What an interesting year it's been

By Gary R. Forger -- Modern Materials Handling, 12/1/2000

As we close in on the end of 2000, it's worth a few words to take a look back at where we've been in one short year.

Remember all those months ago when Y2K seemed like such a threat to our way of life? As it turned out, the actual passing of 1999 into 2000 was less of a problem than remembering to turn the clocks ahead in the spring.

With that under our belts, we marched right through dot com euphoria into their meltdown on Wall Street. Suddenly, profits (or at least the potential for profits) did matter to investors. The blast furnace rhetoric of the mightier-than-thou new economy finally got cooled by how the rest of world works. Funny how that happened. Who would have expected it?

If the truth be told, the future success of the dot coms as well as the click and mortar companies is the same today as it was when they first went on line. It's all about how they fill the orders. Do it well, and they're winners. Do it poorly, and they're out of business. It's really not a whole lot more complicated than that. Just ask retailers how important it is to have what people want in the store when they want it.

By mid-year, the materials handling industry was enjoying one of its best years ever. Coming off a very strong year, the exclusive MMH index of orders showed nearly a 14% increase during the first half of the year. And as the second half marched on, orders continued to be strong with early expectations for strength into 2001.

Meanwhile, industrial productivity just continues to improve, posting nice increases through the third quarter. And those gains are coming on top of what was a very strong year for industrial productivity.

And then there was the presidential election. Now I'm not going to get political on you here. But do think back to those pictures of Judge Robert Rosenberg in the Broward County counting room. If they had just used bar codes, his eyes would never have had to bug out of his head that far to read a dimpled or pregnant ballot.

One other thought here. I'm willing to bet the process would have been wrapped up a lot more quickly (and with far fewer challenges) with bar codes instead of punch cards. But considering the fact that some of the voting booths used in this country include parts that are 100 years old, bar codes are probably a bit too radical for some.

Which brings us to the end of the year and this December issue. As our cover story explains, Santa has his elves while the Sears WishBook has its third party logistics provider-Dart Warehouse. The story (Making holiday wishes come true ) is all about how Dart's new distribution center has gone to the next level to do exactly what I said the dot coms need to do.

To finish off what has been a most interesting year, we offer our Top Products review of the past 12 months. There was plenty going on across all types of materials handling hardware, software, and related information systems as you can see.

That should do it for us for 2000. Happy Holidays to all and to all a good night.