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Month: January 2024

Green, Electric Forklifts at LogiMAT

Posted on by David Priestman

Under the motto “CLARK Forklifts: green, sustainable, and strong”, the industrial truck specialist Clark will be presenting numerous innovations in the field of electric counterbalance trucks and warehouse technology at LogiMAT in Stuttgart from 19 to 21 March 2024.

The highlights of Clark’s trade fair appearance in Hall 9, Stand 9D41 include three new electric forklift truck series with lithium-ion technology, which are intended to replace and supplement the existing Clark electric forklift truck fleet. The new electric forklift trucks are designed for a wide range of applications. With the emission-free electric forklifts, which can compete with IC engine-powered forklifts in terms of performance, Clark is fulfilling the desire of many operators to make their intralogistics more sustainable and climate-neutral. The new electric forklift truck series with 48 and 80 volts cover load capacities from 1.6 to 3.5 tonnes. With numerous ergonomic improvements and modern safety functions, they ensure maximum efficiency with a low total cost of ownership.

Clark will also be presenting sustainable product innovations in the warehouse technology sector: For example, Clark is presenting the revised SRX16 reach truck with Li-ion technology, the LWio15 and PWio20 electric low-lift pallet trucks, which were launched on the market in 2023, and the SWX16 electric high-lift pallet truck.

The LWio15 low-lift pallet truck with a load capacity of 1500 kg is designed for light transport tasks and for use over short distances. The device is equipped with a long-lasting and powerful Li-ion battery, which makes the LWio15 a reliable helper in industry, trade and logistics. It also proves its worth in space-critical work areas and narrow aisles. The pallet truck drives and lifts purely electrically, so that the operator can operate the device without any effort.

For more demanding applications in pedestrian operation, the PWio20 low-lift pallet truck with a load capacity of 2000 kg comes into play. This manoeuvrable pallet truck proves its worth particularly when transporting heavy loads in goods distribution, production or warehousing. The pallet truck is supplied with a Li-ion battery (24 V, 100 Ah) and an integrated charger. The compact and lightweight PWio20 is ideal for use in confined working areas, such as warehouse zones, sales rooms or for transporting on lorries. The side support castors ensure excellent stability and climbing ability on uneven surfaces or ramps.

Thanks to its exceptional manoeuvrability, the Clark SWX16 high lift truck with a load capacity of 1600 kg is unbeatable when goods need to be moved quickly and safely in confined spaces with a hand-operated device. With a maximum lift height of 5500 mm, the pedestrian stacker can also reach higher shelves. The standard Clark SpeedControl (CSC) ensures safe operation by automatically adjusting the travelling speed to the position of the tiller. The standard proportional hydraulic control ensures safe and precise storage and retrieval of loads. The SWX16 is available with a 24 Volt, 205 Ah Li-Ion battery.

Fulfillment Experience Insights Dashboard

Posted on by Keith McKinley

Manhattan Associates (NASDAQ: MANH), a global leader in supply chain commerce, today launched the ‘Fulfillment Experience Insights’ dashboard to give retailers a real-time assessment of how their omnichannel fulfilment performance stacks up against the industry. Fulfillment Experience Insights provides continuous benchmarking of fulfillment performance, proactively informing retailers how they compare against a large pool of peers and competitors. This realtime ‘actuals versus actuals’ comparison avoids the inherent latency of most benchmarking tools.

Included in Manhattan Active® Omni, this new capability gives retailers a single view of digital order fulfillment KPIs like store pickup conversion, shorts and abandonment, time to fulfill and more. Retailers can evaluate, measure and adjust their supply chain execution strategies using aggregated and anonymized data from the Manhattan Active cloud ecosystem. This unique analytical tool, which includes the ability to quickly pivot between various timeframes, provides detailed insight into the experience a retailer is delivering for their customers.

“Introducing cutting-edge innovation like the Fulfillment Experience Insights Dashboard is one of the reasons Manhattan continues to be ranked the only leader in omnichannel order management,” said Amy Tennent, senior director of Product Management at Manhattan. “For the first time ever, retail operations teams can see exactly how they are performing against the rest of the industry. This is a complete game changer, because they now have a starting point to begin creating more efficiency and improving fulfillment performance for their customers.”

