THE MATERIAL HANDLING INDUSTRY’S “ROADMAP” has arrived.

The 67-page document, designed to help the material handling and logistics industry identify key supply chain trends over the next 11 years and suggest ways to capitalize on them, was made public in mid-January. The “U.S. Roadmap for Material Handling & Logistics” was developed over 18 months by more than 100 participants from industry, academia, trade associations, and government. The first draft was released in October 2013 for review and comments; the feedback was incorporated into a second draft released the following month.

Kevin Gue, Tim Cook associate professor of industrial engineering at Auburn University’s Samuel Ginn College of Engineering, served as the document’s editor. A five-person writing team assisted him. The project also involved five trade associations and eight publications. (Among those publications were DC VELOCITY and its sister publication, CSCMP’s Supply Chain Quarterly.)

Gue said he hoped the document, which reflects the “collective mind” of the entire industry, would spawn collaborative solutions to major supply chain challenges. “Many of the issues described in the Roadmap will be addressed by individual companies in response to market forces and advances in technology. But other problems will require disparate groups to pull in the same direction,” he said.

“Standardization, widespread collaboration, securing a
qualified workforce for the future [are all] issues [that] will
require stakeholders to work together in new ways.”
The look at the future comes at a time of solid pres-
ent-day growth for the material handling sector. New
equipment orders grew by 7 percent in 2013 and are
forecast to grow by at least 8. 5 percent this year and 12
percent in 2015, according to a quarterly forecast released
in mid-January by MHI, an international trade group that
represents the material handling, logistics, and supply
chain industry.

Shipments of material handling equipment grew by 7. 4
percent in 2013 and are forecast to increase by 6. 7 per-
cent this year and 10. 7 percent the next year, the report
said. Domestic demand, determined by adding together
domestic and import shipments and subtracting export
shipments, grew 7. 9 percent and is forecast to grow by
slightly more than 7 percent in 2014 and 10 percent in
2015, according to the report.
Imports grew by 3 percent in 2013, down from 17.9
percent growth in 2012. Export growth was flat in 2013,
down from 11. 2 percent in 2012. Imports and exports are
expected to rebound modestly beginning in mid-2014 and
to continue growing in 2015, according to the report.
The forecast looks 12 to 18 months ahead to anticipate
changes in the material handling and logis-
tics marketplace, MHI said in a statement.

“We are optimistic about future outcomes and expect economic fundamentals to favorably support … expansion through 2014 and 2015,” said Hal Vandiver, MHI executive consultant.

Equipment demand is likely to benefit from manufacturers’ introducing more automation into their warehousing and distribution operations. The expectation of improvement in the U.S. and international economies should also provide a boost. The Institute for Supply Management’s At the annual SMC3 winter meeting in Atlanta, Benjamin J. Hartford, transport analyst for investment firm Robert W. Baird & Co., forecast a 20-percent gain in U.S. industrial production this year. Donald Ratajczak, emeritus professor of the J. Mack Robinson College of Business at Georgia State University, forecast at the conference 3 percent growth in U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) this year. Ratajczak also agreed with Hartford’s prediction on expanded industrial production.