Late last June, Koerber Group announced its fostered entry into the U.S. market with the acquisition of DM Logic, a provider of WMS and logistics software and integration services. At the time, Stephan Seifert, CEO of the Group Executive Board of Koerber AG noted that “With DMLogic, we gain another experienced partner to advance our long-term internationalization and growth course.” When we interviewed Bob Kennedy, DM Logic’s vice president of business development, about the deal last July, he hinted that this was probably not the last acquisition, but without naming names. So, it wasn’t a complete surprise when Koerber announced…
Editor's note: This item originally ran on the website of Modern Materials Handling, LM's sister publication, last week. It’s Day Two at the Material Handling & Logistics Conference in Park City, Utah, an event I have been attending for close to 15 years (and, full disclosure, I was a member of the planning committee). My morning began with two conversations, one with Harry Moser, the founder and president of the Reshoring Initiative, and another with a supply chain executive from a leading retailer. I then had a chance to sit in on a presentation by Adrian Kumar, a vice president…
Clockspeed. If you’re not familiar with the term, it was coined by Charles Fine, an MIT professor, to define rapidly evolving industries – those with a fast clock speed that he likened to fruit flies that are born, mature and expire in a very short time. He argued that “in business today, all advantage is temporary. In order to survive-let alone thrive-companies must be able to anticipate and adapt to change, or face rapid, brutal extinction.“ Based on my week at Promat in Chicago, I’d argue that the clockspeed of our industry has been accelerating in an unprecedented fashion over…
How does the old saying go—“It’s all over but the shouting!” Earlier this month, the KION Group AG announced that it had successfully completed the acquisition of Dematic. In the announcement, Gordon Riske, CEO of KION Group, said it marked the dawn of a new era for his company, Dematic, and their combined companies. “The transaction brings together the world’s most profitable manufacturer of forklift trucks and warehouse technology with one of the largest and fastest-growing warehouse automation and software solution providers,” he added. You can read the complete press release here. When I think about the past year in…
At Whirlpool Corporation‘s 2.4-million-square-foot plant in Clyde, Ohio, a fleet of 54 blue robotic tuggers wind their way around the floor, automatically delivering parts every 20 to 30 minutes to some 24 drop-off locations on the assembly and sub-assembly lines. Operating in a three-shift, five-day-a-week operating environment, the mobile robots are a key component in the lean and continuous improvement philosophy in Clyde—billed as the world’s largest plant manufacturing top- and front-load washing machines. They are also an illustration of the company’s “smart automation” strategy, explains Jim Keppler, vice president of integrated supply chain and quality for the Benton Harbor,…
As one of the world’s largest manufacturers of cosmetics, skincare, hair care and hair coloring products, L’Oreal operates a number of different types of distribution centers, ranging from facilities that primarily handle full pallets to case and piece picking operations. Each has its own set of demands and approaches to order fulfillment. “What’s impacting our operations the most is the change in order profiles due to the rise of e-commerce,” says Erik Rodriguez, director of supply chain for L’Oreal Americas. “The sheer volume of orders has increased, but the lines per order has decreased. Additionally, there’s pressure from our retail…
They say necessity is the mother of invention. Both necessity and invention are currently on display at Quiet Logistics, a third-party provider of e-fulfillment services for familiar names in the premium branded fashion and apparel industry like Bonobos, Zara and Mack Weldon. Start with a walk through of a 300,000-square-foot distribution center near the Fort Devens Army Base in Devens, Mass. There, some 200 orange Kiva robots shuttle 5,000 shelving units from a storage area to picking stations where order selectors fill orders. As one of the early adopters of mobile robotics for e-commerce fulfillment, Quiet has been using Kiva…
Quiet Logistics; Devens, Mass. Size: 500,000 square feet in 2 DCs Products: Premium branded fashion and apparel Throughput: 55,000 units per day SKUs: 150,000 Employees: 350 Shifts per day/days per week: The facilities operate 24 hours a day, 6 days per week, using 3 staggered shifts per day In one of its two distribution centers in Devens, Mass., Quiet Logistics is launching a mobile robotics solution to enable zone picking for e-fulfillment. At present, the solution is up and running for one zone but will soon be expanded across the 200,000-square-foot facility. Receiving: Most items arrive at the facility on…
There’s been a lot of discussion around our magazine, as well as across the industry, about the future of materials handling. Following my trip to Atlanta for Modex 2016 earlier this month, I had a few thoughts to add as fodder to the discussion. The future of materials handling is ….. Materials handling. Anyone walking the floor couldn’t help but be impressed by the thousands who traveled to Atlanta to see what the industry has to offer. From what MHI is saying, 2017 will be the biggest Promat ever. In that regard, there has been a lot of talk about…
It’s April and the off year from Promat, which means I’m in Atlanta preparing to attend the Modex show that will open tomorrow morning. I flew in early today so that I’d have a chance to visit the show while exhibitors were putting the final touches on their booths. Based on a quick walk through, here are a topics I want to explore. Robotics: I just finished writing my third System Report in a row for Modern on robotics in the distribution center. Our industry is slow to abandon the tried and true for the new, so I don’t expect…
Disruption and innovation. They are two of the most commonly used words to describe business today, and they often go hand in hand. Established businesses worry that their tried-and-true business models will be the next to be disrupted by a start-up, just as Borders was done in by Amazon and the entertainment industry has been upended by the digitization of music, movies and television. At the same time, every business is wondering if some new technology might be the magic bullet that allows it to innovate and gain a competitive advantage. After all, it’s better to be the disrupter than…
The process of storing, retrieving and marrying up lenses and eyeglass frames in VSP Optics Group’s lab in Folsom, Calif., is elegant and deceptively simple. The solution brings together automated storage and robotics while warehouse execution software (WES) is the critical component that makes it all work. Step 1: The process begins when VSP receives an electronic order from an optometrist. All of the components for that order ride through the processes in a plastic work tray. The system generates a bar code label that is applied to the envelope that is used to store the lenses through various production…