INPERSON
Since 2005, Markus Schmidt has been president of the Americas region for Swisslog, a Switzerland-based automation and material handling company. During his tenure, the organization has grownto more than 400 people with revenues in excess of $250 million. As president, he implementedSwisslog’s market focus strategy in establishing consumer-goods and e-commerce/retail businessunits in the Americas region, which includes North America and Latin America. He is also a member of the board of Swisslog and serves in the top management circle of Swisslog’s parent company,Kuka. Schmidt, who previously was managing director of Swisslog in the U.K., has also been activelyinvolved with MHI as a member of its Roundtable Advisory Committee.
Markus Schmidt ofSwisslog LogisticsAutomation – Americas
ments, so our people have developed deepexpertise in those industries. The needs ofa refrigerated warehouse handling palletsare quite different from an e-commerceoperation, so we bring the correct resources to bear on every opportunity. While weare global and provide such benefits, we“act local” and have a sizable organizationin the Americas to be close to our customers, not only for support, but also forsoftware and controls deployments and allrelated project services.
Q: WHAT DO YOU FEEL THE NEXT FEW YEARSWILL HOLD FOR AUTOMATION APPLICATIONSWITHIN DISTRIBUTION CENTERS?
A: In the coming years, we expect to seethe increased adoption of flexible and scalable solutions like our CarryPick mobilerobotic storage system, because the systemcan easily and quickly scale up or down asneeded without disrupting operations.
Whether we call it “the Industrial Internet
of Things” or “Industry 4.0,” we are defi-
nitely headed toward a future where the
are closer to the customer. n
