SCDigest editor Dan Gilmore and materials handling editor Cliff Holste are fresh back frim MHI’s MODEX 2016 show in Atlanta last week. We’ve already provided lots of MODEX coverage, including day 1 and day 2 video reviews, plus a written "trip report" in Gilmore’s First Thoughts column last Friday. Beyond that, as we often do here this week we break those full day video recaps into segments, each on one of the cool new solutions Gilmore and Holste discovered at the show, so readers can browse the just ones they are most interested in. This week: be new solutions from those we found on Modex day 1. We start with not a specific vendor, but a discussion on how there are early attempts to use telematics to track pallets in a distribution center without the need to scan them. Use of Telematics for Scanless Pallet Tracking Next, supply chain software vendor Softeon was demonstrating use of voice, including "natural languge" commands, to interact with its Warehouse Management System (WMS). We believe this approach will be commonplace in a relatively few years, an Softeon is out in front of the technology. Softeon was also using regular smart phones for voice, not specialized terminals. Next, voice software provider Voxware was showing a new "prescriptive analytics" solution that was very cool. It showed, for example, the progress of work in loading trucks in a DC, alerted managers if a given truck was behind schedule, and showed the impact if say two more associates were added to work that trailer. Excellent example of where these kind of analytics are headed. Voxware’s Prescriptive Analytics Solution for Distribution Changing gears, a company called AutoGuide featured a new "automomous" automated guided vehicle (AGV) that learns its own environment, greatly simplifying effort to teach it where to […]