Bastian Material Handling LLC (BMH) has acquired the assets of Van Pak Corp., located in St. Louis, Mo. The acquisition expands BMH's robotics, packaging automation and palletizing technologies for the food, beverage, pharmaceutical and consumer products industries.
Mike Blough has joined Borroughs Corp., the
Kalamazoo, Mich.-based manufacturer of storage and material handling products, in the newly created position of chief operating officer. Blough, who has extensive experience in the material handling business, came to Borroughs from Siemens Logistics and Assembly Systems Inc.
Connextions, a firm that provides integrated fulfillment, customer contact, kitting and technology outsourcing, has promoted Rob Panepinto to the position of president. Panepinto had previously been executive vice president for the Orlando, Fla.-based company.
Robert (Bob) Armstrong is joining Fort Erie, Ontario-based PBB Global Logistics as senior vice president, government affairs. Previously he had been head of the Canadian Association of Importers and Exporters and president of the Association of International Automobile Manufacturers of Canada. In addition to leading PBB's government affairs program, Armstrong will also work with PBB's Trade & Regulatory Services group, which consults with clients on trade compliance and supply chain security initiatives.
LeanLogistics, a provider of Web-native transportation management systems, has appointed Charles Eggerding as its new vice president of sales. He will oversee national and inside sales, pre-sales activities and staff. Previously he had served in sales management positions with Covisint, Corio and QAD.
Best Buy Co. has hired Daniel Currie as senior vice president, global supply chain. Currie comes to Best Buy with 35 years of experience in food retailing operations and supply chain management, most recently with Ahold USA.
Jeff Liesendahl has joined RedPrairie as chief financial officer. He brings 17 years of experience in finance, administration and operations in both public and private companies. He was most recently corporate controller for Orbitz, the Web travel site. In his new post with RedPrairie, he will oversee all global accounting practices and procedures for the supply chain technology firm.
P&O Nedlloyd, one of the world's largest logistics companies, has signed a lease for a 549,195-square-foot facility in the Chino South Business Park in Chino, Calif. The Class A industrial building, constructed by The Carson Companies, will support P&O Nedlloyd's expanding warehousing and distribution operations in Southern California. The 10-year lease, valued at $23 million, will bring the total amount of space P&O Nedlloyd occupies in the industrial park to more than 1.5 million square feet.
Dan Van Alstine has been promoted to senior vice president of sales at Schneider National. He will lead the transportation and logistics company's enterprise portfolio of services and strengthen the alignment between Schneider's sales channels and brand. Prior to this appointment, Van Alstine served as area vice president at Schneider's headquarters in Green Bay, Wis. He has been with the company since 1981. Schneider National has also announced that it will endow a transportation and logistics chair at Georgia Tech. Named to the Schneider National Chair in Transportation and Logistics for the School of Industrial and Systems Engineering is Chelsea (Chip) C. White III. Dr. White is also director of The Logistics Institute at Georgia Tech.
UPS has named Dave Barnes chief information officer and senior vice president. Barnes has been with UPS since 1977, when he started as a part-time package loader. He has since managed virtually all UPS technology initiatives that directly touch the customer. Barnes will also join the Management Committee for UPS, the executive group that oversees the day-to-day operations of the company, and he will chair the UPS Information Technology Governance Committee, which is responsible for the direction of UPS's technology investments.
D. Jon Berger is joining Timogen Systems as vice president of global sales. Berger will be responsible for the software company's sales and business alliances throughout the United States and Asia. Timogen Systems supplies automated supply chain resolution software for global manufacturing and distribution organizations.
Associated Material Handling Industries Inc. announces that Michael B. Romano has become the majority shareholder and president of the Illinois-based material handling solutions provider. Romano was formerly a principal partner and CEO of Abel-Womack Integrated Handling Solutions of Lawrence, Mass.
Supply chain planning (SCP) leaders working on transformation efforts are focused on two major high-impact technology trends, including composite AI and supply chain data governance, according to a study from Gartner, Inc.
"SCP leaders are in the process of developing transformation roadmaps that will prioritize delivering on advanced decision intelligence and automated decision making," Eva Dawkins, Director Analyst in Gartner’s Supply Chain practice, said in a release. "Composite AI, which is the combined application of different AI techniques to improve learning efficiency, will drive the optimization and automation of many planning activities at scale, while supply chain data governance is the foundational key for digital transformation.”
Their pursuit of those roadmaps is often complicated by frequent disruptions and the rapid pace of technological innovation. But Gartner says those leaders can accelerate the realized value of technology investments by facilitating a shift from IT-led to business-led digital leadership, with SCP leaders taking ownership of multidisciplinary teams to advance business operations, channels and products.
“A sound data governance strategy supports advanced technologies, such as composite AI, while also facilitating collaboration throughout the supply chain technology ecosystem,” said Dawkins. “Without attention to data governance, SCP leaders will likely struggle to achieve their expected ROI on key technology investments.”
The U.S. manufacturing sector has become an engine of new job creation over the past four years, thanks to a combination of federal incentives and mega-trends like nearshoring and the clean energy boom, according to the industrial real estate firm Savills.
