Before getting to the take-aways, I'm going to start with the "Take-To's". You might be wondering what in the world a Take-To is, so let me start with a brief background, a story setting if you will. It won't take long, so here goes. I live in Florida, ProMat was in Chicago, and my flight was on January 21st. There now, that was easy.
The first Take-To comes by way of my sister, a modern day prophet, Kimmy. Two Christmas' ago, she gave me a big North Face winter coat with hood and plenty of puffy. That coat hung nicely in my closet for months and every once in a while I'd stare at it thinking, 'When in the world am I going to need this thing?' I'd get better use out of it by laying it down it in the attic and using it as insulation or wrapping it around my water heater to save on electricity! Well Kimmy had a Phelan (that’s a pun on our last name) that MHIA would move the show back to balmy January instead of when they had it in 2011, in tropical March. That coat was AWE-SOME, thanks Kimmy!
The second Take-To was my iPad, which was also a gift a couple years ago from my parents for Father's Day. Although since I got it, I've used it a lot more than I used that coat from my sister, I always felt that I never took advantage of the productivity benefits that it could provide. So I finally came to some rationale thought and bought the app that lets you do all of the word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, etc. that you would do on a laptop. The app was around $20, which is huge in the app world since everyone is ironically programmed to not spend more than $0.99 cents on a program to run on their $400+ device. With my word processing ability, wireless keyboard and internet connectivity, I could take pictures, scan vendor QR codes, take notes, and if I received and email from work that required immediate attention, I could take care of business as if I was on my laptop at work. Furthermore, I didn't feel compelled to grab all various exhibitors’ promotional material and knick-knacks and carry around with me all day looking like a middle school WonderDork with two arm-fulls of books and papers while carrying a man-purse overflowing with squishy stress balls, cheap pens, and fake leather portfolios with random manufacturer's logos emblazed on the front cover. So thanks mom and dad for that iPad and not let me relive the WonderDork experience from 26 years ago.
The final Take-To was a lot of one dollar bills. It seems that in Chicago, a 30 second helping hand costs $2. Putting luggage in a trunk of a cab, asking for a cab, asking where to ask for a cab each costs $2. So if you wallet is full of $5's, $10's or $20's, you have to ask yourself, 'am I really going to ask this guy to break an Andrew Jackson while we shiver outside during the Ice-Age after he just hurled my luggage into the trunk of a former police cruiser now cab or do I just stiff him?'. So in split seconds you contemplate if you'll ever see this guy again? Did he get a good look at your face and who around here does he tell about you? Man its cold, just take the $20! You get in the cab realizing what you did, only to then further realize that you still don't have any ones in your wallet and this cab driver is going to pull you luggage out of his trunk when we get the airport.
Now that I'm at 635 words into this article (thank you iPad word processing app feature) I should probably get to the subject, ProMat 2013 take-aways. Although I haven't seen the figure, it felt like the traffic at the show seemed a lot more than the previous 2 ProMat events. Additionally, there seemed to be fewer exhibitors with mega-booths full of huge equipment set ups. In general, there were more smaller-sized booths that used videos and touch screens to show demonstrations of their products, which were probably not only more cost effective for the vendors, but probably more effective in displaying multitudes of real world applications. Also, due to the consolidation in the industry over the past few years, there were simply less big name manufacturers exhibiting which made it feel a little bit different than in the past. All that being said, I had three main take-aways from the show:
Take Away Number 1; Good to Person (GTP) technology. The last couple of ProMats featured a handful of manufacturers displaying unit and mini-load Automated Storage and Retreival Systems (AS/RS). Daifuku, Mecalux, HK Systems, Dematic, Intelligrated and FKI Logistex were some of the big names with big booths displaying their technology and there were other smaller companies doing the same. In general, these displays left the attendees viewing the technology to imagine how they would apply it in their operations. All were amazed at how the cases can be stored and retrieved so easily in such a dense cubic space, but something was missing.
