When it comes to material handling automation, there is a general industry perception that if you are going to consider automation it has to happen when you are planning a project.
While some companies control every aspect of these functional areas, others choose to outsource one or many of them. The trick, of course, is to find the right outsourcing partner.
It’s a business owner-operator’s worst nightmare: a complete warehouse rack system failure causing extensive product breakage, equipment damage, lost productivity and - far worse - worker injury or death.
It’s been 50 years since supply chain pioneers Harvey Shycon and Richard Maffei used a primitive computer to complete their first-of-a-kind “physical distribution optimization” plan for the H. J. Heinz Co.
Supply chains are the lifeblood of retailers, distributors and manufacturers. However, threats abound all over the world and – with globalization making supply chains longer and more complex – the risks keep increasing.
My first inclination was to title this piece, “Surviving the slump.” But I realized, perhaps, it should be amended to say we’re “surviving a continued slump” - considering that we have seen a steady climb in logistics costs during the past four years.
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