As business grew, inventory tracking was becoming a serious headache for The Window Outfitters. An Internet-enabled tracking/picking solution from Voodoo Robotics cleared things right up.
Ben Ames has spent 20 years as a journalist since starting out as a daily newspaper reporter in Pennsylvania in 1995. From 1999 forward, he has focused on business and technology reporting for a number of trade journals, beginning when he joined Design News and Modern Materials Handling magazines. Ames is author of the trail guide "Hiking Massachusetts" and is a graduate of the Columbia School of Journalism.
Dallas-based manufacturer The Window Outfitters (TWO) does a bustling business selling high-end window shutters for both residential and commercial buildings. In the decade since its founding, the company has expanded its product offerings from its original line of timber shutters into a full array of wood and aluminum window furnishings, which it sells to retailers, distributors, and contractors worldwide.
While that type of fast-paced growth is great for the bottom line, it can create problems elsewhere in the organization. That was the case at TWO's Dallas manufacturing/distribution site. As volume grew, the company found it increasingly difficult to keep tabs on materials and goods flowing through the facility, which made it tough to figure out how much to order from its suppliers
In essence, what the company needed was an end-to-end tracking system—one that would allow it to determine the exact status of inventory in its warehouse (what raw materials it had on hand) and on the manufacturing floor (how much was currently being used for work in progress) as well as monitor the status of orders (which ones were complete, which ones were still pending, and which ones had shipped). Above all, the company wanted a solution that would automatically gather and update that information, allowing it to instantly calculate, based on preproduction and postproduction orders in the pipeline, what and how much material to order.
In its search for the right software, TWO initially considered high-end material requirements planning (MRP) and enterprise resource planning (ERP) offerings as well as warehouse management systems (WMS). But in the end, it chose none of the above. Instead, the company went with the SKU-Keeper suite of products from Voodoo Robotics, a Plano, Texas-based warehouse automation specialist.
Designed as an IIOT (Industrial Internet of Things) solution for the warehouse, the SKU-Keeper system combines hardware and software to track inventory as it moves through a warehouse and/or manufacturing operation. Using wireless sensors integrated with a cloud-based inventory management system, the solution not only functions as an inventory tracking tool but also offers full pick-to-light capabilities.
"The system is both and neither an inventory management and a pick-to-light system," says Trevor Blumenau, founder and CEO of Voodoo Robotics. "It's a cloud display device that can supercharge an existing picking and packing operation."
SKU-Keeper tags, which are four- by two-inch battery-powered devices that resemble an old-fashioned pager. The tags, which are attached to inventory storage locations (anything from racks and shelves to shipping and receiving bays), keep track of the SKUs (stock-keeping units) at that location. Among other advantages, the solution is both flexible and scalable, allowing users to move tags from location to location as needed as well as add tags as business grows.
TWO implemented the project in phases. It initially installed 150 SKU-Keeper tags on its key inventory items—long aluminum extrusions—at the Texas warehouse. The tags, which were attached to the racks with industrial double-sided tape, keep track of the quantity of each extrusion as well as the color and type. Anyone can push the button on the tag to see exactly what extrusion is stored in that slot, making cycle counts easy.
Once it became comfortable with the system, TWO expanded access to the order pickers, enabling them to use their desktops, tablets, or smartphones to locate items for orders. For help finding a product or material, they simply click on the item on their device to activate its SKU-Keeper tag. The device lights up with the picker's name, the SKU, and the quantity to pick.
As for the cost, Voodoo offers the SKU-Keeper suite via a hardware-as-a-service (HaaS) model, leasing the tags at a nominal cost of about $5 per month. Customers can rent extra devices during peak periods and return them when activity subsides, paying only for what they need.
TWO executives say the new solution has accomplished exactly what they hoped it would do. "SKU-Keeper saves us tons of time every month when it's time to do cycle counts. For the most difficult items, all we have to do is push the button on the tag to verify the count," TWO Procurement Coordinator Kramer Bailey said in a statement. "Figuring out what to order from our suppliers is way easier now."
Nearly one-third of American consumers have increased their secondhand purchases in the past year, revealing a jump in “recommerce” according to a buyer survey from ShipStation, a provider of web-based shipping and order fulfillment solutions.
The number comes from a survey of 500 U.S. consumers showing that nearly one in four (23%) Americans lack confidence in making purchases over $200 in the next six months. Due to economic uncertainty, savvy shoppers are looking for ways to save money without sacrificing quality or style, the research found.
Younger shoppers are leading the charge in that trend, with 59% of Gen Z and 48% of Millennials buying pre-owned items weekly or monthly. That rate makes Gen Z nearly twice as likely to buy second hand compared to older generations.
The primary reason that shoppers say they have increased their recommerce habits is lower prices (74%), followed by the thrill of finding unique or rare items (38%) and getting higher quality for a lower price (28%). Only 14% of Americans cite environmental concerns as a primary reason they shop second-hand.
Despite the challenge of adjusting to the new pattern, recommerce represents a strategic opportunity for businesses to capture today’s budget-minded shoppers and foster long-term loyalty, Austin, Texas-based ShipStation said.
For example, retailers don’t have to sell used goods to capitalize on the secondhand boom. Instead, they can offer trade-in programs swapping discounts or store credit for shoppers’ old items. And they can improve product discoverability to help customers—particularly older generations—find what they’re looking for.
Other ways for retailers to connect with recommerce shoppers are to improve shipping practices. According to ShipStation:
70% of shoppers won’t return to a brand if shipping is too expensive.
