Industrial automation company Signode has relocated its Automation and Packaging Technologies (APT) division from Glenview to Roselle, Ill., the company said today.
The 360,000 square-foot facility will feature a state-of-the-art customer experience center, training facility, and expanded equipment manufacturing capabilities for a broad portfolio of products, the company said. It will house the APT division leadership, sales, customer support, marketing, product management, innovation, research and development, application engineering, operations, and reliability services teams.
The new facility allows Signode, which specializes in transit packaging, to provide more innovative automation and optimized packaging solutions for customers, according to Group President Eric Christensen. The facility’s 100,000 square-foot customer experience center will include meeting space, a showroom for product demonstrations, a certified test laboratory to optimize packaging designs, and a training space for Signode’s field service technicians as well as customer partners and other employees.
“We aspire to optimize every customer’s packaging investment, and this new experience center will aid us in delivering on that standard,” Mike Stein, Signode’s vice president, sales, marketing and product management, said in a statement announcing the opening of the facility Wednesday.
Daimler Truck North America (DTNA)’s autonomous trucking subsidiary, Torc Robotics, will team with the sensing and perception systems provider Aeva to advance the development of a new safety architecture for truck applications – enabling autonomous trucks to make safer, more intelligent decisions, they said.
The move expands the partners’ existing collaboration, following the production agreement signed last year when Daimler Truck selected Aeva as its supplier of long and ultra-long range LiDAR for its series production autonomous commercial vehicle program. The multi-year production agreement is targeting commercializing Daimler Truck autonomous trucks by 2027.
Under the new deal, Blacksburg, Virginia-based Torc and Mountain View, California-based Aeva will work together on technology advancements in service of L4 autonomous trucking to benefit the development of Torc’s Virtual Driver vehicle software. The companies will share 4D LiDAR sensing data and share a Freightliner Cascadia vehicle platform for use in long-range sensing applications.
The news follows Torc’s announcement in December that it would use data from Uber Freight to enhance its development and deployment roadmap for autonomous trucks.
Waves of change are expected to wash over workplaces in the new year, highlighted by companies’ needs to balance the influx of artificial intelligence (AI) with the skills, capabilities, and perspectives that are uniquely human, according to a study from Top Employers Institute.
According to the Amsterdam-based human resources (HR) consulting firm, 2025 will be the year that the balance between individual and group well-being will evolve, blending personal empowerment with collective goals. The focus will be on creating environments where individual contributions enhance the overall strength of teams and organizations, and where traditional boundaries are softened to allow for greater collaboration and inclusion.
Those were the findings of the group’s report titled "World of work trends 2025: The collective workforce.” The study was based on data drawn from the anonymized responses of 2,175 global participants of the Top Employers Institute’s HR Best Practices Survey for 2025, and 2,200 organizations from its 2024 edition.
To cope with those broad trends, the report found that companies must adopt “systems thinking,” a way of understanding how different parts of a system—whether an organization or a society—are connected and influence each other. Leaders who learn that skill can design holistic strategies that align employee needs with organizational priorities and broader societal challenges, the group said.
Toward that goal, the report highlights five trends that are reshaping and impacting the global workforce for 2025. They include:
Sustainable Workplaces - integrated partnership between society and organizations. In 2025, organizations will face growing pressure to address global challenges ranging from ethical AI use in the workplace to demographic changes like declining birth rates and an aging population. These issues are no longer isolated from business; they demand an integrated partnership between society and organizations. For example, labor shortages driven by demographic changes challenge companies to rethink their workforce strategies for future sustainability; for example, family-friendly offerings have increased substantially over the last year as employers acknowledge the reality that many more people are now responsible for aging relatives as well as young children.
New belonging – networking beyond to connect with various jobs, industries, and networks. Unlike previous generations, today’s employees change jobs and careers with greater fluidity, spanning multiple organizations over relatively short periods. This shift is reshaping the traditional, company-centered sense of belonging into a more dynamic, interconnected experience. Employees no longer expect to build lasting relationships solely within a single organization, but rather they form communities that stretch across various jobs, industries, and networks, sometimes even in public coworking spaces where the people they interact with daily may not even work for the same company. However, this fluidity offers companies a unique advantage: as employees move between organizations and interact with diverse professionals in shared spaces, they bring with them fresh ideas, innovations, and relationships that generate significant value.
Transforming experiences – “new collar” jobs. In 2025, we will see a substantial blurring of the traditional categories of “white collar” jobs—typically clerical, administrative, managerial, and executive roles—and “blue collar” jobs, which are typically found in the agriculture, manufacturing, construction, mining, or maintenance sectors. The nature of jobs once considered blue-collar has changed dramatically, thanks in no small part to advancements in technology, especially AI. Post pandemic, there seems to be a much higher demand in many places around the world for skilled trades and manual labor, coupled with a growing emphasis for needed skills over formal qualifications. This shift, sometimes described as the rise of “new collar” jobs, combines the technical expertise often associated with blue-collar work with the adaptability and digital skills needed in today’s job market.