Manhattan is uniquely capable of developing this solution because hundreds of the world’s top brands use its fulfillment execution tools to process millions of orders every week. Drawing upon this extensive knowledge and experience, the company has skillfully identified the key performance indicators crucial to fostering growth and maximizing revenue.

Last year, Manhattan launched the first-of-its-kind Unified Commerce Benchmark which measured 286 customer experience capabilities across four segments. Of these four primary segments, ‘Promising & Fulfillment’ returned the lowest scores by a significant margin. Manhattan’s new dashboard gives retailers their real-time performance in this critical area, helping them become Unified Commerce leaders.

 

Intralogistics Performance is Paramount

Posted on by David Priestman

Automation solutions offer enormous potential when it comes to internal material flow. At this year’s LogiMAT trade show in Stuttgart, Germany, Linde Material Handling (MH) will be demonstrating the options available to small, medium-sized and large companies and showing how a wide range of project requirements can be successfully implemented. Energy, Safety and Warehouse Intelligence will be further key topics in focus at the centrally located exhibition booth in Hall 10. Offering the broadest portfolio of energy and safety options for industrial trucks and leading technical material flow solutions, the intralogistics specialist supports its customers on their way to greater efficiency, sustainability and performance.

Occupying more than 500 square meters, Linde MH’s main booth in Hall 10 (Booth B21 and B17) highlights current trends in intralogistics: Automation, Energy, Safety and Warehouse Intelligence. On display will be corresponding products and solutions which are designed to optimize the internal material flow. A live demonstration will showcase flexible and scalable automation solutions involving automated guided vehicles (AGVs) and autonomous mobile robots (AMRs). Just a few meters away from the exhibition stand, in the loading yard between Halls 8 and 10, visitors can test forklifts for themselves or get an up-close look during vehicle demonstrations. Examples include various reversing assistance systems, such as the AI-based Reverse Assist Camera, that alert industrial truck drivers to people in the vicinity behind them. Additional exhibition space that offers hands-on experience with various vehicle models is located in the outdoor area between Halls 9 and 10.

“The Linde brand represents top performance in goods handling. This is achieved through innovative products and solutions, a high level of user-friendliness, a wide range of active and passive safety and assistance systems, customized individual solutions and the comprehensive consulting expertise of our sales organization. Our products and solutions ensure maximum productivity even under the most demanding operating conditions, such as those found in the beverage, paper, wood, food and chemical industries,” says Torsten Rochelmeyer, Senior Director Strategy & Solution Portfolio at Linde MH.

At LogiMAT 2024, Linde MH will showcase its expertise as a competent partner for the automation of material flow processes. “Together with our network partners, we have successfully planned and implemented hundreds of projects in recent years,” reports Rochelmeyer, referring to the sales organization’s extensive expertise and experience gained in small and large projects alike. Alongside this, standardized solution packages are available for simple transport tasks. “This allows existing brownfield processes in particular to be automated more quickly,” says the Linde trade show manager. The company’s automation experts can resort to a large product portfolio when it comes to implementing projects: The range extends from AMRs such as the Linde C-MATIC and the Linde C-MATIC HP, to automated pallet stackers (Linde L-MATIC) and tow tractors (Linde P-MATIC) all the way to reach trucks (Linde R-MATIC) and VNA trucks (Linde K-MATIC). Where complex automated material flow systems are required, colleagues from the Group’s sister company Dematic will be involved, whose booth in Hall 10 is directly adjacent to the Linde MH area.

The Energy area of the exhibition covers the company’s broad spectrum of available energy types, with a focus on the X-series electric counterbalanced trucks with lithium-ion batteries. They are just as powerful, robust and ergonomic as ICE-powered trucks, but are emission-free and potentially CO2-neutral in operation. However, diesel, LPG, CNG, lead-acid batteries, fuel cells and HVO (Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil) are also available as power options. “Visitors who want to find out about suitable energy systems for their current or future fleet will be offered software-assisted advice that provides an initial assessment based on the requirements, general conditions and customer-specific situation. This can be followed by further analysis within the company,” explains Rochelmeyer. Another focus will be on the Linde connect fleet management system. In addition to access control, damage monitoring, vehicle and driver management, fleet usage analysis and predictive maintenance, the Linde connect:charger software module provides intelligent control of battery chargers, helping to avoid expensive power peaks.

