MHI Blog — 2016 has already seen it's fair share of PR crises, such as outrage at the Cincinnati Zoo, boycotts at the Oscars, and controversy with Apple Computers. Real-time sharing on social media has made it much harder for companies to control the story and protect their brand.  Last year I stressed the value of brand authenticity and took a closer look at how social media has effected American culture and even personal brands. Today I want to address the importance of transparency in handling a PR crisis and present steps to protect your brand.

Modern Materials Handling — When the material handling and logistics industry's premier event, ProMat 2017, opens on April 3 it will include over 850 exhibits from leading solution providers and a comprehensive Educational Conference of more than 100 sessions focusing on what's next in best-in-class solutions for manufacturing and supply chain operations.

Reuters — With its recent acquisition of self-driving truck startup Otto, Uber Technologies Inc. is plotting its entry into the long-haul trucking business, aiming to establish itself as a freight hauler and a technology partner for the industry.

MHI Blog — Autonomous, or driverless, vehicles and drones have hit the main-stream of public consciousness.



Hardly a week passes without with the national media breathlessly covering the technologies' developments, including the good (Canadian officials using drones to map and determine the cause of a massive wildfire in May); the bad (a personal drone aircraft landing on the White House lawn last January and May); and the ugly (a fatal Tesla auto-piloted car crash in Florida last June).

Supply Chain Brain — It's been more than two months since the United Kingdom voted to withdraw from the European Union, but the shock waves aren't close to subsiding - especially with regard to the impact on global supply chains.

Ebnonline — Customers today are used to having things when they want them, how they want them. With the consumerization of the supply chain comes the customer expectation that they will receive the package as quickly as possible, if not on the exact same day as the order was placed. While same day shipping is great for maintaining positive customer experience, it does place quite a strain on resources for the shipper and the supply chain manager.

The Washington Post — In the last week or so, we've begun to see a trickle of forecasts and news tidbits that offer hints about how the all-important holiday shopping season is going to shape up. Here, we round up some of the key takeaways.

As part of MHI view's ongoing video program, this new episode focuses on: Millennials in Supply Chain.

CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE VIDEO.

Reuters — United Parcel Service Inc said it began testing the use of drones for emergency deliveries of medical supplies this week with a flight in rural Massachusetts, which the company hopes will eventually lead to federal approval of drones as a regular delivery option. The test flight on Thursday was handled by CyPhy, a Danvers, Massachusetts-based drone maker in which UPS, the world's largest package delivery company, owns a stake.

The Wall Street Journal — Holiday hiring is expected to be flat at package-delivery giants FedEx Corp. and United Parcel Service Inc., but that masks efforts behind the scenes to prepare for the coming wave of e-commerce orders.

Industryweek — Connected devices have been around for some time now-long enough that business executives are well aware that the Internet of Things (IoT) is causing a disruptive impact on both consumers and companies across industries. Most executives today, unfortunately, know enough about IoT to be afraid of it, but not enough to know what to do with it.

MHI Blog — End users of material handling equipment are taking advantage of a special offer on the widely acclaimed specifications of the leading authority on overhead lifting-Crane Manufacturers Association of America (CMAA).



CMAA, an independent incorporated trade association affiliated with Material Handling Industry (MHI), is offering users the chance to get Specification No. 78 free of charge when placing an order for Specification Nos. 70 or 74. Given the subject matter of each document, industry is finding Spec 78, which is also available as a standalone product, a useful supplement to the other documents.

Ebnonline — Breaking news of a bankruptcy of a large cargo company had supply chain professionals tracking products mid-route, dealing with multi-national legal entities, working around labor stoppages, organizing ways to get cargo off the boats, rescheduling containers, and problem-solving a way to keep goods moving.

Supply Chain Management Review — International cooperation and industry leadership vision is required to address the pressing concerns brought about by real and potential climactic disruptions

MHI Blog — Today's transportation landscape has been infused with technological innovations that are both disruptive and ripe with possibilities. Driverless vehicles, 3D printing, cyber security advances, artificial intelligence and other developments will impact this industry in yet-to-be-seen ways.



Ask those in the trenches now, however, and the current "trends" that come to mind are the everyday challenges: dealing with regulations, fuel prices (for better or worse) and the downturn of the global economy, just to start.

Industryweek — The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) is already transforming the manufacturing industry by enabling a dramatic rise in increasingly advanced, real-time measurements yielding more and more actionable data. This has already created new opportunities for optimization and will continue to accelerate the adoption of machine learning.

Ebnonline — In the summer between high school and college, I got to tour with my Dad in the mountains of Western Ghats in South India. His job was to ensure the communication infrastructure that was supporting a network of hydroelectric power projects in that area ran without a hitch. One plant, called the Kadamparai Hydroelectric Pumped Storage Power Plant, was a unique project.

MHI’s new Career Forum  enables manufacturing and supply chain professionals to view current job postings of MHI member companies. Go to http://www.mhi.org/careers to find the perfect opportunity for you.

MHL News — In this omni-channel world of "I want it delivered to me now" expectations, the ability to fulfill on customer expectations is more crucial than ever. Driven in part by online retailer Amazon's blurring of the line between B2B and B2C activities, companies of all sizes are now being challenged to compete on an equal footing with major corporations with deep pockets.