August 18, 2008 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

A rash of M&A announcements begs the question: why is materials handling so hot all of a sudden?

JDA Software Group Inc. announces plans to acquire i2 Technologies. Nova-Tech announces it will assume most of Transbotics’ assets. IBM announced plans to acquire ILOG.  These recent acquisition announcements have one thing in common: materials handling.

Materials handling is key to a healthy supply chain, and investors are bringing new visibility to that fact. Of course, the strategic importance of our field is nothing new...Read More

August 7, 2008 | Link This | Email this | Comments (1)

The Material Handling Industry of America  will propagate materials handling education across the country to ensure the availability of a skilled, plentiful labor pool.

Readers of this magazine may not care that MHIA recently received an outstanding business partnership award from the Rock Hill, SC School District for its service in promoting material handling & logistics educational programming in high schools and technical schools.

Modern readers do stand to benefit from this prize, however.

It starts with the establishment of ...Read More

August 6, 2008 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

While gathering material for Modern’s October Lift Truck Tips column on “Leasing vs. Buying,” Mitsubishi Forklift Trucks threw me a curve. They just launched a promotion looking for “the oldest Mitsubishi forklift truck still in operation today.” The purpose of this “Keeps on Running” contest is to find forklifts that have “outlived expectations.”

To qualify, contestants must own and currently operate a small Internal Combustion (IC) cushion tire Mitsubishi forklift truck, with a capacity range of 2,000 lbs – 6,500 lbs. Eligible models include the entire FGC10-FGC33 model lineup, the current ‘N’ Generation and al...Read More

July 28, 2008 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

In this multi-tasking world, workers are dividing their attention among too many masters and not giving anything of value to any of them. Look at how we gather information. We Google it. It flows into our stream of thought but doesn't empty into our body of knowledge. Learning is giving way to problem solving. Once a problem is solved, we move on to the next problem--discarding whatever factoid was used in that solution.

This breeds ignorance and compromises safety, especially among the younger generation of employees who are old hands at multi-tasking but new to materials handling. Many bring valuable skills but bad habits to the workplace. As a result, employers need to train and retrain their people on how to safely work in an environment that demands their focus.&nbs...Read More

July 21, 2008 | Link This | Email this | Comments (2)

I just interviewed Leon McGinnis, a professor of manufacturing systems at Georgia Tech. I figured he’d be just the right person to talk about the future of materials handling for our September special issue on that topic. What he told me tells me this field has a lot of work to do.

He’s been waging a campaign to try to get the various material handling engineering disciplines to talk to each other using a standard engineering language. You mean they don’t, I asked? Apparently not. Not like all the disparate disciplines that contribute to the making of an integrated circuit.

“With an integrated cir...Read More