In general, the following applies to all warehouse activities: The safer the internal material flow, the higher the productivity and thus the contribution to the company’s success. Using a reach truck equipped with extensive safety features, Linde MH demonstrates how fleet operators can ensure smooth processes and protect their employees. The features range from a large number of driver assistance systems such as the Linde Safety Guard for the mutual warning of pedestrians and drivers and the Rack Protection Sensor for avoiding collisions with racks and goods to various lighting solutions and protection systems like the Dynamic Mast Control system for reducing mast vibration.

In the Warehouse Intelligence area, guests can learn how to make their warehouse even more efficient and dynamic with the help of modular software solutions. An application consisting of a warehouse management system, a forklift guidance system and a warehouse control system provides real-time visualization of the warehouse through a three-dimensional view and shows the driver the fastest route to the destination. In the process, it automatically tracks the movements of the load carriers across changing storage locations, which ensures a high degree of transparency. The software is also capable of integrating and controlling various automated systems such as AGVs and shuttles.

Palletised Freight Years of Service

Posted on by David Priestman

Palletised freight distribution network, Pall-Ex Group, is celebrating a business milestone with 193 of its longest-serving employees collectively reaching 1,800 years of service. Each with continuous employment spanning from three to 45 years, the employees have been celebrated in a new long-service initiative brought about by the company. An awards ceremony recognising employees for their length of service is set to become an annual event, honouring their excellent dedication and commitment.

Long-service recognition is given to those employees that reach three, five and ten years, then every five years thereafter. Across Pall-Ex Group, 14% of its employees have reached their ten-year milestone, with the longest serving achieving an impressive 45 years’ service.

Employees across the business are given a range of benefits in addition to continuous training and incentive schemes to boost performance and encourage development. Those now achieving a long-service milestone are presented with a certificate and commemorative pin by Senior Management, along with additional holidays and bonus payments ranging from £100 to £1,500.

Among those who received the award was Ian Hooper who has been with the Pall-Ex Group team at Intercounty Distribution for 45 years. Commenting on his achievement Ian said: “No two days are the same at Pall-Ex which has kept my role interesting and varied over the years. From being a teenage boy, all I ever wanted to do was drive a truck for a company that values me and that is what I have been doing nearly all my working life. I am very proud to have worked for Intercounty Distribution as part of the Pall-Ex Group for over 45 years. It has been my second home and I have learnt a lot along the way, with far more training and technology now in place to assist me. I’d encourage anyone looking for a first job or new job to take a look at joining Pall-Ex as it has so much to offer.”

UK Managing Director Barry Byers added: “We’d like to offer all those employees who have been recognised many congratulations on their achievement. We are incredibly thankful for the unwavering dedication and loyalty of all our long-serving employees. Their commitment and passion continue to drive the business forward as we strive for excellence, and we are incredibly grateful to them, and all staff, as part of our Pall-Ex Group family.”

Commit to Supply Chain Efficiency

Posted on by Keith McKinley

TradeBeyond has announced that OBI, Germany’s top DIY brand and a major player in home and garden retail across Europe, has selected TradeBeyond’s multi-enterprise platform for an extensive supply chain digitalization project. TradeBeyond’s CBX Suite will help OBI to optimize its supply chain end-to-end, from supplier management to its sourcing, quality, order management, and production processes for their own sourcing organization OBI Group Sourcing (OGS) in Asia.

TradeBeyond will replace OGS’s manual systems with efficient, interoperable cloud-based solutions based on real-time data, allowing the company to bring products to market faster and more cost effectively. The decision to partner with TradeBeyond comes at a crucial time, as OBI seeks to modernize its operations and maintain its competitive edge in a rapidly evolving market while moving beyond analogue systems that create inefficiencies and data re-entry challenges.

