This Month in Modern Materials Handling September 2020: 75 years of inspiration

Tigers and the Chicago Cubs were winding up their seasons on the way to play in a World Series that would produce the “Curse of the Billy Goat.” And as World War II was coming to a close, Doris Day sang in front of Les Brown’s big band to perform “Sentimental Journey,” a tune that spent nine weeks at the top of the Billboard charts.

It was at that time that Norman Cahners launched The Palletizer, the precursor to Modern Materials Handling, a publication that was the catalyst to a B2B publishing empire that grew to include 90 titles, four of which we’ve continued to nurture and grow into the 21st Century here at Peerless Media.

Starting on page 22, contributing editor Gary Forger, who spent 23 years on the Modern editorial staff, offers us a terrific history of Modern through the years and reflects on the evolving composition of the materials handling equipment, technology and automation markets that the publication continues to invigorate and inspire.

“For me, Desert Storm was probably the most memorable story,” says Forger. “Bill Sbordon, the publisher who hired me, came to me one day in 1991 and said he had been reading about Gus Pagonis, the three-star general who led logistics to the Gulf for Desert Storm, and suggested I do the story.“

What followed was an odyssey that took Forger from Boston to the Pentagon to Fort Riley in Kansas. “The operation put bar codes, special lift trucks, pallets, specialized containers and more to work and moved 10.5 million tons of equipment and supplies to the Gulf in six months. A plane load of supplies landed in Saudia Arabia every 11 minutes and was perhaps the greatest materials handling achievement of the past 75 years.” The coverage also earned Forger and Modern a coveted Neal Award.

While the innovation that our military has put to work over the years is nothing short of impressive, I would venture a guess that Norm would be pleasantly amazed at some of the automation that his industry is employing in 2020.

The rise of autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) from emerging technologies to best practice in e-fulfillment at facilities handling pretty standard products in standard packaging is one evolutionary tale that executive editor Bob Trebilcock has been following over the last few years.

To date, Trebilcock has shared the success that DHL, GEODIS, Rakuten Super Logistics and UPS are exhibiting in their operations with AMRs. Starting on page 14, he takes us inside NorthShore Care Supply’s new 173,000-square-foot DC in Green Oak, Ill., which also puts AMRs to work—but with a subtle twist.

“Until recently, the most common application was e-commerce fulfillment in a 3PL facility. That’s almost commonplace,” says Trebilcock. “What struck me about NorthShore was how they adapted AMRs to move large carts that can handle up to a 700-pound payload because of the large size of the packages they handle.”

The other thing Trebilcock found interesting is how Northshore is using pallet flow rack on the floor for fast-moving items. “I’m sure this isn’t the first time that it’s been done, but it’s the first time I had seen it, and I thought it was pretty ingenious.”