CeMAT Insider

Ideas like Truck Uber are so simple in design, but they make a world of difference to the industry. Uber Trucking connects shippers with nearby trucks in the US, and it’s been astoundingly successful because it’s modelled off an already successful idea; Uber.

It’s not new that highways in the sky will soon be an incredible force in our automated logistics future, but as with everything, the devil is in the detail.

Digitally-enabled technologies are drawing attention across industry because of the value they provide users. The nexus between products like smart cars, and data tools and analytics technologies, has spurred innovation within Industrie 4.0, and it's gaining global attention.

“What do we need to do to help customers face the challenge of omni-channel?”

Michael Kemeny, Business Area Manager – Australia at Knapp posed this question at the CeMAT Knowledge Theatre to demonstrate the importance of placing customer demands at the heart of logistics automation. 

It might sound as though it comes straight from George Orwell’s 1984, but John Collyer, Country Manager at Apex Supply Chain Solutions has quite an interesting take on managing assets in distribution centres.

You may have heard about the Hawthorne effect before, but essentially it's “the alteration of behaviour by the subjects of a study due to their awareness of being observed.”

“For those of you familiar with manual warehouses, the main issue is travel. Walking across the floor and manually picking goods. So how can we tackle travel?”

Pas Tomasiello, Director of Integrated Systems Group at Dematic asked during his presentation at the CeMAT Knowledge Theatre.

A lot of businesses today are omni-channel, so they have eCommerce as well as traditional brick and mortar stores. So to Michael Jee, Sales Director at Vanderlande Industries Group, there is no one size fits all solution for distribution centres.

“eCommerce is becoming a huge growth market, and one of the things, apart from the fact that we all need clothing, is the fact that men are spending more online.”

Reducing lost revenue and gaining productivity is a challenge for carrier companies, and according to Jean-Michel Maclou, Industry Sales Manager for Intralogistics and Transport at SICK Sensor Intelligence the issue lies in the ability to accurately weight loads.

SICK is one of the worlds leading manufactures of sensors and sensor solutions for industrial applications and Jean focused his presentation on the challenges carriers are experiencing when trying to optimise throughput. 

Yesterday we covered the need to improve on-shelf availability to ensure customer satisfaction and build customer loyalty, and this seems to be a recurring theme at CeMAT Australia 2016.

Matt Young, Program Manager – Major Infrastructure Projects, on behalf of Coles for Swisslog Australia presented a case study on the reduction in waiting times and improved shelf life due to their new processing facility. 

Olivier Janin, Secretary General, FEM European Materials Handling Federation delivered his keynote presentation at CeMAT Australia on the trends and prospects in the European Materials Handling industry.

Although the industry is slowly recovering from the GFC, it is still not at the peak it was at in 2007 when it generated 77.1 billion into the economy.