To stay competitive in today’s e-commerce environment, material handling manufacturers must address customer challenges in the supply chain and logistics industry with smart, leading-edge technology that can maximize performance and keep customers always on.

At MODEX 2018, we heard that customers want efficient, effective and innovative solutions tailored to meet their individual plant needs. Driving most of these demands are the challenges plant managers face while trying to find skilled labor (64 percent) and pressures to meet faster response times (73 percent).¹

To address these industry issues, product innovations and new technologies are beginning to change the way facilities operate. Below are some of the key innovations we saw at MODEX that are transforming today’s manufacturing supply chain.

• Automated guided vehicles (AGV) — As customers compete to meet e-commerce demands, fully automated self-driving vehicles can help with lane stacking, horizontal towing, and conveyor interfacing to increase efficiency and accuracy. Optimal for distribution centers of 200,000 square feet or more, these trucks are ideal for repetitive and time-consuming tasks — allowing plant managers to reallocate operators’ time to more value-added jobs. Additionally, semi-automated solutions can make production and distribution processes quicker while helping operators reach higher proficiency levels faster and making operations run more effectively.
• High-capacity reach trucks — As customers continue to build up rather than out, high-capacity reach trucks help businesses optimize space use in their buildings and store heavy pallets in almost any location. Trucks that allow for increasingly heavy loads and now reach higher than ever before offer pallet storage from eight to 10 levels, creating 25% more storage space in warehouses.

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