51% of consumers are turned off by late deliveries
40% of shoppers won’t return to a retailer again if the packaging is bad.
The “CMA CGM Startup Awards”—created in collaboration with BFM Business and La Tribune—will identify the best innovations to accelerate its transformation, the French company said.
Specifically, the company will select the best startup among the applicants, with clear industry transformation objectives focused on environmental performance, competitiveness, and quality of life at work in each of the three areas:
Shipping: Enabling safer, more efficient, and sustainable navigation through innovative technological solutions.
Logistics: Reinventing the global supply chain with smart and sustainable logistics solutions.
Media: Transform content creation, and customer engagement with innovative media technologies and strategies.
Three winners will be selected during a final event organized on November 15 at the Orange Vélodrome Stadium in Marseille, during the 2nd Artificial Intelligence Marseille (AIM) forum organized by La Tribune and BFM Business. The selection will be made by a jury chaired by Rodolphe Saadé, Chairman and CEO of the Group, and including members of the executive committee representing the various sectors of CMA CGM.
The global air cargo market’s hot summer of double-digit demand growth continued in August with average spot rates showing their largest year-on-year jump with a 24% increase, according to the latest weekly analysis by Xeneta.
Xeneta cited two reasons to explain the increase. First, Global average air cargo spot rates reached $2.68 per kg in August due to continuing supply and demand imbalance. That came as August's global cargo supply grew at its slowest ratio in 2024 to-date at 2% year-on-year, while global cargo demand continued its double-digit growth, rising +11%.
The second reason for higher rates was an ocean-to-air shift in freight volumes due to Red Sea disruptions and e-commerce demand.
Those factors could soon be amplified as e-commerce shows continued strong growth approaching the hotly anticipated winter peak season. E-commerce and low-value goods exports from China in the first seven months of 2024 increased 30% year-on-year, including shipments to Europe and the US rising 38% and 30% growth respectively, Xeneta said.
“Typically, air cargo market performance in August tends to follow the July trend. But another month of double-digit demand growth and the strongest rate growths of the year means there was definitely no summer slack season in 2024,” Niall van de Wouw, Xeneta’s chief airfreight officer, said in a release.
“Rates we saw bottoming out in late July started picking up again in mid-August. This is too short a period to call a season. This has been a busy summer, and now we’re at the threshold of Q4, it will be interesting to see what will happen and if all the anticipation of a red-hot peak season materializes,” van de Wouw said.
The report cites data showing that there are approximately 1.7 million workers missing from the post-pandemic workforce and that 38% of small firms are unable to fill open positions. At the same time, the “skills gap” in the workforce is accelerating as automation and AI create significant shifts in how work is performed.
That information comes from the “2024 Labor Day Report” released by Littler’s Workplace Policy Institute (WPI), the firm’s government relations and public policy arm.
“We continue to see a labor shortage and an urgent need to upskill the current workforce to adapt to the new world of work,” said Michael Lotito, Littler shareholder and co-chair of WPI. “As corporate executives and business leaders look to the future, they are focused on realizing the many benefits of AI to streamline operations and guide strategic decision-making, while cultivating a talent pipeline that can support this growth.”
But while the need is clear, solutions may be complicated by public policy changes such as the upcoming U.S. general election and the proliferation of employment-related legislation at the state and local levels amid Congressional gridlock.
“We are heading into a contentious election that has already proven to be unpredictable and is poised to create even more uncertainty for employers, no matter the outcome,” Shannon Meade, WPI’s executive director, said in a release. “At the same time, the growing patchwork of state and local requirements across the U.S. is exacerbating compliance challenges for companies. That, coupled with looming changes following several Supreme Court decisions that have the potential to upend rulemaking, gives C-suite executives much to contend with in planning their workforce-related strategies.”
Stax Engineering, the venture-backed startup that provides smokestack emissions reduction services for maritime ships, will service all vessels from Toyota Motor North America Inc. visiting the Toyota Berth at the Port of Long Beach, according to a new five-year deal announced today.
Beginning in 2025 to coincide with new California Air Resources Board (CARB) standards, STAX will become the first and only emissions control provider to service roll-on/roll-off (ro-ros) vessels in the state of California, the company said.
Stax has rapidly grown since its launch in the first quarter of this year, supported in part by a $40 million funding round from investors, announced in July. It now holds exclusive service agreements at California ports including Los Angeles, Long Beach, Hueneme, Benicia, Richmond, and Oakland. The firm has also partnered with individual companies like NYK Line, Hyundai GLOVIS, Equilon Enterprises LLC d/b/a Shell Oil Products US (Shell), and now Toyota.
Stax says it offers an alternative to shore power with land- and barge-based, mobile emissions capture and control technology for shipping terminal and fleet operators without the need for retrofits.
In the case of this latest deal, the Toyota Long Beach Vehicle Distribution Center imports about 200,000 vehicles each year on ro-ro vessels. Stax will keep those ships green with its flexible exhaust capture system, which attaches to all vessel classes without modification to remove 99% of emitted particulate matter (PM) and 95% of emitted oxides of nitrogen (NOx). Over the lifetime of this new agreement with Toyota, Stax estimated the service will account for approximately 3,700 hours and more than 47 tons of emissions controlled.
“We set out to provide an emissions capture and control solution that was reliable, easily accessible, and cost-effective. As we begin to service Toyota, we’re confident that we can meet the needs of the full breadth of the maritime industry, furthering our impact on the local air quality, public health, and environment,” Mike Walker, CEO of Stax, said in a release. “Continuing to establish strong partnerships will help build momentum for and trust in our technology as we expand beyond the state of California.”