Attendees of this year’s Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP) Annual Global Conference (Sept. 26 to 29) will have the opportunity to see demonstrations of new warehouse hardware and software at a “Supply Chain of the Future” lab. CHEP Equipment Pooling Systems, Frazier Industrial, The Raymond Corporation and Vocollect, Inc., will collaborate in these demonstrations.
CHEP will demonstrate Portfolio+Plus, a customer-facing online tool for pallet pool management and administration. Attendees will learn how to submit service requests, perform online corrections and reconciliation, and generate reports. CHEP also will discuss its commitment to environmental stewardship as demonstrated by a life cycle inventory (LCI) analysis conducted in 2009. The report quantifies the CHEP system’s reduction in solid waste, total energy and greenhouse gas emissions.
Frazier will highlight a variety of structural steel storage rack systems, including selective rack, push-back rack, carton flow and pallet flow systems. The simulation will include a demonstration of how Frazier’s SelecDeck Carton Flow System eliminates carton hang-ups and facilitates system reprofiling when retrofitting structural and roll-formed systems without replacing existing shelf beams. Another demonstration will feature the Ergo Beam, which is designed to increase pick rates by providing easier access to hard-to-reach cartons and pallet locations.
Raymond will demonstrate its iWarehouse fleet optimization system. Its green fork-tip laser and Vantage Point system will be installed on seven lift trucks in the simulation, during which pallets will be moved through narrow aisles and in various types of racking systems. The fork-tip laser and the Vantage Point color imaging system’s role in pallet tag identification in high racking will also be demonstrated. Operators will interact with the iWarehouse monitor mounted on the lift trucks while fleet data are transmitted to Raymond’s booth in real time and analyzed.
Vehicle operators will also employ a hands-free and eyes-free voice-centric solution from Vocollect to demonstrate a paperless solution for put-away and replenishment, and case pick-to-pallet. This vendor’s new vehicle-mounted voice solution will also be shown. It will be powered directly from reach and pallet trucks as well as from the battery source from the Vocollect mobile computing appliance. The company also will cover pick-to-tote for store replenishment.
The Supply Chain of the Future Lab will run Sept. 26 to 28, 2010, at the CSCMP Conference at the San Diego Convention Center in San Diego.