In Person Interview: Vincent Halma of SSI Schaefer
In our continuing series of discussions with top supply-chain company executives, Vincent Halma of SSI Schaefer discusses the effects of Covid-19 on the market and how automation will shape the future of facility design.
David Maloney has been a journalist for more than 35 years and is currently the group editorial director for DC Velocity and Supply Chain Quarterly magazines. In this role, he is responsible for the editorial content of both brands of Agile Business Media. Dave joined DC Velocity in April of 2004. Prior to that, he was a senior editor for Modern Materials Handling magazine. Dave also has extensive experience as a broadcast journalist. Before writing for supply chain publications, he was a journalist, television producer and director in Pittsburgh. Dave combines a background of reporting on logistics with his video production experience to bring new opportunities to DC Velocity readers, including web videos highlighting top distribution and logistics facilities, webcasts and other cross-media projects. He continues to live and work in the Pittsburgh area.
Vincent Halma brings an impressive résumé as a material handling executive to his new job at SSI Schaefer, where he was named senior vice president and head of the North America region on July 1. SSI Schaefer is an international material handling equipment supplier with headquarters in Germany and U.S. offices in Charlotte, North Carolina. The company has 70 operative subsidiaries and 10 global production facilities.
Prior to joining SSI Schaefer, Halma was the North American president and CEO of the Kion Group. All together, he has more than 20 years of experience working in the industry. In his new role, he is focusing on growth, delivering on customer commitments, enabling innovation, and creating a team culture that fosters leading digital transformation within the material handling industry.
Halma holds a bachelor’s degree in finance and a master’s degree in business arts with a focus on marketing, both from the Ohio State University. He speaks four languages, including English and German. Halma has three sons and currently resides in Charlotte with his wife, Jennifer.
Q: How do you view the current state of the material handling market?
A: The effects of the Covid-19 pandemic will have lasting impacts on customer behavior and supply chains in general. We are all looking for the best possible ways to deal with the peaks in consumer demand created by the pandemic. We believe that this will trigger an even higher demand for automation and integration of current systems within e-commerce. Continued new software integration of mechanical subsystems will help many other industries expand or start to fulfill their automation ambitions.
SSI Schaefer covers many industries with many solutions and products, so the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic vary depending on the customer. Many of our industrial and retail customers have been hit by shutdowns or slowdowns, while other customers are experiencing an unprecedented boom. Both situations require immediate optimization, and SSI Schaefer has supported customers around the globe to help with these needs. Our market-driven approach gives customers an advantage when it comes to these shifts.
Q: Has the pandemic changed the way customers are designing their facilities? For instance, are they incorporating more social distancing into their operations?
A: We see an even higher interest in automation. This may change the degree of automation customers adopt—for example, they may look for more process-driven automation to help lessen the engagement with labor. Of course, software can easily determine the pick-aisle in a manual setting, but more automation seems to be the theme now. This is also affecting the order profile of distribution centers, so flexibility is important in the design.
The warehouse of the future is highly automated. As hardware and software continue to integrate more seamlessly into the warehouse, more automated processes can be added economically. It’s much easier now to determine what utopia would look like in this scenario.
The team here at SSI Schaefer plans a scaled business approach. We work with our clients to design a path of steady progression toward a “lights out” operation, although for most businesses, this is still a few years away. We also have a large number of legacy facilities that were designed and operated around different principles and metrics, so this presents an opportunity to adapt this methodology and retrofit those facilities as well.
Q: You have worked in both the European and North American markets. How are they the same and how are they different?
A: Europe and North America are two different continents with big differences in material handling history and supply chain networks. Although our customers on both continents are facing similar challenges, they need different solutions. The drive for efficiency through automation and consumer behavior trends for e-commerce growth are similar, but legislation, local standards, and availability of space can lead to very different solutions for the customer.
Q: In what ways do you foster a team culture, and why is that important in leading your business?
A: SSI Schaefer is a family-owned company with great values. I believe in building a clock instead of telling time when it comes to team culture. Teams with open communication and empowered members are a lot more effective. In the global business of automation, a strong team culture is an absolute must. This is the philosophy that I’m pushing forward.
Q: What do you think is the most important thing that companies should focus on now in their supply chains?
A: Always look for new and different solutions and ask for advice from global experts, especially now. The team at SSI Schaefer has decades of experience when it comes to solving complex fulfillment hurdles. There are many efficiency solutions today that didn’t even exist five years ago. Even a simple software upgrade can improve throughput rates. We see supply chain and logistics solutions providing a big competitive advantage to our customers, which helps them gain market share and drive profits.
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.