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Month: May 2023

Logistics in Ukraine: Still Going

Posted on by David Priestman

Ukraine’s ports, where the lion’s share of freight traffic was carried out, are still closed, writes Alex Horbenko, Editor of Logistics in Ukraine. Airports are not working. Neither air passenger nor freight transport is possible. Ukrainian logistics has switched exclusively to rail and road transport. However, businesses operate 7 days a week: you can receive a parcel ‘the same day’, resolve issues online and make payments in any form. What challenges does the transport and logistics sector face, how does it overcome obstacles, and are there opportunities?

Maersk believes there are. In early March, the company issued an official release on direct bookings to Ukraine, which was suspended a year ago. For this purpose, a new weekly barge was launched from the port of Constanta, Romania, to the port of Reni, Ukraine. The service is now fully operational on two routes – via the Constanta/Danube Canal and the Black Sea. Transit time is approximately 1.5 days.

You can make a reservation and you will need to register in the system. Why is it important for the country’s logistics? The ‘Grain Corridor’ is only about grain, and not all of it. For other products from Ukraine, we need railways, road transport and ports like the Port of Reni. By the way, the port of Reni did not stop working for a single day last year, moreover, it dredged the water area and showed the best result in all the years of independence. The volume of cargo handled in 2022 was 6.5 times higher than in the previous year.

This means that the risks have been taken into account and the opportunities have been assessed. And they are. An interactive map of investment and business opportunities has been launched in Ukraine.

How is it useful and to whom? Potential investors. To find business partners, the map has an intuitive interface. Select a region, go to the region’s page in the lower right corner, look at project options, and send a request. The map contains 81 projects and covers 14 industries: agriculture, construction, transport and logistics, processing, food, fuel, light/heavy industry, tourism, education/development, mining, waste management, healthcare, administrative and support services.

Despite the war, investors are coming in. They are probably guided by Warren Buffett’s opinion: “Don’t hold on to money during a war. For the next 50 years, it is much better to have working production assets than pieces of paper.” Investors are building. Right now. In a time of war. Under rocket fire, they invest in development.

For example, Nestle Ukraine is launching a production hub in the Lutsk district of Volyn region. 40 million Swiss francs will be invested in expanding production by 1,500 jobs. The company plans to make this hub a food and culinary centre that will supply products to European markets.

What technologies are trending?

Prefabricated modular buildings. The Sklad Service company, which provides integrated logistics solutions, comments on this: “Prefabricated buildings can be installed in a couple of months and have a lifespan of 50 years, requiring less initial investment. They can be deployed on almost any hard site. This is an advantage for companies. For example, we recently installed a warehouse for Agromat company in less than a quarter, a 75-metre-long warehouse on a site with a height difference of 700 mm, with no complex foundation work.”

Companies in Ukraine are highly digitalised. Money transfers are made minute by minute, managers work through all social networks and messengers, and clients receive answers in a couple of minutes. Of course, there are companies that have left the market. But there are also those who have spotted an empty niche from competitors and have made a bet on winning.

 

Otto Launch AMRs in Europe

Posted on by David Priestman

OTTO Motors, a leading provider of autonomous mobile robots (AMRs), announced their formal expansion into the European market at LogiMAT Stuttgart. With over fourteen years of robotics experience and more than 4 million production hours in mission critical environments, OTTO Motors is solving labour and safety challenges with its established AMR fleet at manufacturing facilities and warehouses globally.

As one of the first AMR providers to support the interoperability standard VDA5050, OTTO AMRs have made over 15 million autonomous deliveries last year alone across more than 200 facility installations globally. OTTO has delivered results for the world’s most recognized manufacturing brands with its pioneering AMR technology and award-winning software, designed to improve productivity and efficiency of material handling operations. GE Aerospace saved $1.3 million in the first year, while Faurecia Interior Systems achieved an 11-month ROI. Mauser Packaging Solutions increased throughput by over 600%, and Danfoss removed over 70,000 manual touches annually.

“OTTO Motors leads the material handling automation industry in North America with the world’s most comprehensive AMR portfolio and the largest AMR deployments with the deepest integrations globally,” said Matt Rendall, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of OTTO Motors. “We’re expanding our unmatched expertise and experience into the European market to better serve our global customer base and improve material handling operations worldwide.”

