MHI – once known as the Material Handling Industry of America but now just by the initials – is a trade organization representing materials handling-related hardware, software and services companies. But in recent years it has really upped its profile by trying to gain more general prominence for the industry and the organization, and is also trying to attract interest from regular supply chain and logistics practitioners beyond the employees of its member companies. SCDigest believes the computers will in fact be making a lot more supply chain decisions on their own, without need for human intervention, or at most a rapid review of the plan. That really started in a sense with its "Materials Handling Roadmap," a major work that was based on input from hundreds of industry professionals and led by Dr. Kevin Gue , now of the University of Louisville. That document presented a vision for where materials handling systems across the supply chain were headed, and identified key technologies that would likely be essential to that evolution, if not in some cases a revolution. That was followed up in 2015 with a new style of annual report from MHI. In the past, these reports had generally focused on economic numbers and forecasts relative to materials handling systems and equipment sales, data of course of much interest to its member companies. But last year’s report, prepared in partnership with consultants from Deloitte, almost completely revamped that model, with use of much survey data from supply chain professionals and details on eight new technologies that will have a big impact on future supply chains, technologies first called out in the 2014 Roadmap. The 2016 report, just released in conjunction with MHI’s MODEX show in Atlanta two weeks ago, provides an updated view of those technologies, and now […]