It likely comes as no surprise that, in the 2018 MHI Annual Industry Report, the top two challenges reported in today’s supply chain industry are customer demands (73 percent) and hiring qualified workers (64 percent). Research shows these issues show no sign of waning. Predictions show by 2025, nearly 3.5 million manufacturing jobs will need to be filled, and the skills gap is expected to result in 2 million of those jobs going unfilled.

To combat these growing industry challenges, the material handling industry is moving through a digital transformation in which technological innovations are driving massive change in how the supply chain of today — and the future — operates.

There are two key solutions propelling the industry forward and helping companies meet customer demands on the supply chain and shrink the labor gap — automation and virtual reality.

Read the entire article in Manufacturing.Net here.