DC Velocity - June 2014

inbound

Here’s our monthly roundup of recent community service and charitable activities by material handling and logistics companies: Canada-based less-than-truckload and cross-border freight specialist, is working with The Carbon Farmers to plant a tree for every booking SKN Logistics makes. “We’ve had a tremendous response from our customers and are proud to have them helping us create new habitat for wildlife while ensuring a greener future for our children,” says SKN President Sheryar Niazi.

b Port Jersey Logistics created a full-day educational experience for employees’ children to help them connect what they learn at school with what goes on in the actual working world. Following interactive group discussions, the young visitors were tasked with several group projects, including creating their own shipment and preparing it for delivery.

b Bastian Solutions spent a day helping the Hollis Adams Foundation prepare for its annual Mudder’s Day Run, a 5K charity event to support programming for adults with developmental disabilities. Employees helped design and build the 15 obstacles on the course.

b Epicor Software Corp. will hire more than 100 U.S. military veterans over the next 12 months as part of its new Hiring Heroes program, conducted in concert with Hirepurpose and other veterans groups. Epicor President and CEO Joe Cowan also challenged U.S.-based Epicor customers to join in the initiative to make job opportunities available to veterans.

b UPS says it plans to hire 50,000 veterans by the end of 2018, doubling its original five-year hiring pledge made last year as part of the Obama administration’s Joining Forces initiative. In 2013, UPS hired 13,000 veterans, up 30 percent from the prior year.

b FedEx Corp. and the Arbor Day Foundation have launched the Community Tree Recovery program. The program, which distributes seedling trees to communities affected by a natural disaster, has provided trees to towns in New Jersey after Superstorm Sandy and to neighborhoods in Colorado rebuilding from the 2012 wildfires.

Logistics gives back

The need for qualified technicians to install, maintain, and upgrade warehouse technology is becoming critical, and the Integrated Systems & Controls Council, an industry group within MHI, is taking notice. During its spring meeting, held in Charlotte, N.C., in mid-May, the council invited Steve Harrington of the National Center for Supply Chain Technology Education (SCTE) to discuss his organization’s efforts to recruit technicians to the industry. Harrington said there are currently about 200,000 technicians nationwide, but many more will be needed as more companies turn to automated systems and the systems themselves become more complex.

SCTE is conducting a gap analysis of existing technical training programs, identifying the technologies used in the market and the curriculum needed to train technicians. The organization also works with community colleges and trade schools that provide two-year training programs for technicians and assists other institutions with designing material handling technician programs.

To help channel more workers into the industry, MHI is now developing a technician certification program.

Wanted: More material
handling technicians

Will Google and Facebook soon be competing with makers of automated guided vehicles (AGVs) for the best and the brightest engineers? Could be, now that Inc. magazine has cited AGV design and manufacturing as one of the hottest industries for startups in the United States.

As part of Inc.’s 2014 “Best Industries” special report, reporter Christine Lagorio-Chafkin described AGVs as offering a window into “the real, sustainable, and, yes, highly profitable future of robotics.” Although Lagorio-Chafkin’s industry vocabulary is a bit shaky, she does a good job of describing what AGVs do, where they’re used, and what value they bring to factory and warehouse operations. The article also explains why AGVs are hot right now and briefly explores the “human replacement” issue. The story can be read online at www.inc.com/christine-lagorio/best-industries/ automated-guided-vehicles.html.