This year's show featured a newcomer, OPEX, displaying their iBot driven mini-load coupled with a pick/put to light workstation on both ends. This display clearly showed the entire solution; to be able to present a received case via a conveyor to an operator at the GTP station, have the operator scan it and place on the iBot shuttle, and the iBot shuttle delivering it to the computer-assigned storage location. Immediately after the iBot left to find a home for the case, another iBot showed up with a case full of product. The adjacent take away conveyor at the GTP station had four zones, each zone with an empty shipper carton has a light bar attached to the conveyor frame. The light bars indicated which shipper needed product and provided a quantity for the GTP operator to pick from the case on the iBot and put in the appropriate shipper. When the batch was complete, the iBot left and another presented itself with more products to batch pick and place until the shipper orders were complete. The GTP station could even be equipped with the typical packstation gear (tapers, scales, labelers, etc..) so that the shipper can go straight to the loading dock when complete. There were other GTP displays, including an extremely impressive one from SSI Schaefer, but the OPEX was my favorite since, although a high technology solution, there was something very basic about it as well. It’s a very modular, easily expandable, and also simple to learn and use solution. I expect that the GTP concept to become extremely popular in e-commerce order fulfillment centers and the OPEX solution to lead the way.
Take Away Number 2; Shifting the focus toward solutions and not just equipment. As previously mentioned, in years past, there was significantly more hardware on the floor. This year, booths had chairs, tables, coffee or espresso machines and people wanting to talk about engineered solution development. Of course there were equipment displays, but more so were video screens, tablets and laptops all pre-loaded with case studies or sample applications of their equipment in various environments. When I mention this, I do so as it relates to TriFactor’s interest and specialty, which is as a material handling systems integrator focusing on warehouse or distribution center automation. ProMat featured many other subsets of the material handling industry including forklifts and a litany of industrial commodities that, because they are commodities, they require on-the-floor equipment or product displays.
After noticing this as well as noticing how there were more smaller booths with exhibitors marketing their services as consultants, design/builders, or any other name for an engineered solution provider, I realized that the material handling industry has finally turned the corner and is making the same strides that the construction industry did 20 years ago. End users and engineered solution providers are doing more collaborating on the front-end design work and then partnering on the system implementation using cost plus contracts that require an open book with multiple equipment and/or services bids and applying an agreed upon profit margin. TriFactor has been doing this for the past 10 years with a 3-step process that we call the TriFactor EdgeTM. Our process continues to be refined as we implement lessons learned from our projects and get feedback from our customers.
Our position has always been for customers to pick their partner first based on who they trust to provide the highest probability of success, and then figure out a way to work together and at the same time satisfy corporate commercial and legal business requirements. Time and time again this has proven to produce more successful projects then compared to the old school RFQ approach, which leads to mistrust, change orders and a lot of other negatives that take away from what should be a good working relationship considering how important these projects are in defining operational compatibilities and associated labor costs.
Take Away Number 3; There is a heartbeat to America’s economic engine, consumer spending. In general, the material handling industry lags a lot of other industries in our economy, specifically those directly relating to consumer spending. A simple example would be any given retail store chain and its associated supply chain. When the consumers purchase more and more items from the store, the volume of shipments needed to replenish the store also increases. Eventually, the distribution center that supports the store with the growing demand meets their terminal velocity based on their existing material handling system and personnel. This typically is the reason why distribution centers expand or new ones are built, thereby requiring the material handling systems and services from same or similar vendors that were at ProMat. So when I saw more people at ProMat on Monday afternoon, which is considered a “travel day” and normally lightly attended, then I had seen on the past two ProMat’s Tuesdays, which is normally the most popular day, there must be a reason!
Granted, it is easily recognized that in the heart winter, people find any excuse possible to flock to Chicago, so that may have skewed the numbers a bit. However, I think the likely reason why the show was so popular this year is that we are, and have been for a while, in a recovery economy and a lot of distributors simply cannot support their current demand with the lean infrastructure that helped them survive the Great Recession. While walking down aisles at the show, I couldn’t help but notice the company names on the name tags of the people passing me by. It felt like every big name retailer or wholesaler had presence and, on top of that, there were countless names of companies that I didn’t even recognize. All that tells me is that, at a minimum, there is a lot more consideration for distribution center investments than there has been in quite a while, which is positive news for all of us.
In summary, 2013 saw the best ProMat since at least 2007 and I’m fortunate to have gone to witness the event. Chicago is a wonderful host city, full of energy, great food and so socially diverse that is was just neat for a small town Florida boy to witness a big city MLK Day with all of spirit of the Dream that goes along with it. Maybe that’s why MHIA moved it back to January. Genius!