OBI’s adoption of TradeBeyond comes as tightening ESG regulations across Europe, including the new German Supply Chain Act (LkSG) and the European Union’s impending Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive, are necessitating higher standards and more rigorous data collection from retailers than ever before. These legal requirements align with OBI’s commitment to social responsibility, which is why the company has made ESG an integral part of its future strategy.

“We recognized early that manual supply chain processes were inefficient and no longer up to the task of ensuring the sustainable products that our customers expect,” said Thorsten Bauer, Managing Director and Vice President Asia from OGS. “We were impressed by TradeBeyond’s deep understanding of the complexities of global sourcing, and by the company’s strong presence in Asia. Our partnership with TradeBeyond demonstrates our commitment to a more efficient, responsible supply chain, and to our customers. We’re proud that as we continue to scale, we’ll be able to ensure we do so sustainably.”

“Retailers across the globe, and especially across Europe, are realizing that outdated, legacy supply chain processes fall short in monitoring compliance and managing the mounting complexities created by new global supply chain due diligence laws,” said Tim Chiu, Senior Vice President at TradeBeyond. “By choosing to partner with TradeBeyond, OBI has reinforced its commitment to sourcing to the highest standards of responsibility, while staying at the forefront of supply chain innovation. It’s a privilege working with such a respected, forward-looking retail institution.”

OBI’s implementation of TradeBeyond will unfold in phases over the next year, with the first release set to go live by early 2024. TradeBeyond’s tailored implementations allow brands and retailers to address their greatest needs first so they can realize rapid efficiencies and cost-savings from the platform sooner.

Interoperable Solutions for Supply Chain Resilience

Posted on by Keith McKinley

Blue Yonder, a leading supply chain solutions provider, today announced the release of its largest product update in the history of the company, launching the first set of interoperable solutions across the entire supply chain – from planning to warehouse, transportation, and commerce – delivered on the company’s Luminate® Cognitive Platform. Leaning into interoperability allows Blue Yonder to provide its customers with increased productivity, reduced waste, and more resilient supply chains.

“Today’s supply chains are operated by a fragmented ecosystem of legacy solutions, with many being stitched together over time with custom configurations and code,” said Duncan Angove, CEO, Blue Yonder. “While many supply chain solution providers claim to offer end-to-end capabilities, it is typically confined to planning or execution spaces where they’ve integrated their own product suites. Blue Yonder is changing that. With this release, we are redefining end-to-end supply chains, and establishing a new category of solutions with interoperable capabilities aligned with our vision to create the supply chain operating system for the world.”

End-to-End Interoperability

As manufacturers, logistics companies, suppliers, and retailers look to build greater resilience and mitigate market volatility in their supply chain, they are often hampered by: siloed business processes and communications breakdowns, lack of visibility, disconnected solutions, and burdensome workflows across planning, transportation, warehouse, e-commerce, and last mile fulfillment. This can lead to inventory waste, high costs, loss of sales, slow responsiveness, lack of resilience and more.

Solving these supply chain challenges requires companies to coordinate and streamline planning and execution management across the end-to-end ecosystem. This includes:
● Orchestrating sourcing, production, logistics and network strategies in a single operating system to shorten lead times, improve service levels, optimise operational efficiencies, maximise demand, and reduce cost.
● Aligning predicted customer demand, network capacity, warehouse capacity, labour capacity, and transportation scheduling prior to sourcing or allocating goods for seamless inventory flow and reduced overhead.
● Building logistics loads that factor in real-time, on-shelf inventory to balance customer demand and waste, generating maximum revenue and margin.

Blue Yonder’s interoperable solutions answer these challenges by:
● Connecting processes, systems, and data seamlessly across Blue Yonder’s Supply Chain Planning and Execution solutions, providing a smarter, more scalable, real-time digital twin to streamline and accelerate enterprise-wide decision-making.
● Offering the end-to-end visibility needed to understand how decisions or actions impact adjacent teams so businesses can work synchronously toward a unified goal.
● Deeply embedding artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) within the systems to drive decisioning, recommendations, and actions to support a future of autonomous supply chains.
● Ensuring all solutions connect through a single source of data, allowing true real-time collaboration across functions.

