Material handling roadmap report needs industry review

The first draft of the U.S. Roadmap for Material Handling & Logistics has been released and is available for review. Its purpose is to help the industry determine how material handling and logistics challenges can be turned into action plans to develop needed capabilities in the U.S. between now and 2025.

Published on www.MHLroadmap.org, the Roadmap’s report and action plan draft is open for review, comments and additional input from the public until Tuesday, October 15.

“Industry members should be interested because there are some contentious issues in the document, and we want every point of view represented," said, Kevin Gue, the report editor and the Tim Cook Associate Professor of Industrial Engineering at Auburn University’s Samuel Ginn College of Engineering. “For example, is there a future for large-scale standardization? Can privacy concerns be overcome to facilitate widespread collaboration of logistics operations and processes? The implications of these initiatives, should they really be pursued, are tremendous.”

The content of this initial draft is based on input from more than 100 thought leaders, including material handling and logistics practitioners, suppliers, academia, associations and government. They participated in one of four roundtable events held April through June 2013. Attendees contributed their thoughts regarding the capabilities that the industry needs to develop between now and 2025.

In addition to Gue, three other academics who specialize in the field of material handling and logistics participated in the development of the first draft. They include:

• Elif Akcali, Associate Professor of Industrial and Systems Engineering at the University of Florida
• Alan Erera, Associate Professor in the School of Industrial and Systems Engineering at Georgia Tech
• William Ferrell, Professor and Associate Dean of the Department of Industrial Engineering at Clemson 

“We really want feedback on the draft to make sure we’ve correctly represented the collective mind of the industry,” added Gue.

The U.S. Roadmap for Material Handling & Logistics is a collaborative industry effort, association partners from:

• Center for Excellence in Logistics and Distribution (CELDi)
• College Industry Council on Material Handling Education (CICMHE)
• Material Handling Equipment Distributors Association (MHEDA)
• MHI
• Warehousing Education and Research Council (WERC) 

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