive and even thrive during this disruption. They will also be ready when the next crisis inevitably hits.” Historically, when it came to the adoption of automation and emerging technologies, warehousing and distribution took a wait-and-see approach. For example, the automotive industry has been using robotics since General Motors installed…
In this episode of The Rebound, Dale Chrystie, blockchain strategist with FedEx, discusses the development of blockchain, and why this technology has the potential to transform supply chains. ASCM CEO Abe Eshkenazi and SCMR Editorial Director Bob Trebilcock are hosts. There are a lot of exciting new technologies in the supply chain management toolbox, everything from robotics to robotic process automation. The challenge for supply chain professionals in this new landscape is to identify which technology can transform a process and deliver real value for their organization. Blockchain is one of the technologies that practioners are still trying to make…
I live in a state whose motto is “Live Free or Die.” If the third-party logistics (3PL) industry had a motto these days, it might be “Innovate or Die.” “At NFI, we have followed the guidance ‘if you’re not growing, you’re dying,’” says Sid Brown, CEO. “Throughout each generation since our founding in 1932, we have been strategic and creative in how we grew. Today, innovation is essential in how we grow and enhance the value we bring to customers.” That is especially true of the e-fulfillment side of the industry, where shippers are counting on 3PLs to compete with…
Few would argue that robots, especially autonomous mobile robots (AMR), are moving from an emerging technology to another tool in the materials handling tool kit. That is especially true in the third-party logistics (3PL) industry, where Modern has featured AMR implementations at industry leaders like DHL, GEODIS, Rakuten Super Logistics and, in the July issue, UPS. Those articles highlighted some of the leading AMR solution providers that are now becoming household names, including Locus Robotics, inVia Robotics and 6 River Systems. While each of those providers brings different strengths and strategies to the table, what they share in common is…
From the start of the project, we declared that we wanted to build the best warehouse in the world.” So says Anders Eriksson, the supply chain director for Varner AS, one of Scandinavia’s largest retailers. Eriksson oversaw the design and implementation of a new 500,000-square-foot, omni-channel distribution center in Vänersborg, Sweden. “Of course, it’s impossible to know or measure if it is the best warehouse in the world,” he adds, “but it was important for us to challenge ourselves and our partner.” Did they succeed? As Eriksson notes, it’s tough to say. But the final design, developed in conjunction with…
NorthShore’s unique order and product profiles required an equally unique solution. In this case, autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) transport carts large enough to handle full carton picks. You can read the full feature article on NorthShore Care Supply AMRs Receiving About half of incoming product is received on pallets (1) from U.S. manufacturers. The other half is floor loaded in containers (2) shipped from Europe and Asia. At receiving, palletized product is unloaded by lift trucks. Cartons are manually unloaded onto telescoping conveyor and palletized in the receiving area. In both instances, the warehouse management system (WMS) generates license plate…
Few would argue that robots, especially autonomous mobile robots (AMR), are moving from an emerging technology to another tool in the materials handling tool kit. That is especially true in the third-party logistics (3PL) industry, where Modern has featured AMR implementations at industry leaders like DHL, GEODIS, Rakuten Super Logistics and, in the July issue, UPS. See a detailed inside look at the moving parts of the NorthShore Care distribution center. Those articles highlighted some of the leading AMR solution providers that are now becoming household names, including Locus Robotics, inVia Robotics and 6 River Systems. While each of those…
UPS Supply Chain Services Most of us know UPS from the brown trucks that deliver packages to our homes. One of the world’s largest parcel delivery services, UPS generated a total of $74 billion in revenue in 2019 and delivered more than 5.5 billion packages and documents. Perhaps less well-known is UPS’s Supply Chain Services, or SCS, a $13 billion division that handles everything from freight forwarding to e-commerce fulfillment services targeted at the small- to mid-sized (SMB) business community. As with most providers of third-party services, UPS’s e-commerce fulfillment operations are balancing growth and transformation to adapt to a…
In mid-April, Bloomberg reported that a dozen workers at a Ford plant in Plymouth, Mich., were “experimenting with wearable social distancing devices that could be deployed more widely once the carmaker reopens idled manufacturing plants.” The smartwatches, a joint effort between Samsung Electronics and Radiant RFID, use Bluetooth technology “to detect proximity and clustering of workers.” If two people are standing too close to one another, the watch vibrates and displays a color-coded, “danger Will Robinson” warning that tells them to break it up. Ford also announced that it expects to use thermal-imaging scanning technology as workers enter a facility…