The result is more agile, coordinated decision-making that reduces costs, increases revenue, and improves customer loyalty.

Interoperability Enabled by Cutting-Edge Technology Innovations

Blue Yonder’s interoperable solutions are made possible as a result of three key strategic investments by the company:
1) Cloud Native Architecture on a Cognitive Platform: Blue Yonder’s Luminate ® Cognitive Platform is the industry’s premiere cloud-native supply chain platform, delivering enterprise-level speed, scale and security with upgrade-safe extensibility across workflows, data models, and functions. The platform offers infinite intelligence with unconstrained computing power, a single source of truth, and a reimagined user experience. Because Blue Yonder’s cloud-native applications all run on this centralised platform, this then allows companies to make faster, higher-quality decisions; eliminate data siloes; uplevel team performance by increasing productivity and accelerated adoption; and unlock capacity by leveraging the power of embedded AI.

2) Composable Microservices: A composable approach enables companies to augment and enhance existing technologies with Blue Yonder’s industry-leading IP and patented solutions — transforming business functions at the speed and scale that’s right for each company’s business. Blue Yonder’s composable microservices are small, deployable components that each offer a discrete set of capabilities, seamlessly integrated on connected workflows to solve specific functional needs, and interoperable with existing Blue Yonder solutions so businesses can innovate without the need to rip and replace existing investments. With Blue Yonder, businesses can start with the application stack they need today knowing they can easily add capabilities they want, when they’re ready. And instead of lengthy monolithic projects, Blue Yonder offers Composable Journeys, which are implementation paths tailored to the specific vision and budget of each customer and rolled out in phases that can provide expedited time to value.

3) Platform Data Cloud, Powered by Snowflake: Blue Yonder is among the first enterprise supply chain solutions companies building applications to natively run on the Snowflake Data Cloud. Blue Yonder’s Platform Data Cloud, Powered by Snowflake, makes it easy to deliver the right data, at the right location, at the right time by bringing together all the required data to run your supply chain in a centralised location. By combining Blue Yonder’s market-leading supply chain technology and IP with the Snowflake Data Cloud’s powerful capabilities, Blue Yonder is changing the game for its customers by reducing the cost, complexity and time required to transform data while enabling interoperability between applications and collaboration across clouds. Learn more here.

“For years, the supply chain industry has had a data problem – there’s too much of it, it’s scattered across disparate solutions, and sharing has become so risky that some organisations have simply come to avoid it. By partnering with Blue Yonder, Snowflake is helping joint customers address these challenges by centralising data into a single source of truth, reducing the latency in decision-making, and making sharing secure, fast and easy,” said Tim Long, Global Head of Manufacturing, Snowflake. “Together, we’re enabling data, system and business process interoperability by connecting Blue Yonder’s entire end-to-end supply chain portfolio to a Blue Yonder’s Platform Data Cloud, Powered by Snowflake. Now, Blue Yonder’s solutions can deliver scale and performance that allow customers to significantly accelerate time to value, unlock team productivity, and drive greater resilience.”

Next Generation Planning

The first set of microservice-based solutions that bring together all of these interoperable features is Blue Yonder’s cognitive planning solutions. This holistic offering natively runs on the Luminate Cognitive Platform to deliver all the cognitive capabilities needed to support supply chain leaders in achieving higher forecast accuracy, accelerating decision making, and building a more resilient supply chain with fewer resources. Cognitive planning solutions are cloud-native and combine the latest data management technology with Blue Yonder’s proven supply chain planning IP.

Blue Yonder’s cognitive planning solutions also leverage the power of Blue Yonder Orchestrator, the company’s generative AI capability that allows businesses to fuel more intelligent decision-making and faster supply chain orchestration. Learn more about this capability here.

“Cognitive planning takes business planning accuracy and speed to the next level by empowering companies to realise their performance objectives. It does this by allowing them to be aware of critical events and prescribing solutions to manage risks and opportunities in both demand and supply, improving planner productivity and supply chain resilience,” said Angove.

