First draft of U.S. Roadmap for Material Handling and Logistics available for review

Today, the first draft of the U.S. Roadmap for Material Handling & Logistics was released. Its purpose is to help the industry determine how material handling and logistics challenges can be turned into action plans to develop needed capabilities in the U.S. between now and 2025.

Published on www.MHLroadmap.org, the Roadmap’s report and action plan draft is open for review, comments and additional input from the public until Tuesday, October 15, 2013. Coordinating the review and comment process is Roadmap report editor Kevin Gue, Tim Cook Associate Professor of Industrial Engineering at Auburn University’s Samuel Ginn College of Engineering. He particularly looks forward to getting feedback and additional input from the industry in response to this first draft.

“Industry members should be interested because there are some contentious issues in the document, and we want every point of view represented,” says Gue. “For example, is there a future for large-scale standardization? Can privacy concerns be overcome to facilitate widespread collaboration of logistics operations and processes? The implications of these initiatives, should they really be pursued, are tremendous.”

The content of this initial draft is based on input from more than 100 thought leaders, including material handling and logistics practitioners, suppliers, academia, associations and government. They participated in one of four roundtable events held April through June 2013. Attendees contributed their thoughts regarding the capabilities that the industry needs to develop between now and 2025.

In addition to Gue, three other academics who specialize in the field of material handling and logistics participated in the development of the first draft. They include:
• Elif Akcali, Associate Professor of Industrial and Systems Engineering at the University of Florida
• Alan Erera, Associate Professor in the School of Industrial and Systems Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology
• William Ferrell, Professor and Associate Dean of the Department of Industrial Engineering at Clemson University

“The writing team was faced with capturing and expressing the opinions of more than 100 participants—no small feat! We really want feedback on the draft to make sure we’ve correctly represented the ‘collective mind’ of the industry,” adds Gue.

The U.S. Roadmap for Material Handling & Logistics is a collaborative industry effort, involving five association partners and eight publication partners. Association Partners:
• Center for Excellence in Logistics and Distribution (CELDi)
• College Industry Council on Material Handling Education (CICMHE)
• Material Handling Equipment Distributors Association (MHEDA)
• MHI
• Warehousing Education and Research Council (WERC)

Publication Partners:
• Modern Materials Handling
• Logistics Management
• Supply Chain Management Review
• Inbound Logistics
• Material Handling & Logistics
• Supply Chain Brain
• CSCMP’s Supply Chain Quarterly
• DC Velocity

MHI is providing administrative and financial support for the development of the Roadmap. For more information and to participate, visit www.MHLroadmap.org or email [email protected].