en-us http://www.mmh.com Copyright 2009 Reed Business Information. Subject to its Terms of Use (http://www.mmh.com/info/CA6495349.html) Tue, 10 Nov 2009 11:12:21 PDT http://www.mmh.com/article/CA6702402.html?rssid=394 ProMat 2011 (www.promatshow.com), is returning to Chicago's McCormick Place South. But instead of the traditional January tradeshow, ProMat 2011 is scheduled to be Mar. 21–24, 2011. ProMat is sponsored by the Material Handling Industry of America (MHIA) and brings together manufacturers, consultants, third party logistics providers, publishers and systems integrators to demonstrate their ... Thu, 01 Oct 2009 00:00:00 PDT http://www.mmh.com/article/CA6702403.html?rssid=394 It's a wrap! The Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP; www.cscmp.org) hosted its Annual Global Conference 2009 in Chicago from Sept. 21–23. The event drew about 3,000 supply chain professionals and students from more than 40 countries. Highlights included facility tours to CenterPoint Intermodal Center, UPS and The Pampered Chef; a Learning Exchange forum with product d... Thu, 01 Oct 2009 00:00:00 PDT http://www.mmh.com/article/CA6702404.html?rssid=394 The Beumer Group (www.beumer.com), a supplier of conveying and loading technology, palletizing and packaging, and sortation and distribution technology has acquired the Danish Crisplant AS from U.K.-based financial investor Melrose/FKI. Crisplant supplies baggage sortation systems for airports and delivers sortation technology for service providers in the courier, express and package area. Thu, 01 Oct 2009 00:00:00 PDT http://www.mmh.com/article/CA6702405.html?rssid=394 The Conveyor Equipment Manufacturers Association (CEMA, www.cema.org) recently reported that overall industry billed sales (shipments) for the first six months of 2009 decreased 18.8% compared to the same period in 2008, with total shipments of $3.18 billion. CEMA estimates industry orders (bookings) of $2. Thu, 01 Oct 2009 00:00:00 PDT http://www.mmh.com/article/CA6702408.html?rssid=394 Last month, Diamond Phoenix announced that it had been acquired by System Logistics, the logistics division of System Group S.p.A., a $500 million a year industrial trading company based in Modena, Italy. Tom Coyne, Diamond Phoenix's (www.diamondphoenix.com) CEO was enthused by the deal. "Our new company is poised to become one of the fastest-growing players in our business, which is automated ... Thu, 01 Oct 2009 00:00:00 PDT http://www.mmh.com/article/CA6702410.html?rssid=394 Toyota Material Handling, U.S.A. (TMHU, www.toyotaforklift.com) recently announced the retirement of its chairman and CEO Shankar Basu. During his decade-long tenure as president and CEO of TMHU, Basu was influential in catapulting the company to its No. 1 lift truck supplier ranking. Modern Materials Handling caught up with Basu and talked with him in an exclusive interview about what's ahead ... Thu, 01 Oct 2009 00:00:00 PDT http://www.mmh.com/article/CA6702411.html?rssid=394 The economy has probably bottomed, but the turnaround is at least nine months in the future. That was the view presented by Douglas Holtz-Eakin at the Material Handling & Logistics Conference sponsored by HK Systems (www.hksystems.com) in Park City, Utah, one year after the collapse of the U.S. banking system. Thu, 01 Oct 2009 00:00:00 PDT http://www.mmh.com/article/CA6696668.html?rssid=394 The Warehousing Education and Research Council (WERC, www.werc.org) has named interim executive director Michael J. Mikitka its new chief executive officer. Mikitka has been the principal architect of WERC's annual conference for the past eight years and stepped up to the plate as the organization's interim leader, providing leadership during a time of transition. Tue, 01 Sep 2009 00:00:00 PDT http://www.mmh.com/article/CA6696669.html?rssid=394 What's pink and weighs 1,224 pounds? The world's largest cupcake! On August 15, Alta Lift Truck Services (www.altalift.com) volunteered the use of a Yale GLC155CA lift truck with a 15,000-pound lifting capacity to move the world's largest cupcake as it was inducted into the "Guinness Book of World Records" at the Dream Cruise Classic Car Show in Detroit. Tue, 01 Sep 2009 00:00:00 PDT http://www.mmh.com/article/CA6696670.html?rssid=394 In 1929 the U.S. was introduced to the Ford station wagon, the Academy Awards and R&M Materials Handling (www.rmhoist.com) of Springfield, Ohio. Throughout the 20th century, R&M grew to offer hoists, winches and overhead cranes to automobile factories, including Westcott, Russell-Springfield, Kelly