In a mock warehouse stocked with granola bars, breakfast cereal, sponges, and other household goods, a worker plucks items from shelves and places them in a plastic bin. The bin is set atop a small wheeled robot that follows the employee’s every step like a puppy.

Shippers are forever on the lookout for ways to reduce their transportation costs. Brooks Bentz, president of supply chain consulting with Transplace, offers his view of where the most promising opportunities lie.

Glacier Computer has added the Kodiak Forklift Computer to its line of mobile industrial computing devices.

EnVista Corp. has developed a new direct store delivery (DSD) system for improving beverage deliveries.

Orbis Corp., a manufacturer of sustainable reusable packaging, has introduced what it says is the first plastic, reusable corrugated box to work seamlessly with automated packaging lines.

Challenge: A large Midwest C-store distributor was tasked with utilizing an outdated system to manage their inventory and short shelf products resulting in low user productivity and less than desirable customer service levels. With over 60% of the inventory investment in short shelf life products, the management of obsolete product was ever increasing as the business grew.

Challenge: Family-owned supplier of operating supplies/equipment for global hospitality set out for new WMS system. Requirements: • Automated dispatching to eliminate inaccuracies/inefficiencies associated with manual intervention; • Open integration with voice-picking, ensuring extensibility across warehouse floor; • Real-time reporting/alerting on order fulfillment, improved replenishment process for better use of resources; • Warehouse task-interleaving, eliminating wasted travel time on lifts and vehicles; • Streamlined receiving process, allowing product allocation at line receipt versus at completion.

Cat Phones has developed the Cat S40 rugged smartphone, a durable Android device, for the U.S. market.

A lean operation with a brilliant idea - caffeinated club soda - wants to crack the L.A. market during the spring. Sounds like a slam dunk, but they don't want to commit to a long warehouse lease while they're still getting a foothold. Meanwhile, a Christmas-decoration warehouse sits largely empty. It's a classic missed connection - and it’s common.