During the week of April 9, the Georgia World Congress Center will open its doors and welcome Modex 2018, an expo for the manufacturing, distribution and supply chain industries, sponsored by MHI. This month, the Supply Chain Group editorial team offers Logistics Management readers a preview of the latest warehouse and distribution center management equipment, automation and software products that will be introduced on this year’s trade show floor. Interstackable straight wall containers in four new heights The NewStac straight wall container now comes in a 22 x 24-inch footprint with four height options (7, 8, 11 and 14 inches)…
As reported by The Verge, Amazon will finally launch its shipping service for businesses in Los Angeles in the “coming weeks,” according to a new report from The Wall Street Journal. The service, dubbed Shipping with Amazon or SWA, will directly compete with companies like United Parcel Service Inc. and Fed Ex Corp. However, it will be initially restricted to companies selling goods on Amazon’s own marketplace. No doubt executives at companies FedEx (NYSE: FDX) and UPS (NYSE: UPS) are no doubt waking up to frantic phone calls about what their industry might look like in five years. Read: Amazon's…
EHANG, a global leader in unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) technologies, has unveiled footage of the latest test flights of their self-flying passenger aircraft or Autonomous Aerial Vehicle (AAV). The EHANG 184 series is the world's first passenger drone capable of carrying a single person at up to 130 km/h and in force 7 typhoon conditions. These manned test flights are just the latest in a series of tests to ensure that the EHANG 184 AAV will be safe and ready for public use in the near future. Among the 40 or so passengers who helped in this crucial testing phase…
In the last decade alone, workflow innovations and technological advancements have permeated every aspect of our personal and professional lives - the way we communicate, manage our home, conduct meetings and especially the way we shop. The dramatic rise of e-commerce and its impact on the material handling industry and the supply chain at large has been remarkably transformative. Download the White Paper: Conquer High-volume E-commerce with Goods-to-operator Order Fulfillment The U.S. Census Bureau reports that U.S. retail e-commerce sales for the second quarter of 2017 were an estimated $111.5 billion, a 4.8 percent increase from the previous quarter. Manufacturers…
A recent series of surveys conducted by a prominent industry think tank indicates that the current state of global logistics is characterized by extreme urgency and the pressure to deliver above and beyond—regardless of mode. Transport Intelligence (Ti) a consultancy based in Bath, England, recently produced a collection of primary research reflecting the latest thinking in the market along with the views of senior shipper executives within its “Logistics Briefing” network concentrated in the EU. According to the Ti collection titled “Logistics Surveys 2017,” completed last December, there’s scant doubt that the global express industry has already undergone significant transformation,…
Columbia Machine recently partnered with OTTO Motors to incorporate the OTTO 1500 Self Driving Vehicle (SDV) into current and future applications. The OTTO 1500 is a heavy duty self-driving vehicle that is designed to move pallet loads that weight up to 3,400 pounds through dynamic working environments. The OTTO 1500 SDVs create free, open access to the discharge point, as well as to other equipment in the area, such as case erectors. Further, they navigate autonomously, independent of sensors embedded in the floor or laser reflectors on the walls. Instead, the vehicles use LIDAR and encoder wheels to determine their…
Earlier this month, the rules and game-playing details for the 2018 FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) were announced by FIRST, a not-for-profit public charity designed to inspire young people’s interest and participation in science and technology. Combining the rigors of science and technology, the FRC challenges teams of high school students (ages 14-8/grades 9-12) to design a team “brand,” hone teamwork skills, and build and program robots to perform tasks against a field of competitors. This year’s FRC, titled FIRST POWER UPSM (click here for game explanation and competition information), is expected to involve approximately 91,000 students on 3,650 participating teams…
Robots obviously are becoming quite popular if you read anything on the internet or any news about robotic technology. But in warehouse automation, the five areas that I would see most popular, most common, that you're hearing the most about, about applications of robotic technology is one, speed; two, accuracy. When you combine the two, as you're seeing especially on E-commerce, a tremendous growth in the number of orders, in the amount of volume that is being pushed out by DC centers. This focus on including robotics, I think two main areas are the speed of the ability to pick…
Beyerdynamic is a German audio equipment leader that embarked one year ago on a plan to increase factory floor productivity by 50% on a four-year plan. This had to be done in the same production space, without compromising the brand’s quality standards. Using a series of collaborative robots, the company has already significantly boosted volume and quality. One of the first processes the company targeted is a glue-spraying application. Speakers used in the headphones need to be refined acoustically by applying a medium, which was previously done manually. The process is naturally not safe or stable, and the new robots…
