Like most things in life you have your early adopters, mainstream buyers, and your technology laggards. So how do you comfort those with automation phobia when they become members of a high profile project? In short it takes a lot of patience and communications to help eliminate the perceived risk.

It’s the age old question for anyone considering automating their distribution or manufacturing process… Should I work with a material handling equipment integrator that can provide a blend of equipment to fit the unique automation solution, or buy a system from an equipment manufacturer that will provide a turnkey solution utilizing the products they manufacture?

I had the privilege last week, along with my friend and colleague Mark Gaskill, to speak at the Annual Warehouse Education Research Council Conference in Anaheim California. Our topic was “Breakthrough Material Handling Technologies”. This is the 3rd year that I have put together this presentation, highlighting new technologies and exciting uses for existing technologies. With Mark’s help, this was – in my humble opinion – our best presentation of the latest and greatest distribution technologies available on the market. Although the session was a multi-media presentation and lasted about 90 minutes, I will summarize some of the highlights and what I found to be the most interesting topics…

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This is Steve Parsley’s week! Click on the title above to check out this great article entitled, “The Rise of AS/RS” by Kevin T. Higgins in the latest edition of Food Engineering Magazine. Higgins discusses how the flexibility of AS/RS solutions is making the investment easier to justify in terms of the hard-dollar returns, with input from Steve.

In my first article, I discussed a method of quickly testing the applicability of a particular solution without investing a great deal of time or energy in investigating the concept. This “first blush” approach has saved me countless consulting hours by avoiding alternatives that will not pass the test of selection. This, in turn, has allowed me to spend more time on the eligible candidates that hold more promise.