Supply Chain Trends and Issues: Our Weekly Feature Article on Important Trends and Developments in Supply Chain Strategy, Research, Best Practices, Technology and Other Supply Chain and Logistics Issues  
 
 
  - July 10, 2013 -  

Supply Chain News: Roadmap for Materials Handling 2025 Completes Key Phase I Milestone

 

MHI Hopes to Paint Vision for Future, Up Profile of Materials Handling Industry in Terms of Economic Impact, Supply Chain Contribution

 
     
     
  by SCDigest Editorial Staff  
     
 

A critical milestone has been reached in MHI's (Material Handling Institute) plan to develop a "materials handling and logistics roadmap" that will help guide the industry through 2025.

In March, MHI announced the program, which has multiple goals.

SCDigest Says:
"You never know until you see the output, but I think this is an interesting exercise, and I have a lot of confidence in Kevin Gue's ability to pull together a good report," Gilmore added.

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According to Gary Forger, senior vice president for professional development at MHI, the mission of the roadmap project is "to assemble a broad community of thought leaders with a stake in the future of material handling and logistics technologies and practices to create an industry roadmap that will increase productivity, reduce costs, create jobs and improve the global competitiveness of the US."

Following from that broad mission, MHI expects the program will:

Identify the challenges and opportunities facing material handling and logistics in the movement of resources and goods within and between facilities in the supply chain.

• Develop recommended actions that will advance material handling and logistics technologies, practices and workforce development in the next 3, 5, 10 years.

• Raise general awareness of the importance of material handling and logistics to the US standard of living and competitive position in the world.

• Educate government on key issues to the material handling and logistics industry.

• Generate ongoing dialog among thought leaders about material handling and logistics issues and performance levels.

One of the catalysts for the effort was a similar program from the Robotics Virtual Organization (Robotics VO), which released a conceptually similar roadmap in March of this year - an effort that gained the research some Congressional attention and support. MHI is hoping for similar success.

The robotics roadmap, for example, identified the following goals for US robotics development in the manufacturing sector over the next 15 years:

• 5 years: Achieve ability to set up, configure and program basic assembly line operations for new products with a specified industrial robot arm, tooling and auxiliary material handling devices in under 24 hours.

• 10 years: Achieve ability to set up, configure and program basic assembly line operations for new products with a specified industrial robot arm, tooling and auxiliary material handling devices in one 8-hour shift.

• 15 years: Achieve ability to set up, configure and program basic assembly line operations for new products with a specified industrial robot arm, tooling and auxiliary material handling devices in one hour.

While the MHI roadmap will certainly have a somewhat different structure, the basic approach is likely to be largely the same, with goals for materials handling technology and processes defined for 2020 and then 2025.

The first major phase of the project, gathering input from a variety of experts and thought leaders, has just been completed. A series of four two-day meetings wrapped up with a session in Chicago in late June, following similar meetings of about 25-30 participants in Washington DC, Los Angeles, and Atlanta. The participants included representatives from materials handling vendors, consultants, users/shippers, academics and more.

SCDigest editor Dan Gilmore participated in the Chicago session. As with the other sessions, participants were first asked to offer thoughts on how the world and society were likely to change by 2020 and then 2025, under the logical theory that material handling systems and technology will need to respond to changes in the broader environment.

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From there, participants were asked to perform a similar exercise in three other areas more directly related to materials handling:

Move and Track: Desired industry capabilities with respect to the movement of goods (modes and methods of distribution, automation, robotics, transportation, packaging, etc.)

Plan and Track: Capabilities with respect to information technology (sensors, communications, tracking, data collection, data storage, etc.) and planning (modeling, optimization, coordination, data analytics, etc.)

People: States or capabilities with respect to people in the material handling and logistics industry (jobs, labor, skills, education, training, safety, etc.)

"I think the mission here is really to set some stretch goals for material handling providers, help users of materials handling systems and equipment to build visions for their future state, and up the profile of the materials handling industry in terms of the overall US economic equation and supply chain excellence," SCDigest's Gilmore said.

From here, based on this inout and discussion, a draft of the report will be developed before the end of the year, maybe as early as October, under the leadership of Kevin Gue of Auburn University. Workshop participants will then provide edits and suggestions, leading to a final roadmap to be published in early 2014.

There may still be time to get involved, such as participating in making comments on the draft document. More information on the proram, and links to information about how to get involved, can be found here: US Materials Handling Roadmap.

"You never know until you see the output, but I think this is an interesting exercise, and I have a lot of confidence in Kevin Gue's ability to pull together a good report," Gilmore added.

Are you interested in this materials handling roadmap effort? How can it best add real value? Let us know your thoughts at the Feedback section below.


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Recent Feedback

I'll second your "confidence in Kevin Gue's ability to pull together a good report"!  The conclusions reached, goals set and plans established and the ability of the industry to collaboratively execute them, however, will be the measure of the Roadmap's long term contribution to supply chain excellence.  I'm betting on it!


John Hill
Director
St. Onge Company
Jul, 12 2013
 

 

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