MHI Blog—Brand new to ProMat this year is the Autonomous Vehicle Solution Center that will host Feature Presentations daily. The center will feature an array of autonomous systems including automated storage and retrieval systems (AS/RS), automatic guided vehicles (AGVs), self-driving vehicles (SDVs), delivery drones and automated cranes.

DC Velocity—As William Shakespeare observed several centuries ago, sometimes all the stars align in mysterious yet favorable ways. That will be the case on April 5, when luminaries from the worlds of pro sports, comedy and logistics/material handling converge on Chicago's McCormick Place. What will draw them there is ProMat 2017, the nation's largest exhibition of material handling, supply chain, and logistics equipment, systems and technologies. As for the role those luminaries will play, Magic Johnson will deliver one of the show's keynotes, "The Power of Magic"; Dana Carvey will entertain the crowd at "MHI Industry Night"; and suppliers of the latest in supply chain innovations and technologies will be on hand to display their wares.

MBTmag—It’s easy for manufacturers to get lost in the hype of new technology and lose sight of the essential objectives that should be at the heart of any IT strategy. But, it is essential for managers to remain rooted in the fundamentals and fully understand the role basic ERP architecture plays in laying the foundation. Productivity, efficiency, and customer satisfaction are the critical core goals which must remain in focus throughout the mad rush of change.

Industry Week—Responding to market volatility or uncertainty is a top pain point for most manufacturing supply chain executives, and the source of the problem is that most can’t answer the simple question, "Where is my stuff?" In other, more eloquent words, these executives lack visibility into inventory levels, anticipated shipment of parts, manufacturing stoppages and logistics issues because this information exists in silos among departments such as sales, production and logistics.

MHI Blog—The MHIEquipment Donation Program helps to get schools like Western Guilford the equipment they need to build learning labs. The Rotomat equipment donated by Hanel Storage Systems will provide hands on training to about 60 students in the Western Logistics Program. The Western Logistics Program is the only one of its kind in North Carolina. This program helps students get hands-on experience with some of the technology and procedures of a modern warehouse. It also teaches how businesses manage their logistics operations.

Supply Chain Digest—We are at the intersection of two very powerful trends. First, companies are clearly placing a primacy on innovation. Survey after survey shows becoming more innovative is at or near the very top of the CEO priority list. This year's annual CEO study by PwC, for example, found innovation as the top area CEOs want to strengthen in order to capitalize on new opportunities. Naturally, if innovation is a priority for the CEO, it de facto becomes a priority for the supply chain, but there are some wrinkles to that.

SupplyChainBrain—Companies using both their own private fleet combined with for-hire common carriers for transportation need to make decisions about which of those modes to use for any given shipment. For this they often use very simple algorithms that use distances as deciding factors. This approach leaves on the table many opportunities to optimize.

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EBN—Every year, there are a few hot tech products that grab attention during the holiday season. Every year, consumer demand leads to a few high-profile incidents of product scarcity during the high-volume sales period. 2016 was no exception, with supply chain giants such as Nintendo, Apple, and Amazon plagued by stock shortages of premier products at the retail level. Here, I’ll outline what happened with each launch, and make some suggestions as to what could be done differently to keep products on the shelves and sales going strong.

Material Handling & Logistics—Imports at the nation’s major retail container ports should see double-digit year-over-year increases for the next two months as a growing economy increases the demand for affordable merchandise, according to the monthly Global Port Tracker report produced by the National Retail Federation and consulting firm Hackett Associates.

SupplyChainBrain—Supply chains have become more complex due to continued growth in global markets, increasing customer expectations, rising costs, and more intense and diverse competitive pressures. Therefore, supply chains offer increased opportunities to impact the bottom line and shareholder value, through improved performance. There are three critical elements to achieving and maintaining a world-class supply-chain network.

Logistics Viewpoint—Supply chain executives have some tough decisions to make in the year ahead as they face increased pressure to deliver product faster than ever before. The "Amazon effect" has disrupted customer expectations about the speed and visibility of goods in transit. Trying to increase velocity is a challenge when supply chains are fragmented and departments are using a variety of technologies for their own individual operations. A more modern approach to supply chain moves away from a traditional logistics model and embraces a global trade network model. This new strategy goes beyond automation.

MBTmag—Smart Manufacturing is the moniker often used for factories with connected devices, integrated systems, and visibility across the full value chain. But, level of adoption varies greatly, with no standardization of what criteria must be present in order for a plant to be considered truly a Smart Manufacturer. A few sensors embedded in the assembly line machinery cannot realistically indicate a factory is "Smart" and meeting its full Business Intelligence potential. It may be more appropriate to evaluate achievement based on a sliding scale and level of growth. Some basic milestones, though, can help plant managers identify how their organization measures up to the competition.

Dayton Daily News—Meijer is bringing its home delivery services to six states. The Michigan-based grocery retailer will introduce the service starting in Grand Rapids, Mich., Fort Wayne, Ind., and Indianapolis. The services will then be introduced in other major markets in Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky and Wisconsin. Starting in late March, Meijer customers in select markets with a Shipt market will have the ability to shop for 55,000 items using an app or place order directly through shipt.com.

MIT Technology Review—The heads of the Congressional Blockchain Caucus want their colleagues to know the technology has many uses besides currency. Congressman David Schweikert is determined to enlighten his colleagues in Washington about the blockchain. The opportunities the technology creates for society are vast, he says, and right now education is key to keeping the government from "screwing it up." Schweikert, a Republican from Arizona, co-chairs the recently launched Congressional Blockchain Caucus.

Material Handling & Logistics—Supply chain leaders cite increased complexity of today’s supply chain flow, as the top challenge they face. A new report, "Managing the Complexity Paradigm,"from APICS, andMichigan State University discusses the balance between managing complexity that can increase cost but also has the potential to increase revenue.

EBN—Automation is emerging as a critical component to manufacturing prowess, a trend that will only intensify in the coming years. Seminal startup companies are appearing on the horizon with ideas that will change the face of the industry. The Association for Advancing Automation (A3), a global advocate for the benefits of automating and producers of Automate 2017 tradeshow, have identified eight companies that it deems the industry’s most innovative young startups in the automation industry. These companies will compete at the upcoming show for a $10,000 cash prize.

SupplyChainBrain—Over the course of the next few years the gap will close as smart supply chains and services - or, more broadly speaking, digital value-chain solutions - continue to build on digitized manufacturing and asset management to include external activities and end-to-end optimization capabilities. But companies that want to make the smart supply-chain ecosystem a reality can't simply gather the required technologies. They must also define the outcomes they want to achieve, build the necessary capabilities, find the people with the right skills, and manage the shift to a culture that's willing to carry out the effort. In other words, they must invest to transform their entire organization to achieve the desired outcomes.

MIT Technology Review—Intelligence agents and military operatives may come to rely heavily on machine learning to parse huge quantities of data, and to control a growing arsenal of autonomous systems. But the U.S. military wants to make sure that this doesn’t lead to blindly trusting in any algorithm. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), a division of the Defense Department that explores new technologies, is funding several projects that aim to make artificial intelligence explain itself.

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