The Material Handling Industry Association has been active in promoting both organizational and more public, commercial projects in the last few months. For one thing, MHIA’s Order Fulfillment Council, as part of its mission to “promote the ability, flexibility and versatility of the various components of order selection, staging, and storage,” is publishing an online Order Fulfillment Equipment Guide. The guide is meant to represent the widest possible variety of technology from the order fulfillment segment of the supply chain. The guide is scheduled for publication in 2005; for more information, or to be included in the guide, contact mailto:[email protected] or call (800) 345-1815.
The Automatic Guided Vehicles Industry section of MHIA has reported that new systems business for AGV technology increased more than 50% in the first half of 2004. AGVs are driverless vehicles used to move material in assembly, production, and distribution. Maturation of technology and consequent increase in its cost-effectiveness are credited, at least in part, for the significant increase in its use. A video on use of AGVs is available to watch at http://www.agvssolutions.com,
And as part of the biannual ProMat 2005 being held in Chicago next month, the MHIA has developed a 25,000-sq.-ft. RFID Knowledge Center to help educate attendees about this much-hyped technology and its applications in material handling. The center will feature a multimedia presentation, a live demonstration of RFID tag possibilities, and meetings with many companies that are concerned with RFID adoption. The MHIA promises to answer such questions about RFID as what it really can do for the supply chain, how to get started implementing the technology, and what the business case is for implementation. For more information, visit http://www.mhia.org.