Neuroinclusion - a competitive advantage. Organizations are also increasingly recognizing the advantages of including neurodivergent individuals in the workplace, hiring people with autism, dyslexia, dyspraxia, dyscalculia, and ADHD, as well as certain mental health conditions. In addition to bringing bringing unique perspectives and capabilities, these employees are also an important part of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI). This practice often requires companies to provide accommodation, adjustments, and support, but 2025 will bring a more radical shift, as neuroinclusivity is evolving from an afterthought to a foundational principle in workplace design, culture, and HR policies.
AI-powered leadership - balance between human intuition and AI’s analytical power.
If 2024 marked AI’s disruption of highly skilled roles like software development and healthcare, 2025 will be the year AI reshapes the highest levels of leadership, bringing a new balance between human intuition and AI’s analytical power. In this evolving landscape, leadership is no longer an individual pursuit, but a collective effort changed by intelligent systems. AI is not just influencing mid-level roles; it is becoming a partner in the C-suite, helping leaders navigate complexity, understand team dynamics, and make strategic decisions that benefit the entire organization.
The next time you buy a loaf of bread or a pack of paper towels, take a moment to consider the future that awaits the plastic it’s wrapped in. That future isn’t pretty: Given that most conventional plastics take up to 400 years to decompose, in all likelihood, that plastic will spend the next several centuries rotting in a landfill somewhere.
But a Santiago, Chile-based company called Bioelements Group says it has developed a more planet-friendly alternative. The firm, which specializes in biobased, biodegradable, and compostable packaging, says its Bio E-8i film can be broken down by fungi and other microorganisms in just three to 20 months. It adds that the film, which it describes as “durable and attractive,” complies with the regulations of each country in which Bioelements currently operates.
Now it’s looking to enter the U.S. market. The company recently announced that it had entered into partnerships with South Carolina’s Clemson University and with Michigan State University to continue testing its products for use in sustainable packaging in this country. Researchers will study samples of Bio E-8i film to understand how the material behaves during the biodegradation process under simulated industrial composting conditions.
“This research, along with other research being conducted in the United States, allows us to obtain highly reliable data from prestigious universities,” said Ignacio Parada, CEO and founder of Bioelements, in a statement. “Such work is important because it allows us to improve and apply academically driven scientific research to the application of packaging for greater sustainability packaging applications. That is very worthwhile and helps to validate our sustainable packaging technology.”
When the trucking giant known as Saia LTL Freight was founded back in 1924, the “company” consisted of just one employee, Louis Saia Sr. of Houma, Louisiana. And it didn’t own a single truck: Saia removed the rear seats from his family car in order to haul his customers’ goods to New Orleans, where he traveled to pick up produce.
One hundred years later, the firm has been bought and sold, acquired some competitors, and moved to Johns Creek, Georgia. And it has added a few more workers. Saia today employs more than 15,000 people who operate 213 terminals across the country and a fleet of over 6,500 tractors and 22,000 trailers.
Saia is now celebrating its 100th anniversary, and the company says it’s not done growing. At a November centennial celebration event, Saia announced that it would invest $1 billion in its operations this year to support further expansion, technological advancements, and its ongoing commitments to sustainability and community involvement. “Our centennial is not just about looking back at our achievements but also looking forward to the innovations and opportunities that lie ahead,” President and CEO Fritz Holzgrefe said in a release.
To commemorate its anniversary, Saia also launched two mobile museums that will stop at select venues for private events and visits. Guests can step into a real Saia truck and explore the company’s 100-year history through interactive artifacts. Visitors can also get behind the wheel of an action-packed simulator to learn what it’s like to be a Saia driver.
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2024 International Foodservice Distributor Association’s (IFDA) National Championship
It’s probably safe to say that no one chooses a career in logistics for the glory. But even those accustomed to toiling in obscurity appreciate a little recognition now and then—particularly when it comes from the people they love best: their kids.
That familial love was on full display at the 2024 International Foodservice Distributor Association’s (IFDA) National Championship, which brings together foodservice distribution professionals to demonstrate their expertise in driving, warehouse operations, safety, and operational efficiency. For the eighth year, the event included a Kids Essay Contest, where children of participants were encouraged to share why they are proud of their parents or guardians and the work they do.
Prizes were handed out in three categories: 3rd–5th grade, 6th–8th grade, and 9th–12th grade. This year’s winners included Elijah Oliver (4th grade, whose parent Justin Oliver drives for Cheney Brothers) and Andrew Aylas (8th grade, whose parent Steve Aylas drives for Performance Food Group).
Top honors in the high-school category went to McKenzie Harden (12th grade, whose parent Marvin Harden drives for Performance Food Group), who wrote: “My dad has not only taught me life skills of not only, ‘what the boys can do,’ but life skills of morals, compassion, respect, and, last but not least, ‘wearing your heart on your sleeve.’”