While those manufacturing announcements have softened slightly from their 2022 high point, they remain historically elevated. And the sector’s growth outlook remains strong, regardless of the results of the November U.S. presidential election, the company said in its September “Savills Manufacturing Report.”
From 2021 to 2024, over 995,000 new U.S. manufacturing jobs were announced, with two thirds in advanced sectors like electric vehicles (EVs) and batteries, semiconductors, clean energy, and biomanufacturing. After peaking at 350,000 news jobs in 2022, the growth pace has slowed, with 2024 expected to see just over half that number.
But the ingredients are in place to sustain the hot temperature of American manufacturing expansion in 2025 and beyond, the company said. According to Savills, that’s because the U.S. manufacturing revival is fueled by $910 billion in federal incentives—including the Inflation Reduction Act, CHIPS and Science Act, and Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act—much of which has not yet been spent. Domestic production is also expected to be boosted by new tariffs, including a planned rise in semiconductor tariffs to 50% in 2025 and an increase in tariffs on Chinese EVs from 25% to 100%.
Certain geographical regions will see greater manufacturing growth than others, since just eight states account for 47% of new manufacturing jobs and over 6.3 billion square feet of industrial space, with 197 million more square feet under development. They are: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Ohio, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas, and Tennessee.
Across the border, Mexico’s manufacturing sector has also seen “revolutionary” growth driven by nearshoring strategies targeting U.S. markets and offering lower-cost labor, with a workforce that is now even cheaper than in China. Over the past four years, that country has launched 27 new plants, each creating over 500 jobs. Unlike the U.S. focus on tech manufacturing, Mexico focuses on traditional sectors such as automative parts, appliances, and consumer goods.
Looking at the future, the U.S. manufacturing sector’s growth outlook remains strong, regardless of the results of November’s presidential election, Savills said. That’s because both candidates favor protectionist trade policies, and since significant change to federal incentives would require a single party to control both the legislative and executive branches. Rather than relying on changes in political leadership, future growth of U.S. manufacturing now hinges on finding affordable, reliable power amid increasing competition between manufacturing sites and data centers, Savills said.
The British logistics robot vendor Dexory this week said it has raised $80 million in venture funding to support an expansion of its artificial intelligence (AI) powered features, grow its global team, and accelerate the deployment of its autonomous robots.
A “significant focus” continues to be on expanding across the U.S. market, where Dexory is live with customers in seven states and last month opened a U.S. headquarters in Nashville. The Series B will also enhance development and production facilities at its UK headquarters, the firm said.
The “series B” funding round was led by DTCP, with participation from Latitude Ventures, Wave-X and Bootstrap Europe, along with existing investors Atomico, Lakestar, Capnamic, and several angels from the logistics industry. With the close of the round, Dexory has now raised $120 million over the past three years.
Dexory says its product, DexoryView, provides real-time visibility across warehouses of any size through its autonomous mobile robots and AI. The rolling bots use sensor and image data and continuous data collection to perform rapid warehouse scans and create digital twins of warehouse spaces, allowing for optimized performance and future scenario simulations.
Originally announced in September, the move will allow Deutsche Bahn to “fully focus on restructuring the rail infrastructure in Germany and providing climate-friendly passenger and freight transport operations in Germany and Europe,” Werner Gatzer, Chairman of the DB Supervisory Board, said in a release.
For its purchase price, DSV gains an organization with around 72,700 employees at over 1,850 locations. The new owner says it plans to investment around one billion euros in coming years to promote additional growth in German operations. Together, DSV and Schenker will have a combined workforce of approximately 147,000 employees in more than 90 countries, earning pro forma revenue of approximately $43.3 billion (based on 2023 numbers), DSV said.
After removing that unit, Deutsche Bahn retains its core business called the “Systemverbund Bahn,” which includes passenger transport activities in Germany, rail freight activities, operational service units, and railroad infrastructure companies. The DB Group, headquartered in Berlin, employs around 340,000 people.
“We have set clear goals to structurally modernize Deutsche Bahn in the areas of infrastructure, operations and profitability and focus on the core business. The proceeds from the sale will significantly reduce DB’s debt and thus make an important contribution to the financial stability of the DB Group. At the same time, DB Schenker will gain a strong strategic owner in DSV,” Deutsche Bahn CEO Richard Lutz said in a release.
Transportation industry veteran Anne Reinke will become president & CEO of trade group the Intermodal Association of North America (IANA) at the end of the year, stepping into the position from her previous post leading third party logistics (3PL) trade group the Transportation Intermediaries Association (TIA), both organizations said today.
Meanwhile, TIA today announced that insider Christopher Burroughs would fill Reinke’s shoes as president & CEO. Burroughs has been with TIA for 13 years, most recently as its vice president of Government Affairs for the past six years, during which time he oversaw all legislative and regulatory efforts before Congress and the federal agencies.
Before her four years leading TIA, Reinke spent two years as Deputy Assistant Secretary with the U.S. Department of Transportation and 16 years with CSX Corporation.