Notably, these advanced solutions empower users to apply hundreds of demand-driving variables and patented ML models to provide unique demand projections, while factoring in business impact and risk. This allows planners to map out various scenarios, set boundaries and objectives, then fire-and-forget. The advanced algorithms autonomously reduce the problem scope to a logical set of scenarios that are realistic and most applicable. Embedded predictive AI evaluates this feasible set of scenarios and recommends the top scenarios that optimise pre-set objectives. This AI/ML-powered scenario planning reduces the average time taken from hours or even days down to minutes and allows planners to focus on more strategic decision-making and actions rather than just collating data.

Synchronised Execution

Blue Yonder is revolutionising supply chain execution by enabling seamless, autonomous collaboration across the execution network to drive unprecedented efficiency, resiliency, agility, and better customer experiences. Synchronised Execution strengthens supply chain resiliency with end-to-end execution interoperability and helps businesses manage disruptions in an optimal and automated fashion by synchronising the data and business process workflows across the order, warehouse, transportation, and resource domains. Customers will achieve operational resiliency through real-time situational awareness, real-time decision making, and the ability to predict and prevent disruptions. As an example, business process interoperability allows a business to seamlessly reallocate orders in the case of an inbound supply shortage, or create iterative optimisation loads to handle warehouse disruptions, or determine the optimal way to fulfill an order, even if it is sourced from multiple nodes.

“Retailers, manufacturers, suppliers and logistics service providers will achieve superior performance with intelligent insight and informed decisions to ensure they are ahead of every disruption with complete visibility at every point of execution. With advanced customer insights about buying behaviour and preferences, businesses can make informed decisions about inventory allocation, optimised fulfillment, transportation planning and warehouse operations,” shared Angove.

Solutions launched in this space include:
● Analyst Workbench delivers a new, user-friendly experience to explore data, visualise metrics and generate insights. These new, innovative capabilities deliver end-to-end visibility across the network and the ability to mix, match, and analyse data from any digital touch point driving more informed decisions and actions.
● Unified Commerce Simulator empowers businesses to create, analyse, and refine fulfillment sourcing strategies driving more predictable fulfillment results with less risk to the business. This digital twin environment means businesses can manipulate optimisation levers for various scenarios and run simulations against production data to enable comparisons between actual output versus output using the changed levers.

UK Logistics Fund Raises £427m

Posted on by David Priestman

Clarion Partners Europe, the real estate investment fund manager specialising in logistics and industrial assets, announces that it has held the final closing of its core-plus, closed-end UK logistics fund (“Fund”). Exceeding its capital-raising target, equity commitments totaling £427 million have been secured from a mix of European, North American, and Asian institutions, including investors in Clarion Partner Europe’s previous pan-European logistics strategies. The Fund, with gearing, will provide c. £650 million of investable capital and is now closed to new investors.

The Fund is Clarion Partners Europe’s first to solely focus on the UK, a market it recently re-entered following a seven-year break. It will target a portfolio of high-quality, ESG-compliant logistics assets underpinned by strong rental growth fundamentals in established UK logistics hubs. With the flexibility to invest across the asset class, from last mile logistics to big box single tenant warehouses, the Fund will target both best-in-class assets whilst also seeking to create value through investing in underperforming assets and selective development opportunities.

The Fund will leverage Clarion Partners Europe’s management’s 24-year investment and asset management history, which includes over £3 billion of logistics asset transactions across the UK and Europe, as well as the broader expertise of Clarion Partners, which has a 40-year track record in real estate investment management and a $45 billion, 1000+ property global industrial portfolio.

Alistair Calvert, CEO of Clarion Partners Europe, commented: “This is an opportune time to be scaling up in the UK, a market with strong long-term property fundamentals and where we have deep experience, and which is witnessing a pricing adjustment the likes of which hasn’t been seen in at least the last 30 years. We focus on delivering strong investor returns by identifying the industrial sector’s evolving trends and tailoring our strategy accordingly. Having amassed a portfolio of highly sustainable product that meets the demand of today’s occupier on the Continent, we are convinced we have the local, on-the-ground origination and asset management expertise to replicate this in the UK.”

