MHI Blog -- In recent years, its strategic location and high quality workforce have turned Kern County, California into a logistics cluster. This success has created new opportunities for local residents and new challenges for the education system. Logistics is a critical industry for the state of California, and the number and type of supply chain career opportunities in Kern County is steadily rising.

Recently, the Kern County School District, in partnership with MHI, held a business education luncheon to address the growing supply chain labor needs of local industry. The meeting included representatives from many of the 40 major distribution centers within the county. It also included representatives from a number of local schools, community colleges, and universities.

Modern Materials Handling -- The materials handling industry doesn’t often think about transportation and logistics. After all, what we do happens inside the four walls of the distribution center. However, the increase in e-commerce shipments, coupled with the new dimensional weight rating systems from UPS and FedEx, is changing the lives of our customers and forcing them to think differently about they fill, package, and ship orders. Given the projections for growth of e-commerce sales in the coming years, it’s only going to get worse. In my view, there’s an opportunity for materials handling solution providers to deliver solutions that impact transportation and logistics costs. To do that, we have to think outside the DC box.

Material Handling & Logistics -- Another key milestone has been reached at the Panama Canal’s expansion program, with the installation of the 16th and final gate for the new locks on the Pacific side of the Canal.

The installation process began on the south end of the Canal’s Pacific locks, which connect directly to the ocean. The final gate is one of the heaviest and weighs 4,232 tons, or roughly 8.5 million pounds. It measures 57.6 meters wide by 10 meters long and 33 meters high.

Business Because – California State University’s business school at Long Beach will launch a new master’s degree in supply chain management – the latest school to deliver solutions to increasingly complex global supply chain risk.

The MSc, offered jointly by the university’s Center for International Trade and Transportation and College of Business Administration, is one of a growing number to service logistics management.

The program, which can be completed in 16 or 21 months, will provide students with training in modern supply chain management practices, analysis methods, technology solutions and strategy.

The Miami Herald -- Traveling about 55 miles per hour on a Nevada highway, the big rig's driver looked like The Thinker, with his elbow on the arm rest and his hand on his chin. No hands on the steering wheel, no feet on the pedals. Mark Alvick was in "highway pilot" mode, the wheel moving this way and that as if a ghost were at the helm.

Daimler Trucks North America LLC says its "Inspiration" truck, the first self-driving semi-truck to be licensed to roll on public roads — in this case any highway or interstate in Nevada — is the future of trucking. It's a future that will still need drivers, but they might be called "logistics managers."

MHI Blog -- Recently, two new groups have organized and started operating as MHI Solutions Groups – the Automation Solutions Group (ASG), and the Information Systems Solutions Group (ISSG).

These Solutions Groups are an excellent opportunity for MHI members to directly interact with the manufacturing and supply chain (end-user) community. 

Supply Chain Digital -- More consumers are opting for tracked delivery when shopping online; the result of retailers being able to offer a greater variety of affordable options. Paul Galpin, Managing Director, P2P Mailing examines this trend and highlights the importance of meeting the delivery service needs and expectations of today’s customers.

Reuters -- New orders for U.S. factory goods recorded their biggest increase in eight months in March, boosted by demand for transportation equipment, but the underlying trend remained weak against the backdrop of a strong dollar.

The report on Monday from the Commerce Department was the latest indication that the rebound from the first quarter's abrupt slowdown would not be as strong as experienced during the same period last year when output was chilled by cold weather.

EBN -- Supply chains can't wait for things to change. Rather, the organization must make change happen. Although change doesn't have to be immediate, but it must comprise every aspect of the supply chain to be effective.

Change is constant, and the way that organizations respond to it shapes the future of the organization. "In nature, it is not the strongest species the one that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change," said Matthew Banks, vice president and global lead, Customer Experience Management at Oracle, during his presentation at the recent Oracle Cloud Day Helsinki, Finland.

Gizmag -- Drone deliveries? What could be more convenient than having the milk for your cereal arrive fresh each morning, or that forgotten dinner ingredient plonked down on the doorstep just as you fire up the stove? Well, details now revealed in an Amazon patent application suggest that if its Prime Air drones do materialize, they mightn't just be limited to making house calls. The application outlines plans for drones that track a customer's GPS position, flagging the possibility of having items brought to you even when you're out and about.

Refrigerated Frozen Food -- The American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI), Arlington, Va., released the results of a new study that investigated safety and operational impacts from the 34-hour restart provisions. 

In this latest of an ongoing series of Research Tech Memos, ATRI analyzed an extensive truck GPS database to identify changes in truck travel by time of day and day of the week that may have occurred after the July 1, 2013 change to the Hours of Service (HOS) restart provisions.  ATRI also examined several years or pre- and post-July 1 federal truck crash data to quantify safety impacts resulting from the HOS rules change implemented by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, Washington, D.C.

Material Handling & Logistics -- Import cargo volume at the nation’s major retail container ports is returning to normal levels as officials prepare to count votes on ratification of a new West Coast labor agreement that ended months of uncertainty, according to the monthly Global Port Tracker report compiled by trade association National Retail Federation and consulting firm Hackett Associates.

EBN -- Wearables are expected to play an integral role in the Internet of Things (IoT), but before they do that, they must able to communicate with thousands and possibly millions of different devices.

A wristband that tracks blood pressure, skin temperature, and breathing rates, for example, might switch on the front porch lights and set the thermostat of your house as you pull into the driveway. The same wearable device might also detect that your blood pressure readings have been higher than usual during the past 48 hours and it sends an alert to your doctor.

Supply Chain Brain -- Consumers often balk at the prospect of trading in old versions of equipment, while vendors do their best to encourage the move. Steve Brown, global product lifecycle manager with Hewlett-Packard Co., offers tips on how to manage trade-programs for old and out-of-warranty products.

Out-of-warranty products present a special challenge to tech companies that are offering an upgrade path to their customers. Customers must weigh the benefits of repairing or replacing a device. In the event, the original vendor might find itself competing with the open market for that customer's continued business.

Industry Week -- I've read many articles about the problem of America's "skilled worker shortage" and why we need advanced training; but most don’t define or explain what they mean by "advanced training."

I contend that the type of advanced training program we need for manufacturing is an apprentice program, which trains people to become journeymen, like the training programs in Germany and Switzerland.