OTTO AMRs are already driving productivity improvements for customers in Europe through our OTTO Certified Network. Hand-selected through our rigorous evaluation process, these experienced manufacturing organizations are certified and trained to develop, deploy and service end-to-end OTTO Motors’ solutions. OTTO Certified partners, including Guidance Automation and Orbel Grupo, are helping support the growing European market by designing, installing and maintaining the industry’s smartest AMR solutions in Europe.

“As demand for AMRs rapidly increases, we’re proud to be part of the OTTO Motors Partner Network and offer the world’s leading material handling solutions to improve productivity, safety and efficiency for our customers across Europe,” said Dr. Paul Rivers, Managing Director of Guidance Automation. “With over thirty years in the industry, our customers come to us for our experience, credibility and expertise. We’re committed to partnering with organizations that also leverage cutting edge, yet mature automation technology to optimize business operations.”

Otto Launch AMRs in Europe

Posted on by David Priestman

OTTO Motors, a leading provider of autonomous mobile robots (AMRs), announced their formal expansion into the European market at LogiMAT Stuttgart. With over fourteen years of robotics experience and more than 4 million production hours in mission critical environments, OTTO Motors is solving labour and safety challenges with its established AMR fleet at manufacturing facilities and warehouses globally.

As one of the first AMR providers to support the interoperability standard VDA5050, OTTO AMRs have made over 15 million autonomous deliveries last year alone across more than 200 facility installations globally. OTTO has delivered results for the world’s most recognized manufacturing brands with its pioneering AMR technology and award-winning software, designed to improve productivity and efficiency of material handling operations. GE Aerospace saved $1.3 million in the first year, while Faurecia Interior Systems achieved an 11-month ROI. Mauser Packaging Solutions increased throughput by over 600%, and Danfoss removed over 70,000 manual touches annually.

“OTTO Motors leads the material handling automation industry in North America with the world’s most comprehensive AMR portfolio and the largest AMR deployments with the deepest integrations globally,” said Matt Rendall, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of OTTO Motors. “We’re expanding our unmatched expertise and experience into the European market to better serve our global customer base and improve material handling operations worldwide.”

OTTO AMRs are already driving productivity improvements for customers in Europe through our OTTO Certified Network. Hand-selected through our rigorous evaluation process, these experienced manufacturing organizations are certified and trained to develop, deploy and service end-to-end OTTO Motors’ solutions. OTTO Certified partners, including Guidance Automation and Orbel Grupo, are helping support the growing European market by designing, installing and maintaining the industry’s smartest AMR solutions in Europe.

“As demand for AMRs rapidly increases, we’re proud to be part of the OTTO Motors Partner Network and offer the world’s leading material handling solutions to improve productivity, safety and efficiency for our customers across Europe,” said Dr. Paul Rivers, Managing Director of Guidance Automation. “With over thirty years in the industry, our customers come to us for our experience, credibility and expertise. We’re committed to partnering with organizations that also leverage cutting edge, yet mature automation technology to optimize business operations.”

Government Action Needed to Decarbonise Logistics Sector

Posted on by David Priestman

The UK Government must ensure policy supports the decarbonisation of London’s logistics sector if the UK is to meet net zero ambitions, according to a new report released today.

Installing rooftop solar panels across all logistics spaces and clarifying the electrification of HGVs across the Capital, are two of the three recommendations made to Government today by planning and development consultancy, Turley, and the London Industry and Logistics Sounding Board (ILSB) as part of The Accelerating Logistics Towards Net Zero report. The report highlights the issues facing London’s logistics sector.

Logistics remains one of the largest emitting sectors in the UK. Transport alone produced 24% of the UK’s total emissions in 2020. While the Government has a programme to confirm the way forward for zero carbon HGV fuels by 2030, this new report argues this will be too late for the logistics sector. Instead, Turley and the ILSB are calling on Government to provide interim direction and policy support, to allow investment that supports the rollout of hydrogen or electric-powered HGVs for nationwide fossil-fuel free fleets.

