LAST MONTH I ATTENDED THE MHI EXECUTIVE SUMMIT AND
Annual Conference in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla.
This year marks the 70th anniversary of MHI, one of the industry’s
leading trade associations. One thing that caught my eye during the
meeting was a display board MHI had erected in the hallway outlining
the history of the material handling industry—and a rich history it has
been. While we could probably argue that Hannibal relied on a solid
materials movement plan to cross the Alps, the initial entry on MHI’s
history board was Sir William Fairbairn’s 1850 patent on the industrial
crane. The first roller conveyor incorporating internal ball bearings came
along in 1908, which allowed Henry Ford to perfect the assembly line just
five years later.
Innovation continued as Jervis B. Webb produced
a power-and-free conveyor system in 1919 to better serve the auto industry. Within the next decade,
conveyors were firmly established as the primary
method for handling mass-produced goods. Electric
hoists were introduced to material handling in the
1940s. And in 1943 during his service in World War II
naval logistics, Norman Cahners dramatically changed
product handling with his invention of the four-way-entry pallet, which today remains the industry standard platform for stacking, moving, and storing goods.
The 1950s saw primitive bar-code systems, while
an early automated guided vehicle designed by Mac
Barrett debuted in a warehouse in 1954. Two years
later, the steel shipping container was placed into service at the Port of New Jersey, forever revolutionizing the handling of
goods and ushering in an era of expanded world trade.
Software and controls came to the industry during the 1960s with simple programmable controllers and minicomputers. This was followed by
the implementation of the first universal product code (UPC) in 1974 at
a Marsh’s supermarket in Troy, Ohio.
The supply chain would be transformed in the 1990s, when warehouse
information systems began tapping the potential of Internet connectivity. Radio-frequency identification (RFID), mobile platforms, and
direct-to-person automated systems soon followed, designed to optimize
distribution processes to meet the challenges of same-day processing and
omnichannel fulfillment.
This, of course, got me to thinking what this same chart would display
20 years from now. Will there be milestones marking driverless trucks,
innovations in robotic systems, digital printing of products, and new
energy sources to power equipment? Perhaps someday there will even be
an entry for the distribution of products by beaming them from point to
point in Star Trek fashion. Time will tell, but as history has shown us, it
should be an exciting ride.
bigpicture
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