The need to engage the average warehouse worker with technology has intensified dramatically, says Lori Keston, sales account executive at Generix Group North America.
All of the problems experienced in e-commerce sales during the pandemic are continuing, says Paul Ambruso, VP and general manager, mobile robotics, at Berkshire Grey. The challenges, however, are opportunities for technology vendors.
Huge growth in sales led to the need to optimize inventory, fulfillment and warehouse operations at Ecentria, say Michael Wohlwend, managing principal of Alpine Supply Chain Solutions, and Andrew Mironov, head of operations at Ecentria.
Today's highly complex supply chain has to contend with a lack of skilled labor, says Dirk Hejnal, CEO of Körber Supply Chain. That necessitates investment in automation technology.
Getting inventory closer to the end user saves money on transportation and is much more eco-friendly, says Corey Apirian, chief executive officer of Davinci Micro Fulfillment.
Seth Patin, CEO and founder of LogistiVIEW, and David Meyn, senior director of distribution at Cintas, discuss optimizing labor visibility and productivity at the uniform company.
Women need to be further empowered if they are to continue their climb to senior management positions in
supply chain and logistics, says Victoria Ma, head of digital innovation at Miebach Consulting.
If any technology is making up for the labor shortage and boosting productivity in the warehouse, it's robotics, says Jake Heldenberg, head of solution design, warehousing, North America, for Vanderlande.
Harpinder Singh, managing partner of Innovation Endeavors, discusses problems to be solved and capabilities of startups to be considered before investing in this space.
Aidan Madigan-Curtis, partner at Eclipse Ventures, discusses what makes technologies in logistics and transportation worthy of serious investment today.