Rory Buck, Head of Investment at Clarion Partners Europe, added: “Significant rental growth in recent years means many existing properties have baked in reversion and lease rent review mechanics, which provides investors the ability to capture this regardless of lease length. Additionally, our specialisation in the industrial sector allows us to enhance certainty of execution to potential sellers which contributed to completing two transactions in the UK last year.”

The Freight Crime Supply Chain

Posted on by Keith McKinley

Surprisingly, this shadow supply chain uses all of the same components as the legitimate one, from route planning to warehousing, with stolen goods marketed and sold using legitimate platforms to unsuspecting buyers. Freight insurance provider TT Club is promoting awareness of this supply chain ‘Black hole’.

Much freight crime is perpetrated by organised crime with profit, similar to commercial businesses as the ultimate aim. The process of storage, transport, distribution and marketing of stolen goods often shadow those of legitimate supply chains with criminals acquiring sophisticated logistics skills. Their knowledge assists them in targeting shipments at a multitude of points; from truck hijackings to pilfering items from unsecured warehouses. Needless to say such theft not only results in significant financial losses but also disrupts the flow of goods, leading to delayed deliveries and dissatisfied customers.

“At TT we are striving to highlight the responsibility that landlords in particular have to properly vet tenants of storage facilities and how they can prevent their properties being used to warehouse stolen goods” says Josh Finch.

“In a recent operation, police in the UK discovered a warehouse, at a location in Bradford that held hundreds of pallets of stolen goods. With the assistance of the National Vehicle Crime Intelligence Service (NaVCIS) the goods found were linked to known cargo theft incidents which spanned the previous six years and amounted to several million pounds in value,” continues Finch.
“The warehouse itself was an unassuming commercial unit, which blended seamlessly with other legitimate businesses and exemplifies the duty landlords have to ensure that the sites they own and lease are not being used by their tenants for illegal purposes.”

TT Club is endeavouring to pinpoint the warning signs, and the nature of due diligence that is essential in preventing such properties from being exploited by criminals. Such measures include:

• Background checks to scrutinize the business operations, financial stability, and track record of potential tenants
• Inspection of premises regularly to ensure they are being used for legitimate purposes
• Monitoring tenant activity, employing modern monitoring technologies, such as security cameras and access control systems
• Collaborating with law enforcement at a local level to share information and report any suspicious activity promptly
• Review lease agreements to include clauses specifying the permissible uses of the property and outline the consequences for illegal activities
• Engagement of professional services such as security experts with experience in identifying and preventing criminal activities

Increasing evidence from law enforcement agencies is confirming that a shadow supply chain operates alongside the legitimate transport of goods, using all of the same components from route planning to warehousing, with stolen goods marketed and sold using legitimate platforms to unsuspecting buyers.

“As TT helps operators to navigate the complex world of cargo theft and freight crime, it becomes increasingly clear that shedding light on this black hole requires a collective effort from all stakeholders in the supply chain, from law enforcement agencies to warehouse landlords. Only through such collaboration can we hope to mitigate this ongoing threat and safeguard the integrity of the supply chain,” concludes Finch.

Weserport Rail Loading Facility

Posted on by Keith McKinley

For more than 25 years, Rhenus Weserport Bremen has stood for expert and professional transshipment of various goods and materials. As a member of the Rhenus Group, the port agency has previously focused on transferring cargo from seagoing vessels onto trucks and inland waterway vessels.

But for its recently forged partnership with Nabaltec AG, Rhenus Weserport is now substantially extending its existing railway line. The rail loading facility in Germany’s southernmost seaport will be used for the shipment of imported aluminum hydroxide and aluminum oxide.

Nabaltec AG supplies growing markets all over the world with eco-friendly flame retardant fillers and specialty alumina. Due to high energy costs, and given the trend towards de-industrialization, which is expected in Germany as a result, the company is looking to expand its ability to purchase aluminum hydroxide and aluminum oxide, two materials which are of vital importance for its product portfolio, from smelters in Europe, in Brazil and – depending on cost and quality – all over the world.

