60 Seconds with Bob Trebilcock, outgoing executive editor, Modern Materials Handling

Bob Trebilcock

Title: Outgoing executive editor, Modern Materials Handling

Location: Chicago

Experience: Covered materials handling, technology, logistics, and supply chain topics for nearly 40 years.

Modern: The vendors and the systems you write about have changed a lot these past 25 years. Is it just vendor names, or is there a fundamentally different technology stack out there today?

Trebilcock: On the one hand, the fundamentals of warehousing haven’t changed in the years I’ve been writing about this space. You still receive, putaway into storage, pick and pack and ship. And given that we see the best of the best, it’s sometimes easy to forget that the vast majority of facilities are still pretty conventional, relying on lift trucks, carts and manual picking.

But there have been some significant changes. In some instances, the names have changed because of mergers and acquisitions. But new players in the warehouse robotics space have brought new ways to solve old problems. The most significant advancements may not be mechanical, but in the evolution of the WMS, WCS and WES solutions that manage operations.

Modern: Talk about the Amazon influence. Good, bad or somewhere in between?

Trebilcock: I think the impact on retailers and the retail industry is for someone else to judge. If I just focus on the impact on our industry, the biggest impact has been how Amazon raised the bar on consumer expectations as a result of the promises it makes and delivers to its customers: Warehousing and distribution are the promise keepers.

Couple that with a labor shortage that has always been there, and our industry was challenged—forced—to look harder at automation than at any time in the past. I think those demands accelerated the adoption of conventional automation, like conveyor, sortation and even shuttle systems, and created an environment for robotics that might not otherwise have been there. In that sense, for the industry, it’s been a positive.

Modern: Has excellence in fulfillment operations become more strategic—more of a C-level focus—in your years watching the industry?

Trebilcock: Without question. The C-level has always been driven by sales, given that most CEOs come out of sales or finance. They knew they had warehouses, somewhere, but they were a cost of doing business and a necessary evil. Now, distribution is an enabler of their business strategy. Echoing what I said earlier, sales and marketing are the promise makers and we’re the promise keepers.

Modern:  What’s next for you?

Trebilcock: I’m chuckling a little. Given that I began planning my exit in November 2021, you’d think I’d have a master plan, but I don’t. My wife and I made some life changes like moving from New Hampshire where we’d spent our adult lives to Chicago to be near our daughter.

We’re having a ball learning the city and all that it has to offer. And I’ve been an amateur musician all my life. Knowing that this day was coming, I began taking music classes a few years ago so that I’d have something to turn to right away. Otherwise, after working since 1977, I want to take 6 months or so to just hang out and see what comes next.

Modern: Two quick choices: Fender or Gibson? Robotics or AI?

Trebilcock: I own a Fender, but I’m a Gibson guy. Robotics. I believe that AI will become a feature that drives products, like robotics, rather than a product of its own.