In case you missed it, there's a great children's book called "Harold and the Purple Crayon." It starts out:

"One evening, after thinking it over for some time, Harold decided to go for a walk in the moonlight. There wasn't any moon, and Harold needed a moon for a walk in the moonlight. (The book's illustration shows Harold drawing a moon with his purple crayon.) And he needed something to walk on. He made a long straight path so he wouldn't get lost (again, using his purple crayon). And he set off on his walk, taking his big purple crayon with him." Throughout the rest of the book and into the ones that followed it, Harold didn't let much get in his way. Put that purple crayon into action, and, voilá, situation under control.

Quite frankly, we could all use a purple crayon these days. Unfortunately, there are some people who will never benefit from one because they don't think purple crayons exist. Then there are others who make it obvious that purple crayons not only exist but are in plentiful supply.

A perfect example of this is warehouse management systems (WMS). It's pretty obvious from its name that this software is only for the warehouse. Right? Wrong. That may have been the case some time ago, but it's no longer so. As the story (WMS - not just for warehousing anymore ) explains, WMS are showing up on the factory floor. In fact, companies as diverse as Hewlett-Packard and National Frozen Foods are using WMS to manage inventories in their manufacturing operations. Sounds to me like they have joined the Order of the Purple Crayon.

Then there's the story of Migros, Switzerland's largest grocer (Processing orders like clockwork ). The company has a simple goal—save $30 million annually in grocery distribution costs. No problem. The first step is to collapse 10 distribution centers into one that ships 350,000 cases each day to 853 destinations. Another member of the Order of the Purple Crayon.

Over at John Deere's Greenville, Tenn., plant (A tale of two factories ), throughput has increased by 140% with plans to kick it up another 65% quite soon. Just as interesting, Deere is making this happen with one of the most established materials handling technologies—power-and-free conveyor—when others might have overlooked it. Add Deere to the Order of the Purple Crayon.

And you should do the same for electronics distributor Avnet (Small parts specialists ) which handles more than 84,000 stockkeeping units in its Chandler, Ariz. distribution center. Better yet, Avnet has doubled throughput, increased accuracy to 99.9% and processes almost all orders same day.

But that's what those companies have done. Early next month it's your chance to put a purple crayon to work at ProMat 2003, the year's leading materials handling event (ProMat 2003 - Where it all comes together ). And if you see Harold at the show, let us know in booth 401. It would be great to meet him.