DC Velocity - September 2013

PROFOUND IDEAS DON’T ALWAYS START FROM SCRATCH. SOMEtimes, they are the product of self-evident precepts.

It’s a given that logistics services are paramount in helping disaster-rav-aged countries or regions save lives and rebuild what remains. Yet it took John T. “Jock” Menzies and a group of supply chain executives to leverage that basic maxim and create an online portal connecting the needs of relief organizations with the logistics resources of businesses and individuals.

Menzies, who died tragically Aug. 17 after falling 200 feet from a cable car outside Annapolis, Md., the day before, saw the need following the industry’s response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Leaving the day-to-day operation of a 102-year- old family warehousing business, he co-founded the nonprofit American Logistics Aid Network (ALAN), which would enable relief groups and individuals to post critical supply chain needs online so they could be matched with the capabilities and resources of industry providers.

In getting ALAN off the ground, Menzies drew on his vast logistics experience as chairman of Terminal Corp., a firm founded in 1893 and which Menzies and his brother Scott bought more than 90 years later from their father and uncle. Menzies and his ALAN co-founders understood the power that digital technology could wield in effectively expediting the movement of material and personnel to stricken regions. But he faced immense challenges, not the least of which was migrating the interests of disparate relief groups, each accustomed to doing things its own way, into a shared system.

Menzies was frequently called upon to soothe the often-outsized egos of relief group leaders, persuading them that subordinating their personal agendas to the wider relief effort was the best way to save lives and start communities on the long road to recovery. In that endeavor, Menzies, with his formidable interpersonal skills, excelled.

Ever the diplomat and gentleman, Menzies was careful not to position
ALAN to intrude on established relief relationships. “However, a disaster
always reveals unmet needs. ALAN seeks to open a window on those needs
and a network capable of addressing them,” Menzies said in an interview
in 2009, when he was chosen as one of DC VELOCITY’S “Rainmakers.”
The following January, Menzies and ALAN were tested as never before
when a massive earthquake struck Haiti, killing more than 230,000, leaving
more than 750,000 homeless, and destroying much of the infrastructure in
the impoverished island’s major cities. Menzies, who visited Haiti two
months after the Jan. 12 quake, was staggered by the devastation.

newsworthy

Daifuku Webb Holding Co., which mostly makes material handling equipment and systems for airports and the automotive industries, will buy Wynright Corp. in an effort to boost Daifuku Webb’s presence in the U.S. warehousing and distribution center sector.

Under the agreement, terms of which were not disclosed, Wynright will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of Farmington Hills, Mich.-based Daifuku Webb. The acquisition is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2013, Daifuku Webb said.

Wynright provides conveyor and sortation systems, voice- and light-directed order fulfillment technology, a suite of warehouse control and execution software, robotics, mezzanines, and structures. It is strong in the warehousing and distribution center categories in the United States, an area that Daifuku Webb wants to penetrate.

“The acquisition of Wynright will
strengthen our business in North
America and greatly improve the
services and products we offer our
customers,” said Brian Stewart, chair-
man, president, and CEO of Daifuku
Webb, a subsidiary of Japanese-
based Daifuku Co. Ltd., in a state-
ment. “We have worked together
with Wynright on several projects
and have great respect for their
expertise in designing, manufactur-
ing, integrating, and installing intral-
ogistics solutions that are helping
some of the world’s largest and
fastest-growing companies.”
Wynright is headquartered in Elk
Grove Village, Ill., a suburb of
Chicago, and has regional offices and
manufacturing locations throughout
the U.S. ;