Businesses like Amazon are already committing to a sustainable HGV future. The retail giant is investing £300m in the UK to decarbonise its fleet and replace with electric HGVs, electric vans, and eCargo bike fleets, as well as rolling out fast charging infrastructure. Other organisations are delaying due to the lack of clarity on the way forward. A second recommendation calls for further support to speed up the deployment of rooftop solar panels on warehouses in London and the rest of the UK.

Existing warehouse roof-space across the UK could host 15GWp of solar power, doubling the nation’s current total installed capacity without any loss of land. However, only 5% of warehouses currently have solar panels installed, according to the UK Warehousing Association.

The report argues that slow grid upgrades, regulation around sharing and selling energy generation, and the need to embrace smart management is holding back the rollout of solar across the logistics industry. A need to embrace complexity is hindering the development of the last mile logistics sector too. Last mile delivery can significantly cut the carbon footprint of deliveries across London, by bringing storage closer to the point of delivery, with different vehicles like electric vans, bikes, drones, autonomous robots and even walking supporting the final stage of delivery.

However, as last mile logistics can be so variable in nature and needs to be closely located with other uses, a flexible and positive approach is required from a planning/policy perspective. Both the public and private sector will need to think more creatively to incorporate local distribution hubs in strategic urban locations where this type of space is needed the most.

Barny Evans (pictured), Director, Sustainability, at Turley, said: “The logistics sector is the lifeblood of our economy. The industry recognises it is a significant source of GHG emissions and other environmental impacts; it is eager to accelerate its decarbonisation. There’s a responsibility on Government to unlock the barriers to this, and provide the policy needed.”

Sarah Bevan, Director, Planning & Development at BusinessLDN and co-founder of the Industry and Logistics Sounding Board, said: “Logistics is one of the fastest growing sectors for the economy and substantially impacts aspects of all businesses across the Capital and UK. Like all high carbon-emitting sectors, regulatory certainty and policy reforms are necessary to drive innovative solutions, such as HGV decarbonisation, and investment in renewable energy solutions like rooftop solar installations to reduce our carbon footprint. “That’s why it’s imperative that steps are taken now to decarbonise the sector and help us reach net zero before it is too late.”

Jules Pipe, Deputy Mayor of London for Planning, Regeneration and Skills, added: “Our net zero targets are ambitious and if we are to meet them the decarbonisation of energy intensive sectors like logistics is critical. Businesses operating in the sector have a key role to play but Government support will be equally important. This report calls on Government to speed up the decarbonisation of one of our most important sectors and proposes three key areas for action.”

Alan Holland, Managing Director for Greater London at SEGRO, added: “SEGRO and many of our customers are making huge strides towards the transition to net zero carbon, but success will also be measured on whether the whole sector can lower its carbon emissions not just a proportion of those operating within it. To be effective, much of this collective action and investment needs to be matched by having the right public infrastructure and a smart approach for how we plan the use of land. We welcome this report’s exploration of some of the key challenges, we encourage industry peers to embrace the innovation opportunities it identifies and we ask for policy makers to act on its recommendations.”

Government Action Needed to Decarbonise Logistics Sector

Posted on by David Priestman

The UK Government must ensure policy supports the decarbonisation of London’s logistics sector if the UK is to meet net zero ambitions, according to a new report released today.

Installing rooftop solar panels across all logistics spaces and clarifying the electrification of HGVs across the Capital, are two of the three recommendations made to Government today by planning and development consultancy, Turley, and the London Industry and Logistics Sounding Board (ILSB) as part of The Accelerating Logistics Towards Net Zero report. The report highlights the issues facing London’s logistics sector.

Logistics remains one of the largest emitting sectors in the UK. Transport alone produced 24% of the UK’s total emissions in 2020. While the Government has a programme to confirm the way forward for zero carbon HGV fuels by 2030, this new report argues this will be too late for the logistics sector. Instead, Turley and the ILSB are calling on Government to provide interim direction and policy support, to allow investment that supports the rollout of hydrogen or electric-powered HGVs for nationwide fossil-fuel free fleets.

Businesses like Amazon are already committing to a sustainable HGV future. The retail giant is investing £300m in the UK to decarbonise its fleet and replace with electric HGVs, electric vans, and eCargo bike fleets, as well as rolling out fast charging infrastructure. Other organisations are delaying due to the lack of clarity on the way forward. A second recommendation calls for further support to speed up the deployment of rooftop solar panels on warehouses in London and the rest of the UK.

