DJ Products, Inc.

Well having spent 20 bitter, cold winters in Chicago shoveling endless mounds of snow, I have to admit that when I got my invitation to ProMat 2009, I was underwhelmed about the offer to “join us in January in Chicago.” However, you can’t fault Chicago for its exciting city life, excellent restaurants, magnificent skyline and ever-patrolling army of snowplows, so I’m game for another frosty experience in the Windy City. And who could miss the Material Handling Industry of America’s annual international exposition? ProMat 2009, Solutions that Make the Supply Chain Work, promises to provide an invigorating look at the hot new trends and innovations in material handling and logistics.

ProMat will showcase more than 800 solution-packed exhibits from top equipment and technology providers in the material handling and logistics industries. It’s your opportunity to not only talk to the pros but see their solutions to industry applications in action. Given the country’s current economic problems, I think we can all benefit from solutions that promise to streamline operations, increase productivity, reduce costs, improve customer service and improve our bottom line.

I’m particularly looking forward to Forrest Sawyer’s moderation of the keynote discussion on building the workforce of the future. We’ve discussed in this space before the workforce challenges that will face our industry in the coming years: retiring boomers, declining worker population, increased workforce diversity, life/work balance and a move toward more technical skill sets. These issues aren’t going to go away and we, as an industry, need to develop strategies for embracing the challenges of the future.

We’ve also talked in this space about the globalization of material handling, logistics and industry in general. With buyers and sellers from more than 90 countries in attendance, ProMat offers an opportunity to start making connections so you’ll be ready to flex your global wings.

Education is always a major focus of the annual MHIA show. This year’s Knowledge Center will bring 100 Educational Seminars to the show floor, all free to attendees, as is the keynote discussion. Seminars will focus on the latest material handling and logistics trends and innovations for manufacturing, distribution, and supply chain operations.

ProMat 2009 will be held from January 12-15, 2009 at McCormick Place South in Chicago, Illinois. Plan to go and learn about emerging trends and leading edge developments in the industry. See solutions in action and talk to their purveyors. Network with other professionals from across the country and around the globe. ProMat 2009 is your chance to learn, explore and rekindle your passion. For complete information and registration, visit the ProMat website.

We were delighted to hear from one of our Minnesota brethren this week. Kent Powell of SJF Material Handling, Inc. in Winsted, Minnesota, just a couple of hours down the road from our home office in Little Falls, ran across our blog and dropped us a line.

SJF is a material handling equipment supplier and consultant. For more than 25 years, they’ve been providing new and used material handling equipment from their Minnesota base. Their Genesys division designs and engineers cutting-edge material handling and distribution systems. Services include customized consulting, layout/design, engineering and control programming services for warehousing and distribution-based industries.

You’ll find the SJF Material Handling Blog an interesting read and will want to add it to your list of “favorites.” Their blog focuses in large part on the steel market that provides the raw material for the conveyors, pallets, carousels, rack and other material handling products they sell. It provides readers with another level of insight into the issues that concern our industry today.

DJ Products manufactures ergonomic electric cart pullers and motorized cart pushers for the manufacturing, distribution, warehousing, logistics, automotive, healthcare, hospitality and retail industries. We specialize in ergonomic material handling solutions that eliminate the strain and resultant injury that occurs from manually pushing or pulling carts and wheeled equipment. We’re one interesting cog in the larger material handling wheel, as is SJF Material Handling. We know there are others out there and we want to hear from you.

We invite our readers and others who share our interest in material handling and its applicable industries to share your comments. Alert us to other interesting websites and blogs that we can share with our readers. Drop us a comment if you read an interesting blog post. Share your own experiences or concerns or let us know what you’d like to hear more about. Our goal in creating the DJ Products blog is to share news, information and insights about material handling. We’d love to hear from you. Drop us a line.

Material handling offers good growth potential now and for the future. It is also becoming increasingly automated and technical (see our Sept. 29 post). So how can students interested in material handling as a growth career and current workers who want to move up position themselves to be in demand by employers today and into the future?

Industry experts agree that education is the key. While a high school diploma can still get you an entry-level job on the warehouse floor, it will take certified skills to maintain that job as the level of technology accelerates through the material handling, warehousing and logistics industries. Moving up the corporate ladder will increasingly require a bachelor’s degree. If you aspire to a management position, plan on putting in that extra year or two to get your MBA. Some colleges now offer concurrent bachelor/MBA programs and many offer night, weekend and online courses. Executive MBA programs geared to working business professionals provide an accelerated path to a higher degree by recognizing acquired experiential knowledge.

“Going into the future, not many people will have much success in their career progression without professional development of some kind,” warned Mark Ensby, director of Clarkson University’s Engineering & Global Operations Management Department. “The three most important credentialing letters today seem to be ‘MBA.’”

As automation and the global economy drive industry to greater integration, versatility and cross-industry knowledge will be increasingly valued. Students who combine material handling courses with industrial engineering, logistics, supply chain, warehousing, project management and computer systems studies will best position themselves for the future.

Partnerships between industry associations and universities are also expected to increase experiential learning. As it moves toward the future, material handling and associated industrial engineering industries will be looking for graduates with experiential learning, not just theoretical knowledge. “Associations like MHIA are going to play more and more of an important role in leveraging universities as the provider of skilled employees,” predicted Dan Boos, president of consulting firm Gorillas and Gazelles.

Mark Tomlinson, executive director of the Society of Manufacturing Engineers, has called for public schools to place greater emphasis on manufacturing as a viable career choice. Industry pressure is expected to increase two-year technical training opportunities in manufacturing, material handling, and industrial engineering fields. Tech schools, some beginning at the high school level, are seen as a quick way of solving the looming worker shortage in these industries. “The challenge is there just isn’t going to be enough of anybody for what’s needed,” Boos said.

“Over their lifetime, many of them (high school grads) will earn more because they started working sooner than those who took four or five years to finish college,” Tomlinson pointed out. “So we’ve got to get away from a good job/bad job mindset and encourage people to get some training.”