Industry leaders discuss need for standards
Tri-Lateral Conference brings together leaders from the U.S., Europe, and Japan.
By Staff -- Modern Materials Handling, 12/1/1998
KYOTO, JAPAN-The 1998 Tri-Lateral Material Handling Logistics Conference in October assembled representatives of The Japan Institute of Logistics Systems (JILS), The Federation Europeenne de la Manutention (FEM), and The Material Handling Industry of America (MHIA).Coupled with consultants and senior management of materials handling companies from around the world, the group discussed, among other issues, the need for establishing international standards that will affect the efficiency of warehouses and the overall supply chain.
Junichi Murata, president of Murata Machinery, Ltd; Rudiger Franke, CEO of Mannesmann Dematic AG; and John M. Hill of Cypress Associates, presented a series of keynote addresses.
Murata addressed the transition to, and the importance of, user friendly automated warehouses.
"It will be necessary for us, the distribution equipment manufacturers, to configure systems based on the internationally unified standard," says Murata.
According to Tadashi Ohnishi, vice president, Daifuku Co., Ltd., only 20% of Japan uses a standardized pallet size.
Because of such findings, and the higher cost of distribution in Japan, successful warehousing operations will depend on the standardization of pallet sizes and form, bar codes, and computer communications networks and operations.
Rudiger Franke discussed materials handling standards applied to airport logistics. Because air cargo traffic is expected to triple in the next 20 years, Franke suggests that "the different shapes and nature of the individual baggage items set a high standard for an automated baggage handling system and identification techniques."
"In the future, automatic data capture suppliers will finally reach agreement on standards for controls, interfaces, and communications protocols that will simplify integration with other warehousing systems," predicts Hill.
Although electronic data interchange (EDI), quick response (QR), and efficient consumer response (ECR) were introduced 30, 20, and 10 years ago respectively, Hill suggests that "companies are stymied by their inability to articulate requirements and frame a plan for methodical, cost-effective integration of the physical infrastructure with the technology tools available."
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