Existing warehouse roof-space across the UK could host 15GWp of solar power, doubling the nation’s current total installed capacity without any loss of land. However, only 5% of warehouses currently have solar panels installed, according to the UK Warehousing Association.

The report argues that slow grid upgrades, regulation around sharing and selling energy generation, and the need to embrace smart management is holding back the rollout of solar across the logistics industry. A need to embrace complexity is hindering the development of the last mile logistics sector too. Last mile delivery can significantly cut the carbon footprint of deliveries across London, by bringing storage closer to the point of delivery, with different vehicles like electric vans, bikes, drones, autonomous robots and even walking supporting the final stage of delivery.

However, as last mile logistics can be so variable in nature and needs to be closely located with other uses, a flexible and positive approach is required from a planning/policy perspective. Both the public and private sector will need to think more creatively to incorporate local distribution hubs in strategic urban locations where this type of space is needed the most.

Barny Evans (pictured), Director, Sustainability, at Turley, said: “The logistics sector is the lifeblood of our economy. The industry recognises it is a significant source of GHG emissions and other environmental impacts; it is eager to accelerate its decarbonisation. There’s a responsibility on Government to unlock the barriers to this, and provide the policy needed.”

Sarah Bevan, Director, Planning & Development at BusinessLDN and co-founder of the Industry and Logistics Sounding Board, said: “Logistics is one of the fastest growing sectors for the economy and substantially impacts aspects of all businesses across the Capital and UK. Like all high carbon-emitting sectors, regulatory certainty and policy reforms are necessary to drive innovative solutions, such as HGV decarbonisation, and investment in renewable energy solutions like rooftop solar installations to reduce our carbon footprint. “That’s why it’s imperative that steps are taken now to decarbonise the sector and help us reach net zero before it is too late.”

Jules Pipe, Deputy Mayor of London for Planning, Regeneration and Skills, added: “Our net zero targets are ambitious and if we are to meet them the decarbonisation of energy intensive sectors like logistics is critical. Businesses operating in the sector have a key role to play but Government support will be equally important. This report calls on Government to speed up the decarbonisation of one of our most important sectors and proposes three key areas for action.”

Alan Holland, Managing Director for Greater London at SEGRO, added: “SEGRO and many of our customers are making huge strides towards the transition to net zero carbon, but success will also be measured on whether the whole sector can lower its carbon emissions not just a proportion of those operating within it. To be effective, much of this collective action and investment needs to be matched by having the right public infrastructure and a smart approach for how we plan the use of land. We welcome this report’s exploration of some of the key challenges, we encourage industry peers to embrace the innovation opportunities it identifies and we ask for policy makers to act on its recommendations.”

eBook: Data Driven Logistics

Posted on by David Priestman

Logistics Business magazine, together with the Information Factory, have produced a 7 page digital magazine on data in transport logistics. Editor Peter MacLeod talks to iFactory CEO Robert Jordan to understand how transport businesses can drive up profitability by adopting a data-driven approach. Learn how to transform data into insights and decision-making power.

Read the free eBook here.

A framework for being data driven

“Information about the package is as important as the package itself,” said Fred Smith, founder and chairman of FedEx. And it’s easy to see why. Data is generated at every stage of the logistics process. When integrated, organised and managed properly data tells you how your business is performing. More importantly, data can be used to predict future outcomes. And ultimately what you need to do to get to where you need to be. The iFactory call this being data driven.

The great thing about your data is that you don’t need to invest huge amounts of time and money in order to start out on your data driven journey. Cost effective business intelligence tools will quickly show how you’re doing against your company and department KPIs.

Predictive analytics and data science systems offer more advanced functionality such as demand forecasting, dynamic pricing and route planning. And, for those with more complex requirements, data can be used to power decision support systems that support strategic and operational work at all levels of the organisation.

The imperative faced by companies operating in today’s supply chains is to use their data to integrate with other players upstream and downstream. If they can’t they are increasingly redundant. And likely to be less efficient and more costly than those that can.

The Information Factory have developed a simple framework to help companies harness the power of their data; Strategy, Delivery, People & Culture and Technology. The recommendations in the framework have all been road tested in live situations and come from clients who’ve already embarked on their data driven journey.

