Tuesday, July 06, 2010

What can we learn from ten companies where Made In The USA still means something.

Friday, July 02, 2010

It's all about mobility and wireless in the supply chain, says VDC Research.

Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Imagine a series of 13,760 NiCad energy modules connected in series to create one big 5,000-VDC battery that provides 27 MW of AC current. Harold Vanasse uses this extreme example of battery management to illustrate the potential housed in every lift truck battery room in the U.S.

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

After a tough 2009, the market for mobile computing and wireless solutions is bouncing back, says VDC Research. Participate in a survey and have your voice heard.

Monday, June 28, 2010

Judging by market reports, there’s a huge downward trend in lift truck sales. But is Bruce Pelynio worried? Not a bit.

Friday, June 25, 2010

Robotic materials handling is coming to the warehouse and distribution center.

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

In past blogs and webcasts we’ve talked with lift truck market experts who believed that fleet managers would hang onto their underutilized trucks longer and put off purchasing new equipment. Fine. That will save money in the short run. But eventually you’ll have to buy a new truck.

Monday, June 21, 2010

Get ready for RFID in the cloud, says VDC's Drew Nathanson.

As you read this, Father’s Day is done. As I write this, that day is still alive and well. It’s Sunday afternoon, and my family and I just returned from a Father’s Day outing I won’t forget. In fact stepping into our home I had one thing on my mind: materials handlers.

Friday, June 18, 2010

Visualization - using graphical images on a screen - could be the next step forward in WMS technology, according to Tecsys and Next View Software.

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

A couple blogs ago, I reported how a $21,000 lift truck could easily cost a quarter-million-dollars when you factor in hours of operation, what you pay an operator, plus the cost of fuel, maintenance, and depreciation. Well, I have good news from our friends at the Environmental Protection Agency. With what you can save by applying the right regulations and the right statistics, you can get back those costs 20 times over. That’s like getting free forklifts!

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Modern spent the day with MVS Fulfillment, a New England 3PL, to see how small distributors are coping with the recession, off-shoring and customer service.

Monday, June 14, 2010

Order pickers are valued workers. That goes for the people as well as the lift trucks. How well their value is returned to their employers is another issue. Both have plenty to do during the course of a day, but the efficiency of their moves plays a big part in their value.

Friday, June 11, 2010

What's selling and what's not? The market for supply chain technologies like RFID, voice, TMS and WMS is a window into what's happening in the broader market for materials handling systems.

In an industry characterized by frequent model changes, product line consolidation and product reallocation between manufacturing facilities, a plant manager doesn’t want to be constrained by fixed production line processes. In fact, John Gardiner likes material handling to be as movable as possible.