Company Briefings
A company briefing is a one-on-one conversation with an industry leader, analyst, consultant or vendor about the state of materials and information handling. It's a chance to have a candid conversation about the trends and direction of the marketplace today.
Automated materials handling: What do UPS and MillerCoors look for in a materials handling system
As part of my job, I get a chance to talk to some of the country’s best systems integrators and equipment manufacturers about what’s going on in the market and what their customers are looking for. Last weekend, I got to hear it straight from the horse’s mouth at the annual meeting of the Conveyor Equipment Manufacturers Association (CEMA) in Phoenix. There, two of the largest ...... Read More
Comments (0)Materials handling automation: What do conveyor users want?
Remember that movie “What Women Want?” It starred Mel Gibson as a guy who was suddenly given the ability to eavesdrop on what women were really thinking? I’m not that ambitious. Or foolish. But in preparation for the annual meeting of the Conveyor Equipment Manufacturers Association (CEMA) last weekend in Phoenix, Modern surveyed our readers to eavesdrop on what conveyor users ...... Read More
Comments (2)Materials handling automation: The conveyor industry is growing again
The conveyor industry is back on the mend, with members of the Conveyor Equipment Manufacturers Association (CEMA), expecting a return to growth in 2010. “We’re expecting CEMA members to report sales that are flat to up 2% for the year,” according to Dan Fannin, vice president of marketing for Emerson Power Transmission. Fannin expects the market to reach $6.2 billion this yea ...... Read More
Comments (0)It’s closing time and the check is here.
When I first got out of college, I waited tables at a nightclub back in Ohio with a pretty good kitchen and live acts. There was nothing we dreaded more than a wedding party showing up around midnight after the free bar at the reception was closed. Sure, they whooped it up and drank like fish. Problem was, no one ever thought to ask the price of a drink until you handed them the check. More than o ...... Read More
Comments (5)Top 20: SAP sees signs of a recovery in supply chain management software
SAP, number one on Modern’s 2009 Top 20 Supply Chain Management Software Suppliers, is seeing signs of a recovery. That was one of the most important takeaways from my conversation with Krish Mantripragada, SAP’s vice president of suite solution management, yesterday. “How much of a recovery and to what extent varies by company and industry,” Mantrigpragada told me. The ...... Read More
Comments (0)Green logistics: Let’s measure kilowatts by the case.
There’s been a lot of heated political discussion lately about whether climate change, global warming, the energy shortage or whatever else you want to call it is real. In some respects, it seems to come down to this: if you’re for energy conservation you’re a tree-hugging liberal; if you embrace the idea that we can drill our way to self-sufficiency you’re a knuckle-dr ...... Read More
Comments (0)Supply chain management: The suits are starting to get materials handling and logistics
Are materials handling and logistics finally getting a little love from those guys and gals in the executive suites with C’s after their names? If you look at Home Depot’s latest earnings report, you might think so. It’s one of the reasons I think it’s an exciting time to be in our industry, despite the recession. Here’s the deal. The other day, Home Depot report ...... Read More
Comments (0)Supply chain sustainability: Are CIO’s investing in sustainability
This week, I’m talking to the materials handling industry about green materials handling. I want to know how the industry is responding to the green movement, and whether our products can help our customers meet their sustainability goals. As part of that, I’m also interested in whether, for all the talk about going green, end users are actually asking about green materials handling. ...... Read More
Comments (1)Top 20: Technologies converge at Motorola
I just finished reading an article about print and apply labeling systems for our March issue by my colleague, Lorie Rogers. One of Lorie’s points was the importance of information handling to materials handling: to really be efficient these days, she wrote, everything in the supply chain has to be identified. After all, visibility is the Holy Grail of supply chain management. Few companies ...... Read More
Comments (0)Materials handling and sustainability: Lean, green packaging
It sounds counter-intuitive: Help your customers reduce their costs by using less of the product you sell them. But that is the approach Georgia-Pacific Packaging is taking to the market through its Innovation Institute. “Businesses are expecting sustainable packaging solutions today, and they come to us for help in developing them,” says Pat Smorch, GP’s director of sustainab ...... Read More
Comments (0)Top 20 Systems Suppliers: Dematic focuses on the four walls
Steven Spielberg used to say that the best movies could be summed up in 25 words or less. Take Jaws. Shark terrorizes town. Dematic, number 4 on Modern’s 2009 Top 20 Systems Supplier list, has come up with a 25-words or less phrase to define its business model and value add: Four walls and two windows. What does it mean? We asked Ken Ruehrdanz, warehousing & distribution market manager ...... Read More
Comments (1)Warehouse management software: The View on WMS from NextView
There’s a part of me that thinks you’d have to be crazy to launch a new WMS company in the last few years. Market growth has been stagnant and providers have been consolidating for the last ten years. Few know this as well as Bob Rosales, Tina Tran and Steve Simmerman, the team that was behind Sonica Software when it was sold to Swisslog in 2000. Yet, they’re back together at ...... Read More
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