And, if you’re attending Transport Logistic in Munich between May 9 – 12, you have an open invitation to visit the iFactory on stand A3 605.

eBook: Data Driven Logistics

Posted on by David Priestman

Logistics Business magazine, together with the Information Factory, have produced a 7 page digital magazine on data in transport logistics. Editor Peter MacLeod talks to iFactory CEO Robert Jordan to understand how transport businesses can drive up profitability by adopting a data-driven approach. Learn how to transform data into insights and decision-making power.

Read the free eBook here.

A framework for being data driven

“Information about the package is as important as the package itself,” said Fred Smith, founder and chairman of FedEx. And it’s easy to see why. Data is generated at every stage of the logistics process. When integrated, organised and managed properly data tells you how your business is performing. More importantly, data can be used to predict future outcomes. And ultimately what you need to do to get to where you need to be. The iFactory call this being data driven.

The great thing about your data is that you don’t need to invest huge amounts of time and money in order to start out on your data driven journey. Cost effective business intelligence tools will quickly show how you’re doing against your company and department KPIs.

Predictive analytics and data science systems offer more advanced functionality such as demand forecasting, dynamic pricing and route planning. And, for those with more complex requirements, data can be used to power decision support systems that support strategic and operational work at all levels of the organisation.

The imperative faced by companies operating in today’s supply chains is to use their data to integrate with other players upstream and downstream. If they can’t they are increasingly redundant. And likely to be less efficient and more costly than those that can.

The Information Factory have developed a simple framework to help companies harness the power of their data; Strategy, Delivery, People & Culture and Technology. The recommendations in the framework have all been road tested in live situations and come from clients who’ve already embarked on their data driven journey.

And, if you’re attending Transport Logistic in Munich between May 9 – 12, you have an open invitation to visit the iFactory on stand A3 605.

Next-Generation Vision Provider

Posted on by David Priestman

With eCommerce booming, vision provider Cognex is helping to accelerate warehouse automation with a range of standard, easy-to-use logistics solutions.

The global increase in eCommerce triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic saw functions within warehouses stretched to breaking point as businesses struggled to fulfil record volumes of goods. Furthermore, consumer demands for greater levels of availability, affordability, speed and sustainability drove companies to seek ways to increase throughput without sacrificing accuracy.

There are two fundamental ways a warehouse can process throughput higher than it was originally designed to do – either invest in additional infrastructural capacity or find ways to maximise its existing assets. The latter is normally the most cost-effective option but is often limited by factors such as available space. However, the simplest ways to increase the rate at which boxes, parcels, packets and cartons are conveyed – placing the items closer together on the conveyor, or increasing the speed of the belt, or both – means existing scanning technologies may struggle to accurately read items at speeds with which they were not designed to cope.

Next-Generation Scanning Technology

Whilst the capabilities of scanning technology are constantly evolving, poorly printed, torn, or otherwise damaged labels and barcodes can prove to be a barrier. A solution to reducing and eliminating misreads lies with next-generation machine vision hardware and lighting which performs better and decodes better with every new release. The latest cameras are capable of cycling at much faster rates and therefore offer multiple shots of a single barcode as it progresses through its field of view, allowing the software multiple opportunities to understand the data it is asked to process. “That multiple shot enables us to look at more symbologies and angles at a higher resolution,” says Piers Quarry, Strategic Manager, Project Solutions Team at machine vision provider Cognex. “We are seeing increasingly better performance on shiny materials, odd angles, slightly crinkled labels, which previously may have been misread.”

To overcome the challenge of items placed closely together on a conveyor, the latest iteration of vision scanning technology features the steepest-ever camera angles. Combined with (3D vision) technology for precise barcode assignment, the barcodes of two packages in close proximity can be very accurately assigned not just to the correct package, reducing misreads while increasing throughput, but also to the right face on that package, giving extra data that adds intelligence to the system. “We’re striving to get camera angles as steep as possible to look down between items and achieve that higher throughput,” says Quarry.

Simple Solutions

Ultimately, these high-throughput facilities have the most to gain by incremental increases in performance of scanning technologies. But many much smaller businesses with a logistics function within their operations can also benefit greatly from some of the simpler scanning technologies currently on the market.