The materials are shipped to Germany by sea, as German ports offer cost advantages for Nabaltec over Dutch and Belgian ports and storage of the materials in Bremen ensures a reliable supply.
“The decision to route the aluminum hydroxide and aluminum oxide through Rhenus Weserport was made because of its existing railway line, which is perfectly suited for a project-based extension. Other crucial factors included the direct link to oceangoing traffic and the existing loading and storage facilities. The materials are shipped by rail from Bremen right to us in Bavaria. We expect to see cost benefits due to the extension of our supplier portfolio, which will allow us to continue offering our products on a competitive basis,” explains Johannes Heckmann, the CEO of Nabaltec AG.
Aluminum hydroxide is a flame retardant and a key component in plastic cables and other metallic conductors. Aluminum oxide is used in the production of technical ceramics and in the refractory and polishing industries.

Rhenus Weserport has already started shipping goods for Nabaltec. By extending its facilities for the shipment of cargo by rail, the port services provider is positioning itself for the future: “This new area of business is an important development for us. Our first rail loading facility will allow us to unlock new markets and potential relationships,” explains Rudolf Egbert, Managing Director of Rhenus Weserport. “This creates new opportunities for us, particularly in a time when Germany is de-industrializing.”

Until the new fully automated rail loading system in Terminal 4 is completed, Nabaltec is temporarily using Terminal 2, in Bremen’s industrial harbor, for the shipment of aluminum hydroxide. The licensing procedure for the alterations to Terminal 4, as well as the construction process, are fully underway. The new system is scheduled to go into operation at the end of 2024. With the extensions to the terminal and the automated rail loading system, Nabaltec will be able to meet its target of shipping 70,000 to 140,000 tons of aluminum hydroxide and aluminum oxide per year.
The contractual agreement between Rhenus Weserport and Nabaltec has been concluded for a term of 10 years, with an option to extend the term of the agreement.

New Patent for Warehouse Storage Optimization

Posted on by David Priestman

Fabric, a technology company for retail fulfillment, today announced it has secured a new patent for its innovative multi-tote size automated storage and retrieval system (ASRS). This first-of-its-kind technology enables the storage of multiple varying tote sizes within the same shelving unit, optimizing warehouse efficiency.

Fabric’s ASRS is the only automated warehouse system capable of handling multiple tote sizes in one shelving unit. This flexibility allows companies to optimize their use of space, especially in micro-fulfillment centers (MFCs) in smaller local areas or within the confines of their retail stores. By storing large and small products in the same location, businesses can accommodate a broader range of SKUs, avoid wasted capacity and minimize their storage footprint.

“The growth in e-commerce is fueling pressure on retailers to expand inventory selection while keeping logistics costs low,” said Ori Avraham, Fabric’s VP Product and co-founder. “Fabric is the only automated fulfillment solution offering the technology that accommodates different tote dimensions in a single storage system so businesses can maximize inventory density, reduce operational expenses and scale to meet growing demand.”

A key element in warehouse management is the ability to utilize vertical space effectively, maximizing storage capacity. In an automated system, each tote can hold either one SKU or a few, but each SKU must be stored in a separate bin within a tote to ensure precise tracking of product locations and quantities.

When dealing with diverse SKU sizes ranging from large toilet paper to small mascara, being limited to a single tote size results in wasted storage space, effectively holding nothing but air. With the ability to use different tote sizes, which can be stored freely in multiple locations, the multi tote size ASRS opens a huge opportunity for ‘smart stock management’ algorithms and ultimately denser storage. This allows companies to streamline their operations, stock a wider range of products and adapt to changing customer demands without costly and space-consuming modifications.

Fabric‘s latest patent builds upon the company’s previous patent portfolio of unique topology and robotic technologies that equip retailers with tools to stay ahead in the rapidly evolving e-commerce market. The new multi-tote size ASRS is available to customers today.

Earlier this year, Fabric also announced a collaboration with Maersk, which now uses a 38,000-square-foot automated fulfillment center in Dallas powered by Fabric’s advanced robotic and software technology.

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