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Josef Mentzer is president and chief executive officer of Knapp, with responsibility for operations in North America and customer service in North and Central America and Argentina. He
joined the company in 2003 and served in a number of leadership roles, including chief operating officer, before he was promoted to his current position in 2012. Prior to joining Knapp,
Mentzer worked in the automated storage and rack business as well as the design-build construction industry. He recently spoke with DC VELOCITY Editorial Director David Maloney.
Josef Mentzer
of Knapp
intelligent, with high cube utilization and very
low order-cycle times. They are flexible and
scalable. Those are the attributes of the typical
Knapp system deploying in the past decades.
The market is definitely moving in our direction, which is why we are seeing extreme
growth and success.
Q: AS AN INTERNATIONAL COMPANY, HOW ARE
YOU COPING WITH THE UPHEAVAL IN GLOBAL
MARKETS, INCLUDING THE RECENT SPATE OF TARIFFS, BREXIT, ETC.? DOES IT CHANGE HOW YOU GO
TO MARKET?
A: So far, the factors that you mention that
are impacting global markets have really not
been a factor for Knapp. We are still very
strong in each of the markets we serve. We are
in China, in South America, and of course, in
Europe and here in North America. We are
developing and deploying market-appropriate
solutions in each of our markets. And all of
those solutions will contain some or all of the
typical attributes of a standard Knapp system,
such as being highly automated and intelligent
with high cube utilization. Different markets
have different requirements, but those attributes will be in demand in all of the markets.
We have designed our manufacturing supply chains to address tariffs. So, in areas where
tariffs have traditionally been an issue—for
example, in Brazil or China—those are areas
where we have set up manufacturing. Because
of our current manufacturing base and network, we are in good shape.
Q: HOW IS KNAPP VIEWING THE CURRENT
STATE OF THE SUPPLY CHAIN INDUSTRY?
A: It’s an exciting time for us in this
industry. We see continued e-commerce growth and demand. A new
and growing subset of that is the
click-and-collect portion of e-commerce, coupled with a labor scarcity.
And with that labor scarcity is the
“new collar” job preference.
Q: CAN YOU DEFINE WHAT YOU MEAN BY
THE NEW-COLLAR JOB PREFERENCE?
A: The traditional warehouse job of driving forklifts and moving
boxes around is not really the most desired position for those
entering the job market. And what I call “new collar” does not
necessarily have to be a technology position, but it has to be a
position where you’re interacting with technology. People like
using their phones and their iPads to get things done. They are
used to that.
So, the closer we can design our workstations to work in those
ways, the easier it is for our customers to staff those workstations.
In any case, between e-commerce and click-and-collect, a labor
scarcity, and new-collar jobs—it is just driving demand for highly
automated, intelligent order fulfillment solutions.
Q: HOW DO YOU FEEL YOUR COMPANY IS POSITIONED TO ADDRESS
THOSE AUTOMATION DEMANDS?
A: I would say that demand is currently outpacing supply for those
types of systems. The click-and-collect component is somewhat
unique because these systems are being located in densely populated areas and a lot of times in existing store footprints. Being in
existing stores in highly populated areas, you have to use the cube.
Historically, our systems have always been highly automated and
In our ongoing series of
discussions with top supply
chain company executives,
Josef Mentzer of Knapp
shares his thoughts on the
growth of e-commerce
and meeting “new collar”
job preferences.