Even the simplest hands-free barcode scanning solutions, many of which are ‘plug-and-play’, feature high levels of functionality. Offering next-generation lighting, a variety of fields-of-view, and benefits such as a high-speed steerable mirror (HSSM) to move the field of view with the operator, they can be tailored to suit businesses of every shape and size. Previously, pallet scanning, aggregation, and large area scanning functions required expensive, high-resolution PC-vision, or two or more smart cameras to successfully read the high volume and variation of barcodes. Now, an HSSM attached to Cognex’s DataMan 470 fixed-mount barcode reader can provide a high-performance, cost-effective solution for large field of view applications.

“These simple hands-free solutions are opening people’s eyes to what they can do with barcode reading,” says Quarry.

The warehouse of the future will rely on the integration and optimisation of multiple logistics functions all incrementally improving as they collect and analyse data along every step of the way, from goods-in to dispatch. Vision scanning will play a significant part in the outright effectiveness of the facility, for any one bottleneck in the system has implications for the overall efficiency of the entire operation.

“Vision in logistics is a most exciting area for us,” says Quarry. “Cognex is a visionary company which, in logistics, has previously been heavily concentrated on barcode readers. But actually, its pedigree is about using vision for multiple applications across multiple industries. That makes us very excited about being able to deploy more of that into the logistics industry to optimise this cutting-edge sector.”

Whatever the size or shape or location the warehouse of the future will be, one thing is certain – vision technology will be key to accelerating warehouse automation.

Next-Generation Vision Provider

Posted on by David Priestman

With eCommerce booming, vision provider Cognex is helping to accelerate warehouse automation with a range of standard, easy-to-use logistics solutions.

The global increase in eCommerce triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic saw functions within warehouses stretched to breaking point as businesses struggled to fulfil record volumes of goods. Furthermore, consumer demands for greater levels of availability, affordability, speed and sustainability drove companies to seek ways to increase throughput without sacrificing accuracy.

There are two fundamental ways a warehouse can process throughput higher than it was originally designed to do – either invest in additional infrastructural capacity or find ways to maximise its existing assets. The latter is normally the most cost-effective option but is often limited by factors such as available space. However, the simplest ways to increase the rate at which boxes, parcels, packets and cartons are conveyed – placing the items closer together on the conveyor, or increasing the speed of the belt, or both – means existing scanning technologies may struggle to accurately read items at speeds with which they were not designed to cope.

Next-Generation Scanning Technology

Whilst the capabilities of scanning technology are constantly evolving, poorly printed, torn, or otherwise damaged labels and barcodes can prove to be a barrier. A solution to reducing and eliminating misreads lies with next-generation machine vision hardware and lighting which performs better and decodes better with every new release. The latest cameras are capable of cycling at much faster rates and therefore offer multiple shots of a single barcode as it progresses through its field of view, allowing the software multiple opportunities to understand the data it is asked to process. “That multiple shot enables us to look at more symbologies and angles at a higher resolution,” says Piers Quarry, Strategic Manager, Project Solutions Team at machine vision provider Cognex. “We are seeing increasingly better performance on shiny materials, odd angles, slightly crinkled labels, which previously may have been misread.”

To overcome the challenge of items placed closely together on a conveyor, the latest iteration of vision scanning technology features the steepest-ever camera angles. Combined with (3D vision) technology for precise barcode assignment, the barcodes of two packages in close proximity can be very accurately assigned not just to the correct package, reducing misreads while increasing throughput, but also to the right face on that package, giving extra data that adds intelligence to the system. “We’re striving to get camera angles as steep as possible to look down between items and achieve that higher throughput,” says Quarry.

Simple Solutions

Ultimately, these high-throughput facilities have the most to gain by incremental increases in performance of scanning technologies. But many much smaller businesses with a logistics function within their operations can also benefit greatly from some of the simpler scanning technologies currently on the market.

Even the simplest hands-free barcode scanning solutions, many of which are ‘plug-and-play’, feature high levels of functionality. Offering next-generation lighting, a variety of fields-of-view, and benefits such as a high-speed steerable mirror (HSSM) to move the field of view with the operator, they can be tailored to suit businesses of every shape and size. Previously, pallet scanning, aggregation, and large area scanning functions required expensive, high-resolution PC-vision, or two or more smart cameras to successfully read the high volume and variation of barcodes. Now, an HSSM attached to Cognex’s DataMan 470 fixed-mount barcode reader can provide a high-performance, cost-effective solution for large field of view applications.