Steam, Frayer-Miller and Ford. Tue, 01 Sep 2009 00:00:00 PDT http://www.mmh.com/article/CA6696671.html?rssid=394 "We advance Manufacturing Education" is a new initiative that will be launched this fall by the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME) Education Foundation (www.smeef.com). The campaign will raise funds needed to support youth programs and scholarships, address perceptions of manufacturing as a career, and advance education in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Tue, 01 Sep 2009 00:00:00 PDT http://www.mmh.com/article/CA6696675.html?rssid=394 Jungheinrich AG's (www.junheinrich.com) electric rider, narrow-aisle and pallet trucks (Class 1, 2 and 3) will be offered in the U.S. alongside Mitsubishi Caterpillar Forklift America's (MCFA, www.mcfa.com) IC (Class 4) models. This is part of a manufacturing and distribution agreement that takes effect at the beginning of 2010. Tue, 01 Sep 2009 00:00:00 PDT http://www.mmh.com/article/CA6696677.html?rssid=394 Even in the best of times, successful warehouse management is a balancing act between competing objectives like space utilization vs. organizational flexibility, picking speed vs. accuracy, and increased throughput vs. decreased labor costs. Recent economic conditions have intensified the challenge, with increased scrutiny of capital expenditures and more demanding requirements on return on inv... Tue, 01 Sep 2009 00:00:00 PDT http://www.mmh.com/article/CA6696678.html?rssid=394 Nissan North America (NNA) has become the first vehicle manufacturer to commercially deploy methanol fuel cells to power materials handling equipment at its Smyrna, Tenn., assembly plant. The methanol fuel cells from Oorja Protonics (www.oorjaprotonics.com), OorjaPac, provide a more energy-efficient and cost-effective battery-charging process for the 60 tuggers that are used to transport thousa... Tue, 01 Sep 2009 00:00:00 PDT http://www.mmh.com/article/CA6696679.html?rssid=394 Man in brown, Marty Peters, 87, is retiring from UPS in Detroit after 63½ years of service. The longest tenured employee in the company's history, Marty joined UPS in March of 1946 straight from service in the U.S. Army in World War II. During the 1940s, he earned 95 cents an hour and braved frigid Michigan winters in a delivery truck without a heater or a defroster. Tue, 01 Sep 2009 00:00:00 PDT http://www.mmh.com/article/CA6676862.html?rssid=394 Enhancing its software product line and extending its reach into complex conveyors and sorters found in large-scale distribution facilities, Reddwerks (www.reddwerks.com), a provider of warehouse performance management (WPM) software and solutions, has completed its acquisition of SeayCo (www.seaycointegrators. Sat, 01 Aug 2009 00:00:00 PDT http://www.mmh.com/article/CA6676863.html?rssid=394 Local California agency stopwaste.org (www.stopwaste.org) received a $35,000 grant from U.S. EPA Region 9 to expand the "Use Reusables" campaign into communities throughout California's Bay Area. The campaign helps businesses reduce costs and improve environmental performance by replacing limited-use pallets, boxes and other transport packaging materials with reusable alternatives. Sat, 01 Aug 2009 00:00:00 PDT http://www.mmh.com/article/CA6676864.html?rssid=394 The Packaging Machinery Manufacturers Institute (PMMI, www.pmmi.org) has launched "Troubleshooting Packaging Machinery," an online self-study course open to all packaging professionals. The e-course is offered through PMMI U, the institute's training and development effort. Developed in cooperation with the University of Florida, the course presents entry-level theory, process and logic of trou... Sat, 01 Aug 2009 00:00:00 PDT http://www.mmh.com/article/CA6676865.html?rssid=394 Make old bar code technology new. Ryzex, (www.ryzex.com) a mobile technology services company, has launched a contest to identify the world's oldest working bar code data collection device. "The Big Upgrade" (www.bigupgrade.com) competition provides participants with a chance to turn old data capture equipment into new technology. Sat, 01 Aug 2009 00:00:00 PDT http://www.mmh.com/article/CA6676871.html?rssid=394 Despite the downward turn in the global economy, total revenue earned from radio frequency identification (RFID) transponders, readers, software and services is expected to exceed $5.6 billion in 2009, according to the latest market data from ABI Research (www.abiresearch.com), a New York-based market intelligence company specializing in global connectivity and emerging technology. Sat, 01 Aug 2009 00:00:00 PDT