Summit 2007 - CICMHE & MHIA


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Objective: Identify the trends and challenges affecting material handling, facility logistics and material flow throughout the supply chain

Day 1 began with an overview of the purpose of the summit and expected outcomes. Eight panelists (two from each of the participant categories of academics, users, consultants and solution providers) presented their view on the trends and initiatives faced by the industry. All the other participants then had an opportunity to ask questions and discuss the trends and challenges with the panel. The participants then broke into assigned groups with an equal mix from each category to refine and prioritize a list of trends and challenges. Each session began by brainstorming a large list, clarifying/consolidating the lists into fewer items, then rank ordering to obtain a list of only ten trends and challenges. Finally, the forty (40) total trends and challenges generated by the four groups were consolidated into a single set of ten to use as input for Day 2 on Impacts.

Day 1 Trends & Challenges

Item	Mentions	Points	Description
1	18	725	Growing importance of demographics, labor and people How do we attract, retain and continuously develop people?
2	15	505	More demanding stakeholders (customers / employees / shareholders) with higher expectations in ever more turbulent markets How do we profitably meet the evolving higher expectations of our stakeholders?
3	13	458	Demand and supply chains are becoming more global How do we innovate with the big picture in mind, to enable global business models?

Next Seven of the Top Ten Trends & Challenges

Item	Mentions	Points	Description
4	13	385	Material handling and logistic systems are more complex to design, optimize, control and operate, exceeding best practice knowledge and theory How do we enhance our capability to understand, create, model, simulate, test and evaluate next generation systems?
5	12	385	Material handling has a growing identity crisis, wanting to get away from being perceived as legacy, tactical, technical and commodity How do we redefine our core value proposition, position it relative to SC and logistics, brand it and collaborate with others?
6	10	343	Transportation infrastructures are becoming more stressed, bottlenecking supply chains and logistics How do we contribute to increase transportation capability and availability or adapt to growing transportation constraints?
7	8	328	Ever stronger regulatory, cost and social pressures to be energy efficient and greener How do we design and operate sustainable systems, meeting the energy and green goals while being profitable?
8	8	235	Supply chain security is a growing concern due to the rise of terrorism, piracy and theft How do we design and operate systems that are both secure and efficient?
9	7	190	Growing perception that lack of integration across supply chains is leading to huge inefficiencies How do create integrated, easy-to-use, interconnected, industry-wide, high-benefit material and information flow systems?
10	5	115	Growing demand and regulation for greater product and asset visibility, tracking and traceability across supply chains and lifecycles We do we embed smart connective technologies in our systems and create visibility enabling processes and protocols?