Welcome to the May 15th edition of Warehouse & Logistics News. If you were an exhibitor or a visitor at Multimodal, we hope you had a successful show. The high attendance figures speak for themselves. As we move from the traditional model of supply chains to the vision of error-free value chains, known in some quarters as ‘Logistics 4.0,’ there’s a growing need for decision makers to have high quality information about warehousing and logistics, especially on the fulfilment side of online shopping and omnichannel order logistics.
At the next fixture in the calendar, CeMAT, which takes place in Hannover at the end of the month, KNAPP will be embracing the show’s theme of ‘Smart Supply Chain Solutions’ and demonstrating their specialist warehouse automation technologies, designed for Logistics 4.0. Read this story on page 14.
Meanwhile safe racking and storage systems are still at the heart of every warehouse operation in every industry sector and the new CDM regulations for the safe construction and management of pallet racking have been in force now for over a year. As reported on our front cover SEMA has produced a short video, available on their website, giving an overview on how to construct adjustable pallet racking safely.
Our exclusive Warehouse Supplement looks at storage solutions, lighting, flooring, materials handling equipment and the IT needed to run these operations. We have reports from industry experts, among them AMHSA, BITA, FLTA and UKWA and equipment suppliers including Lumilow Lighting, Manbat and The Alternative Pallet Company.
Smart materials handling systems are enabling businesses across the board to be flexible as their needs change. In our Conveying & Sortation feature, the global online retailer Wiggle has commissioned a pack and sortation system from Conveyor Systems, which can process 90 boxes per minute. Tyre makers Goodyear, Continental and Pirelli’s production plants run on automated conveyors from Interroll, who turn out ten million conveyor rolls and roller drives annually. At the other end of the spectrum in terms of the size of the items handled, materials handling spare parts specialist TVH have chosen TGW as automation partner for their new DC in Belgium, with capacity to store more than 400,000 totes.
Once palletised goods leave the warehouse, the final stage in achieving an error-free value chain is to send them care of a logistics partner offering full visibility of goods in transit. Our Pallet Networks feature details the story of how Bow Distribution, part of UPN, has been awarded a rolling contract worth over £250,000 annually from KB Packaging. KB Packaging and UPN’s other customers enjoy access to SmartPOD, the third generation live signature capture app UPN launched earlier this year, linked to its web-based monitoring system.
If you’re going along to CeMAT, we’ll hope to see you there. Auf Wiedersehen!
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