“These simple hands-free solutions are opening people’s eyes to what they can do with barcode reading,” says Quarry.

The warehouse of the future will rely on the integration and optimisation of multiple logistics functions all incrementally improving as they collect and analyse data along every step of the way, from goods-in to dispatch. Vision scanning will play a significant part in the outright effectiveness of the facility, for any one bottleneck in the system has implications for the overall efficiency of the entire operation.

“Vision in logistics is a most exciting area for us,” says Quarry. “Cognex is a visionary company which, in logistics, has previously been heavily concentrated on barcode readers. But actually, its pedigree is about using vision for multiple applications across multiple industries. That makes us very excited about being able to deploy more of that into the logistics industry to optimise this cutting-edge sector.”

Whatever the size or shape or location the warehouse of the future will be, one thing is certain – vision technology will be key to accelerating warehouse automation.

Sealed Air Announces New Corporate Brand SEE

Posted on by David Priestman

Sealed Air Corporation has announced it has officially changed its corporate brand to SEE®, taking the next step in reinventing the company. Sealed Air has evolved its corporate and iconic brands to SEE, showcasing a market-driven, customer-first, solutions company. SEE partners with customers to deliver packaging solutions integrating Automation, Digital and Sustainability, creating significant value for their businesses.

SEE’s growth and earnings performance has significantly increased over the last five years built on the SEE Operating Model and executed by the SEE Operating Engine and SEE Operational Excellence.

Commenting on SEE’s corporate rebrand, Ted Doheny, President and CEO said:
“We are relentlessly reinventing SEE from product driven to a world-class, market-led company powered by automation, digital and sustainable packaging solutions.”
“SEE is making the future of packaging real and we expect this to enhance our valuation.”

SEE supplies packaging for more than 30 billion products globally each year. SEE’s new corporate brand represents the power of its brands and solutions that include equipment, services and materials. The company has grown and evolved beyond what it once was, and the new corporate brand and logo are a direct reflection of that transformation. SEE is continuously redefining what packaging does and can do by integrating automation, digital and sustainability into solutions that exceed the needs of its customers.

Automation: SEE enables customers to unlock productivity and savings by designing, manufacturing, sourcing and delivering automated packaging solutions with paybacks shorter than 3 years. The company is on a path to more than double its automation portfolio by 2027.

Digital: SEE’s digital printing and online value-added services empower brand owners to improve business performance and operational efficiency. The company expects over 80% of its sales to be transacted digitally by 2027. SEE’s solutions reach consumers through engaging and cost-effective digital designs and content.

Sustainability: SEE continuously brings customers new, innovative materials and applications that reduce waste, extend shelf-life, increase protection, enable circularity and reduce carbon impacts of products and packaging. Nearly 20% of its materials portfolio comes from recycled or renewable sources. SEE’s Net Positive Circular Ecosystem makes sustainability affordable for customers by lowering their total cost through automation, digital and innovative packaging solutions.

SEE’s new logo is a visual representation of the next stage in reinventing the company. The three crescents that make up the circle represent automation, digital and packaging with the full circle representing SEE’s purposeful commitment to sustainability and circularity in everything we do.

“We are excited to become SEE,” said Ted Doheny, SEE’s President & CEO. “We are solving our customers’ critical packaging challenges to make our world better than we find it.”

From the History of Sealed Air to the Future of SEE

SEE (under its former trade name “Sealed Air”) began in 1960 after an idea for insulated bubble wallpaper morphed into the iconic BUBBLE WRAP® packaging brand. In 1998 the company acquired Cryovac, establishing new leadership in food packaging. The company has grown into a global organization that provides essential packaging solutions to a vast array of industries including food, fluids & liquids and e-commerce. Over the past five years, the company has made strategic acquisitions that accelerated the reinvention of the company, including the acquisition of APS (automated packaging systems), Foxpak (digital printing capabilities) and Liquibox (fluids & liquids packaging and dispensing). SEE has approximately 17,300 employees across the world and serves customers in 120 countries and territories.

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