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The North American forklift market shattered sales records last year, while technology in and around lift trucks helped push fleets to new levels of productivity and efficiency. Whether or not you adopted telematics, data collection technologies helped fleet managers control costs as the economy grew and business boomed. “We’ve talked about it for the past three years. The economy is…
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Business disruption, labor challenges and technological innovation have made an impact on everything inside the four walls in recent years. Organizations have adapted, invested and scraped for every operational efficiency, but one area has largely escaped this modernization. “We’re historically some of the most neglected folks in the industry,” says Tim Blohm, vice president of sales for dock equipment manufacturer…
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Modern warehouses, distribution centers and supply chains as a whole are all about connections: connected processes, connected workers, connected equipment, connected service and support. As the new currency of improvement, data is essential to identifying and building those connections. The modern lift truck, whether equipped with standard data ports or more sophisticated telematics systems, is joining the connected enterprise. According…
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The latest technologies offer powerful ways to boost speed and accuracy in warehousing and distribution facilities, but in the face of e-commerce, the Amazon effect and fierce competition, the most important metric is uptime. Instead of “only going to the doctor when something hurts,” connected equipment can ensure any unwelcome operational symptoms are treated promptly and efficiently. As the circulatory…
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Patterson Companies is a distributor of dental and animal health supplies serving customers across North America and the United Kingdom. To improve efficiency and accuracy in its 14 fulfillment centers, the company replaced its existing paper-based order picking system with a voice-directed technology. Patterson fills 25,000 orders each day, all of which are shipped on-demand. The company needed a solution…
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Of all the costs associated with operating a cold storage facility, lift trucks are among the slipperiest to pin down. A cold warehouse’s capacity, throughput and cooling expenses can be quantified, but that environment’s impact on lift trucks, batteries and productivity are more nebulous. To help identify some of the opportunities and dodge the pitfalls of cold storage applications, Modern…
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Based in Sterling Heights, Mich., Fitzpatrick Manufacturing is a CNC machine shop and custom manufacturer. Founded in 1952, the company supplies parts to more than a dozen sectors, including aerospace, automotive, medical equipment, and oil and gas. To increase operational efficiency and counterbalance a tight labor market, the company deployed a collaborative robot (cobot) that can work overnight to prepare…
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The challenges of refrigerated spaces are amplified versions of those faced by dry goods facilities. Associates are exposed to the harshest conditions in the materials handling industry. The cost of operating a refrigerated warehouse makes the hunt for efficiencies even more critical. And, the concept of product traceability is subject to the legal repercussions of an ever-stricter regulatory landscape. In…
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Last year, Modern’s Basics Series explored the functional areas of the warehouse, from receiving to picking and shipping. This year, our Equipment Basics series will focus on equipment segments, beginning with the dock, and followed by conveyors/sortation, automated storage and automatic guided vehicles. In each story, Modern and a group of industry experts will examine the fundamental equipment elements that…
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At an Assa Abloy plant in Bucharest, Romania, the skills gap is widening every year. In response, the factory’s management invested in robotics to automate simple tasks and move workers to value-added positions. This generated in-house robotics expertise that set an example for the whole Assa Abloy group. About 500 people work at the plant, assembling locks that are sent…
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Beyerdynamic is a German audio equipment leader that embarked one year ago on a plan to increase factory floor productivity by 50% on a four-year plan. This had to be done in the same production space, without compromising the brand’s quality standards. Using a series of collaborative robots, the company has already significantly boosted volume and quality. One of the…
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Osvald Jensen A/S is a Danish-based, family-owned manufacturing business with in-house production of worm gears marketed under its own brand. The company set about automating various manufacturing tasks to increase productivity, eliminate repetitive and strenuous duties, and lower the risk of errors. Since 2015, the company has used collaborative robots (cobots) to load and unload computer numeric control (CNC) machines.…
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Big Data, Industry 4.0, the Internet of Things, the Amazon Effect—no matter what your business is up against, it’s probably safe to say your warehousing and distribution operations do not look like they did five years ago. Start-ups have shaken up the solutions landscape with innovative software, hardware and go-to-market strategies. Established systems suppliers have made meaningful shifts in how…
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There’s an area outside Indianapolis where every building has ‘now hiring’ signs,” says Trinton Castetter, internal combustion product planning specialist for Toyota Material Handling U.S.A. “When we talk to customers in that area, everything is about the operator. It’s not enough to pay another 50 cents an hour, because you can always be beaten. That operator needs to be so…
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KNAPP
GENISOM AI makes ICRA debut at conference in Vienna
World's first omni-modal evaluation including tactile sensing for…
Ultrasonic sensing enhances robotics perception
Cybernetix Ventures’ event kicks off Robotics Tech Week 2026 slate of events
