NA 2008 recently wrapped up in Cleveland. One of the more interesting developments to come out of the annual trade show sponsored by the Material Handling Industry of America (MHIA) was increased industry interest in worker assist devices.
To the frustration of many, the material handling industry stills seems a long way from achieving the plug and play capabilities of common home electronics.
The market for port handling technology is expanding globally at an annual growth rate of approximately 7%. Simultaneously, the demand for high-quality customer-specific solutions is also increasing. In response to these trends, Linde Material Handling is launching several container handlers that are all set to be on the market by 2009.
Our last two posts (April 18 & 21) have talked about a vision of the future in which a smaller number of highly-trained and skilled, self-directed workers fuse automation and manual operations to accomplish material handling functions with maximum efficiency.
The predicted slowdown in the material handling industry is expected to be short lived, said Material Handling Industry of America (MHIA) executives in a news conference last week.
Material Handlers
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