The wait is over, and the show is finally here. I’ve mentioned on here a few times how my kids (and my wife and I) have become obsessed with Lin-Manuel Miranda’s masterpiece that is Hamilton. Well, this weekend, we finally get to see it live. And while the touring cast does not feature Miranda, or my personal favorite Daveed Diggs, it does feature Nicholas Christopher who grew up in the town where we live. Either […]
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Businesses trust material handling equipment (MHE) providers for automated guided vehicles (AVG), conveyors, robotics, sortation, storage and beyond. Top to bottom, material handling manufacturers outfit warehouses with the latest and greatest. This goes beyond automation hardware—on the back page of a MHE provider’s RFP, you can often find a warehouse control system (WCS) bundled into the deal. A prevailing thought is if the manufacturer made the hardware, they must have the software to go with […]
Read More →When it comes to retail and supply chain, omni-channel continues to be one of the most talked about topics wherever you look. Omni-channel extends through all phases of the customer journey – before, during, and after the sale – and has an impact on nearly every software application you can think of. Historically, the brick and mortar store has been seen as the weak link in omni-channel operations, due to a lack of inventory visibility […]
Read More →Take a calculated approach to robotics procurement and you’ll stand the best chance of successfully aligning it with your company’s mission, values, and future plans. In Robots in the Supply Chain: The Perfect Employee? Merril Douglas paints a picture of a time in the near future when robots and humans will work side-by-side to help companies gain speed, increase accuracy, cut costs, and handle the grunt work. “We’re sitting in the middle of a perfect storm […]
Read More →Laser guided vehicles (LGVs) area a flexible automated guided vehicle (AGV) solution. LGVs are a more flexible solution than older forms of AGVs that follows markers or wires in the floor or where navigation is based on following a magnet crumb trail. LGVs can move through a facility on multiple paths and the paths can change as needed. This article explains how a “typical” LGV implementation would take and the steps involved.
Read More →Every acquisition has its growing pains, right? Well, Amazon is seeing that now with its acquisition of Whole Foods as a group of Whole Foods employees are seeking to establish a union for the company’s 85,000+ workers. The group recently wrote a letter to Whole Foods employees citing that they are concerned about the “direction of Whole Foods in an Amazon era.” The letter outlines a few demands, including a $15 minimum wage for all […]
Read More →It’s funny how some trends seem to go “full circle.” In 1999, everybody thought they could pick the next big thing. Then after the dot.com bubble burst, it seemed like everybody distanced themselves from their “visionary” pasts. I recall a brief discussion I had around 2002 with a self-described “internet guy.” He commented about the online grocery company Webvan’s business model with the statement “I don’t know what they were thinking – I mean, if you double-bag […]
Read More →313 million dollars has been invested by venture capital companies in developing autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) solutions in the last several years. ARC’s recent global market study on this market shows it to be a very rapidly growing market. An autonomous mobile robot is a vehicle that requires no change to a facilities infrastructure to implement and operate. Often, these vehicles are led around a facility and then create a map of the facility that […]
Read More →And like that, summer is over and the kids are back to school. But this year is a little different, as my daughter has joined her big brother at the elementary school and started kindergarten. For some reason when my son started kindergarten, it didn’t seem like it was as big of a deal to me. Maybe he has always seemed older. Maybe it was his naturally outgoing personality that made it easier. Or maybe […]
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Supply Chain Brief
Best Practices to Improve Your Truckload Service and Price
While shippers face the difficult market conditions of tight capacity and increased consumer demands, they are also being challenged to find transportation cost savings and improve customer satisfaction. As shippers compete for capacity, many are asking what they could be doing to secure the best truckload performance and rates. Why do some shippers receive better service, and which best practices can others learn from them? These are questions we posed to MIT graduate students for […]
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