MHI 2016: Listening to the voice of the customer

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State of Logistics 2016: Pursue mutual benefit MHI 2016: Listening to the voice of the customer Global beverage packaging market to reach $200 billion in 2017 MHI 2016: Listening to the voice of the customer MHI announces Modex 2018 exhibit space draw More News Sitting in my basement office on a chilly fall New Hampshire day, it’s hard to imagine that just a week ago, I was sweltering in the heat in Tucson. I traveled west to attend the annual meeting of MHI, the association that represents the materials handling industry in North America. As someone who’s been attending these meetings for years, I want to take my hat off to the organizers. It was one of the largest of these events that I’ve ever been to, and while I did not attend the executive summit, there were more educational events for conference attendees than the past. The theme this year was “Accelerating Change,” something I think everyone is experiencing in their warehousing and distribution operations, if not their broader supply chains. Certainly industries as varied as retail, health care and industrial distribution have had their worlds turned upside down by new customer demands faster than anyone imagined or predicted. What that’s really driving is a need to get closer and closer to the customer – to the real point of demand – in order to meet those demands without breaking the bank. That, in turn, has led to some soul searching within the industry and the association as to how to best accelerate change. Here are a few examples I left Tucson with. The voice of the customer: For some time now, MHI industry groups have talked about inviting end users to their meetings and conferences to hear the voice of the customer. This year, they heard from […]