Topic: This Month in Modern

By all reports, the majority of the U.S. leading economic indicators are pointing to a fairly robust year, as manufacturing is growing; consumer confidence continues to climb; and the National Retail Federation just projected 2018 retail sales to head up 3.8% to 4.4%, adding that e-commerce sales are projected to jump up 10% to 12% during the next 12 months.

Modern has maintained a heavy focus on the new processes, technology and automation that’s necessary to improve item-level picking and handling on the way to meeting today’s ever-finicky e-commerce service demands.

Find out the latest news on innovation in the Materials Handling industry for the month of October 2017.

In effort to beat the drum and continue to push the “packaging revolution” forward, Modern offers our 5th-annual Packaging Issue—a field guide you can slip in your bag if you’re attending PMMI’s Pack Expo Las Vegas (Sept. 25-27).

As executive editor Bob Trebilcock deftly points out in this month’s cover story, nearly every company—no matter what the industry—is looking to position itself as an “innovator.”

It’s a vast understatement to say that e-commerce has changed the way the supply chain game is played.

A wise supply chain consultant told me more than five years ago that “packaging was the final frontier of supply chain optimization.”

This month in Modern we offer the third in a series of three System Reports that examine the emergence of robotics in warehousing and distribution.

Welcome to Modern’s “Modex Show Issue,” by far the most comprehensive, pre-show listings available of the latest, most cutting edge equipment, systems and solutions that will be presented in Atlanta (April 4-7) by more than 800 exhibitors.

This month in Modern, we share a prime example of one of those “savvy, smaller operations” that’s packing a lot of automation into a compact space.

There is no one-size-fits-all answer to today’s challenges.

We’re living in a wonderful period of “realization,” where mangers are taking the time to examine exactly what they need in certain areas of an operation instead of throwing the kitchen sink at a problem and spending millions in the process.

The most overlooked opportunities for greater supply chain optimization are pallet and packaging design—something we set out to fix this month in our Annual Packaging Issue.

This month, Modern is proud to offer you the fifth installment of our annual Lift Truck Issue.

Working smarter through the appropriate application of technology has been a running theme in Modern over the last few years—so much in fact that we’ve dedicated one issue a year since 2012 to a deeper understanding of technology adoption levels as well as the role providers are playing in pushing the trends.

This month in Modern, we offer the latest installment of The Big Picture, one that illustrates how one of the savviest organizations in the world is taking a much-discussed theory and putting it into practice.

Manufacturers, retailers and third-party logistics organizations are investing massive amounts of effort and money—in a very short period of time—to ratchet up systems automation, install collaboration software and deploy mobile technology across the enterprise that can keep up with the pace of our new world.

To come back from ProMat 2015 and simply say the mood was “upbeat” would be an understatement of substantial proportions.

Considering that MHI is expecting more than 35,000 warehouse, distribution and logistics professionals at ProMat 2015 in Chicago this month, there’s a good chance that you’re reading this column while taking a break from walking the show floor—which just so happens to be the largest in the trade show’s 30-year history.