This Month in Modern

In this issue, we learn that one of the world’s most innovative supply chain organizations believes the time is right for autonomous lift trucks; we offer our annual deep dive into the Top 20 lift truck suppliers; we roll out our annual reader survey that illustrates the state of lift truck usage and investment; and we learn that even an autonomous lift truck fleet is going to need some level of human oversight.

Once again we’re using July to fix the spotlight on technology and how important it is to now dive in and transform your operation to keep pace.

As we reported, readers told us they were geared up and ready to embrace more automation and robotics—and they were adding more budget to make it happen.

As we heard across the board, fulfillment pressures will continue in 2022, and flexibility and scalability will be more important than ever—putting a premium on the adoption of software, automated systems, robotics, mobile solutions and emerging next-generation technologies to build in new levels of resilience.

The economy has maintained strength, e-commerce is booming, and companies with distribution operations are struggling to keep up.

Modex will mark the first in-person materials handling trade show of its size since early March 2020.

While the stories this month delve into a few unique niches of materials handling, it’s fascinating to see that the current operations environment is the common denominator.

This month in Modern, we offer the second of back-to-back System Reports that take the temperature of where we are in the continuing tale of the application of robotics inside the warehouse/DC operations of small to mid-sized companies.

This month in Modern, two features take the temperature of where we are in the application of robotics in warehouse/DC operations. Executive editor Bob Trebilcock takes us inside Top Notch Distributors, a leading supplier of architectural door hardware

“We can now digest the data and grow from here.”

It’s now clear that one of silver linings of the past year is that the pandemic has hastened the adoption of the software and automation necessary to streamline operations to meet rising e-commerce demands—especially in the face of shrinking labor availability.

. Our editorial team designed sessions to help operations harness the tools available—automation, software, robotics, mobility, advanced technologies—to help manage through disruption and prepare for what comes next.

While Modern readers are feeling the strains that the astonishing growth of e-commerce have placed on operations, a summary of statistics recently shared with me by Ian Hobkirk, founder and managing director of Commonwealth Supply Chain Advisors, put that explosiveness into context.

As this level of accelerated innovation continues to evolve, we’re going to start seeing more System Reports like this month’s featuring Bergen Logistics , an operation benefiting from early robotics and automation investment.