At the Modex exhibition and conference in Atlanta, attendees can get up close and personal with sizzling new technology, equipment, and services for the supply chain.
Susan Lacefield has been working for supply chain publications since 1999. Before joining DC VELOCITY, she was an associate editor for Supply Chain Management Review and wrote for Logistics Management magazine. She holds a master's degree in English.
Thinking of distribution centers as dimly lit caverns full of boxes, pallets, and racks is so 20th century. Nowadays, they are hot spots of technological innovation. Think about it: Conveyors as smart as fifth graders. Customized packaging material made on the spot. Lift trucks that can dance. Drones that can track your trailers from the sky. Glasses that can tell you what and how much to pick.
Need to keep pace with the latest and greatest technological innovations? The Modex Show organized by MHI (formerly the Material Handling Industry of America) can help. One of the largest expositions for supply chain solutions in the Americas, Modex will be showcasing products and services from more than 850 exhibitors at Atlanta's Georgia World Congress Center from April 4-7.
The exhibits will cover the following categories of technologies, equipment, and services:
Material handling equipment and systems, which includes a broad range of products from the highly complex (like automated storage and retrieval systems and automated guided vehicle systems) to the elegantly simple (like casters, racks, and shelves).
Packaging, containers, and shipping equipment, which encompasses not just pallets, containers, and shrink wrap but also packaging machinery, equipment designed for the inspection of products by weight or scanning, and palletizers.
Inventory management and controlling technologies, which includes computers, controllers, and software programs as well as systems integrators.
Dock and warehouse equipment and supplies, such as dock levelers, pads, and doors; flooring; hoists; cranes; monorails; and below/hook lifting devices.
Consultants and distribution system planners, including simulators, modelers, and third-party logistics service providers.
Automatic identification equipment and systems, such as bar-code printers and scanners, radio-frequency identification (RFID) systems, vision systems, and voice recognition systems.
Supply chain management, which serves as a catch-all category for such products and services as alternative fuel systems, parcel management and distribution, reverse logistics, and inventory security services.
INNOVATION CENTRAL
Innovation will be found not just on the show floor but also throughout the extensive educational conference that runs concurrently with the show. The conference's four keynote addresses, for example, will emphasize the themes of change and transformation.
On Monday, April 4, Peter Diamandis, chairman and CEO of the Xprize Foundation, will deliver the opening keynote address on "How to Create a Culture of Innovation Within Your Company." According to Diamandis, companies that are characterized by traditional thinking, risk-aversion, and "incrementalism" are unable to cope with the changes brought by disruptive innovation. To survive, these companies need to find ways to recognize and reward innovative thinking and breakthroughs.
The following day, Jack Allen, senior director, logistics and manufacturing solutions, supply chain operations at Cisco, will deliver a talk on "The Connected Supply Chain." Allen will argue that next-generation supply chains will be connected and encompass all the factories, warehouses, DCs, logistics partners, suppliers, and design partners in one integrated system. He will examine the role of the Internet of Things (IoT) in creating this connected supply chain and share his insights on a "maturity curve" that companies follow as they connect nodes and systems across their supply chain.
On Wednesday, April 6, Scott Sopher, a principal with Deloitte Consulting LLP and national leader of the firm's Supply Chain practice, and George W. Prest, MHI's CEO, will present the "2016 Annual Industry Report." The presentation will focus on today's current supply chain realities and eight technologies that are transforming supply chains. After the presentation, the speakers will moderate a panel of manufacturing and supply chain leaders who will discuss the report's findings.
Later that day, Kevin O'Leary, star of two hit TV shows on entrepreneurship, will present "Lessons From a Dragon." O'Leary will offer a behind-the-scenes look at "Dragons' Den" and its American adaptation, "Shark Tank." Using entertaining and insightful outtakes from his shows, O'Leary will share his insights into how the industry is performing, where the innovation is coming from, and how to grow your business.
In addition to the four main sessions focusing on top-level strategic issues, the show will offer more than 100 seminars on a broad array of manufacturing, distribution, and supply chain topics, including trends, best practices, and the latest developments in equipment and technology for manufacturing, distribution, logistics, and supply chain management. These seminars will be presented in theaters located right on the show floor. This format allows attendees to learn about various manufacturing, distribution, and supply chain solutions in the educational sessions and then actually see the equipment, systems, and services that can implement those solutions.
Modex 2016 will also feature a Supply Chain Education Summit that includes a variety of co-located educational events presented by more than 30 associations and universities, such as the Reusable Packaging Association, the National Center for Supply Chain Technology Education, Cranfield University, and Virginia Tech. There will be a special track on the "New Generation Supply Chain Workforce," which will look at how the supply chain industry can attract workers from demographic groups that historically haven't been heavily represented in its work force.
Modex will also reach beyond the confines of the convention center to offer supply chain-focused tours of the following Atlanta-area facilities: Toto's distribution center, Kia Motors' assembly plant, PartnerTech/Scanfil's contract manufacturing facility, and the Hartsfield-Jackson aircargo facility.
Pre-registration for Modex 2016 is free online by visiting www.Modexshow.com. There is no charge to attend the exhibits, show-floor educational sessions, or Supply Chain Education Summit seminars. The website also offers exhibitor search tools, floor plans, a complete list of educational sessions, and information about travel and accommodations.
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 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.
Serious inland flooding and widespread power outages are likely to sweep across Florida and other Southeast states in coming days with the arrival of Hurricane Helene, which is now predicted to make landfall Thursday evening along Florida’s northwest coast as a major hurricane, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
While the most catastrophic landfall impact is expected in the sparsely-population Big Bend area of Florida, it’s not only sea-front cities that are at risk. Since Helene is an “unusually large storm,” its flooding, rainfall, and high winds won’t be limited only to the Gulf Coast, but are expected to travel hundreds of miles inland, the weather service said. Heavy rainfall is expected to begin in the region even before the storm comes ashore, and the wet conditions will continue to move northward into the southern Appalachians region through Friday, dumping storm total rainfall amounts of up to 18 inches. Specifically, the major flood risk includes the urban areas around Tallahassee, metro Atlanta, and western North Carolina.
In addition to its human toll, the storm could exert serious business impacts, according to the supply chain mapping and monitoring firm Resilinc. Those will be largely triggered by significant flooding, which could halt oil operations, force mandatory evacuations, restrict ports, and disrupt air traffic.
While the storm’s track is currently forecast to miss the critical ports of Miami and New Orleans, it could still hurt operations throughout the Southeast agricultural belt, which produces products like soybeans, cotton, peanuts, corn, and tobacco, according to Everstream Analytics.
That widespread footprint could also hinder supply chain and logistics flows along stretches of interstate highways I-10 and I-75 and on regional rail lines operated by Norfolk Southern and CSX. And Hurricane Helene could also likely impact business operations by unleashing power outages, deep flooding, and wind damage in northern Florida portions of Georgia, Everstream Analytics said.
Before the storm had even touched Florida soil, recovery efforts were already being launched by humanitarian aid group the American Logistics Aid Network (ALAN). In a statement on Wednesday, the group said it is urging residents in the storm's path across the Southeast to heed evacuation notices and safety advisories, and reminding members of the logistics community that their post-storm help could be needed soon. The group will continue to update its Disaster Micro-Site with Hurricane Helene resources and with requests for donated logistics assistance, most of which will start arriving within 24 to 72 hours after the storm’s initial landfall, ALAN said.