Summertime, and the livin’ is easy

Anyone who writes a column on a regular basis runs out of steam (or ideas) now and then.

For me, this is now, not then. The weather here is beautiful, and it seems like everyone I’m interested in talking to about automated materials handling, the supply chain, software or RFID – my favorite subjects – is on vacation.

Still, a couple of questions have been on my mind the last few days.

Are materials handling projects about to hit the skids? The other day, a headline i...Read More

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When Bill Clinton ran for his first term as president, his campaign had a four-word mantra: “It’s the economy, stupid!”

In retrospect, it seems obvious that your average voter cares about his wallet first, especially during tough economic times. But at the time, it was a revolutionary concept.

Steve Mulaik, a partner with The Progress Group, has a mantra for consultants, systems integrators, warehouse managers and anyone else involved in the design and implementation of a new automated materials handling system: It’s ...Read More

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My mother has a saying: Nothing good happens after midnight.

Kevin Gue would disagree: He says that sometimes innovation happens at 4 AM.

Gue is an associate professor of industrial and systems engineering at Auburn University. For the past few years, he has been working with Russell Meller, a professor of industrial engineering and director of the Center for Engineering Logistics and Distribution at the University of Arkansas, on non-traditional aisle designs for warehouses. You can read about Gue’s a...Read More

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In the Old Testament, the city of Babel brought together people from all over the known world, all speaking one language. They decided to build their crowning achievement, a tower that would reach to the heavens.

Unfortunately, for those of you who know your Bible, it didn’t work out so well.

What’s Genesis got to do with the supply chain software, you might wonder? “Everything,” says Steve Christensen, founder of Babbleware, a startup which Christensen describes as an alternative to replacing or modifying outdated software applications.

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The economy may be down, but tech spending is up. Go figure. 

This month, we published our annual list of the Top 20 providers of supply chain management software. On the one hand, there were few surprises. SAP and Oracle remain kings of the hill; Manhattan Associates is still the market leader among the providers of supply chain execution solutions, which includes warehouse management solutions.

Those findings were expected. In fact, with one or two exceptions, the rankings were pretty much the same as we reported in 2007.

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Last night, I sat down to write a column about some of the exciting materials handling research going on under the radar on college campuses today. Just then, an e-mail from a reader showed up in my inbox.

Jack Ampuja, president of Supply Chain Optimizers, had just read one of my columns on green materials handling, and had a couple of thoughts of his own. He had some perspective as a self-professed industry veteran that I thought was worth sharing.

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When it comes to materials handling and information handling in the plant or DC, it’s all about productivity. If a solution doesn’t pay for itself by allowing you to do more with less, what’s the point?

So I was intrigued when Tom Roth and Brian Schulte, two marketing directors from Intermec (www.intermec.com) suggested that the right bar code label printer can lead to productivity gains in manufacturing and distribution environments.

Really? “I will admit that at the highest level, our customers don’t wake up in the morning and think about printer and bar code solutions,” Roth says. “But, they do think about reducin...Read More

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It’s not an idle question, now that so many of us seem to be paying attention to the issue.

I got to thinking about this after writing a story for our September issue about Quality Bicycle Products (www.qbp.com), a wholesale distributor of bicycles and bicycle parts in Minnesota.

With more than $200 million in sales, QBP has in essence built a business around an environmentally-friendly technology. Green is a core value of the company’s husband and wife owners, its employees and the independent bike dealers who make up i...Read More

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"The green supply chain is a lot like high school sex," says a friend of mine in the business. “Everyone is talking about it, but not a lot of companies are doing it.”

Okay. I’ll admit it. I’ve been looking for a way to combine the supply chain and sex for a long time. If nothing else, it might drive more web traffic to our site, since Modern rejected my idea of a materials handling pinup of the month.

But, based on the interviews I did for a story on green initiatives in the food and beverage industry for the August issue, my friend might be on to something. I found a lot of people talking about green initiatives, but not a lot of people doing ...Read More

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The last time I spoke to Simon Ellis, he was the supply chain futurist – one of those titles I would kill to get - at Unilever North America (www.unilever.com), a manufacturer of brands as diverse as Slim-Fast and Vaseline.

The other day, I had a chance to speak to Ellis in his new role as supply chain strategy practice director for Manufacturing Insights, an IDC Company. Manufacturing Insights provides strategic business technology and application advice to the manufacturing community.

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The first time I was contacted by NetSuite, about five years ago, they had an intriguing story to tell about offering ERP functionality in an on-demand, software as a service (SaaS) model targeting small-to-mid-size distributors. 

Still, it wasn’t a story that was quite right for Modern’s audience. And while NetSuite took the time to keep me up to date on what they were doing, my response at the end of our calls was usually the same: “Come back when you have an on-demand warehouse management system,” I would tell them. “That’s where our readers liv...Read More

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Will $5 a gallon diesel make offshoring obsolete?

It’s not an idle question. Yesterday’s Wall Street Journal featured a front-page story on the slow down in manufacturing activity in China. The country’s base of low-cost labor has sought hire wages at the same time as global energy prices have gone through the roof.

Now, the Journal wasn’t predicting the demise of the Chinese manufacturing base. Indeed, some of the disruption in China may simply be the result of a shake-out ...Read More

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