Editor’s Note: In this week’s Thursday Feature, we take a look at a growing trend in post-secondary education among supply chain and material handling professionals: Distance learning. Back in 2012, Beth Wachowiak had a choice to make. Six years earlier, she graduated from Michigan State University with a degree in supply chain management, which she … Read more
An Chicago area sewer and water contractor has been banned by a federal court from engaging in trenching, excavation, construction or related work ever again after repeatedly exposing workers to hazardous trenching conditions. The unusual ruling came after the contractor — Mike Neri, 79, of Elk Grove Village, Illinois — refused to pay fines totaling … Read more
The Canadian National railroad’s recent announcement that it will invest $250 million in a new intermodal rail yard outside of Toronto is just the latest indicator that the challenges that have hobbled intermodal in recent months are finally clearing up. While the CN only announced plans to build the new facility Wednesday and the project still … Read more
The German forklift manufacture Linde Material Handling announced that it has entered into a strategic partnership with a French robotics company to begin developing a new line of robotic industrial trucks. Linde — which is headquartered in Aschaffenburg, Germany– will work with the robitics firm Balyo to build a new line of self-driving vehicles under … Read more
Editor’s Note: In this week’s Thursday Feature, we travel to South America to visit a busy Argentinean port where the workers are the bosses. At the San Lorenzo port near the city of Rosaria — Argentina’s second largest city — ships pull up to the dock 24 hours per day where they are loaded with … Read more
Two people — including an 11-year-old girl — were killed after youthful a joyride in a pair of forklifts through an abandoned manufacturing facility in Belgium turned into a horrifying nightmare. The incident occurred either Saturday, March 7, or Sunday, March 8, at the former Infer Productions factory, located on the Guldendal canal in Mechelen, … Read more
Many businesses are experiencing a boom in their operations. Orders are once more coming in, production is ramping up, and people are finally getting back to work. But what happens when business is so booming that you need to expand … and quickly? Purchasing and re-equipping a new facility can take years of planning. And … Read more
While some states such as Illinois and Wisconsin struggle to pay their bills, another Midwestern state is funding $2 million in research to improve workplace safety. Ohio’s Bureau of Worker’s Compensation announced last week that it was committed to making warehouses, factories and other work sites in that state safer and reducing worker injuries and … Read more
Editor’s Note: In today’s Thursday Feature, we are going “Down Under” to report on a proposed rent increase that has the Australian shipping industry in an uproar. One of the world’s biggest cargo container companies has been hit with a 750% rent increase by Australia’s Port of Melbourne, the nation’s largest port. DP World Australia, … Read more
A one-two punch of lower oil prices and increased hiring in the manufacturing sector is pushing the US economy back towards robust health, according to a report issued this month by a leading industry group. Daniel J. Meckstroth, the leading economist for MAPI — the research arm of the Manufacturers Alliance for Productivity — predicted … Read more
