Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

newsworthy

ground breakers: who's building a new DC?

  • Lauth, a development and construction firm, has broken ground on a new 1.17 million-square-foot distribution center in Cumberland County in Central Pennsylvania. The facility will be the first built in the new Key Logistics Park located adjacent to Interstate 81.
  • ProLogis has expanded its presence in Japan. The distribution real estate company is building a fourstory multi-tenant distribution facility in Kitanagoya City near Nagoya. The facility will total approximately 458,000 square feet. In addition, ProLogis has leased approximately 260,000 square feet to Nippon Express at ProLogis Parc Komasaki, about three miles from the Kitanagoya City complex.
  • Ikea is planning to open its new Washington State distribution center Sept. 17. The 834,000-squarefoot facility, which is located in the Frederickson Industrial Area in Pierce County, is designed to take advantage of the shipping facilities of the nearby Port of Tacoma. The new DC will serve four Ikea stores in western Canada and three U.S. stores in Renton, Wash.; Portland, Ore.; and Draper, Utah.
  • A new intermodal and automotive rail logistics center is planned for a former rail yard located within the towns of Halfmoon, Mechanicville, and Stillwater in upstate New York. The new rail terminal will be located on the western end of a high-speed rail route that will link the Albany region with the Boston area. Groundbreaking is set for early next year on the $40 million facility, with completion expected by April of 2010.

The Latest

More Stories

Raymond lift truck lifting pallet

The Raymond Corporation

How to handle a pallet

Robotic technology has been sweeping through warehouses nationwide as companies seek to automate repetitive tasks in a bid to speed operations and free up human labor for other activities. Many of those implementations have been focused on picking tasks, a trend driven largely by the need to fill accelerating e-commerce orders. But as the robotic-picking market matures and e-commerce growth levels off, the robotic revolution is shifting behind the picking lines, with many companies investing in pallet-handling robots as a way to keep efficiency gains coming.

“Earlier in this decade and the previous decade, we [saw] a lot of [material handling] transformation around e-commerce and the handling of goods to order,” explains Josh Kivenko, chief marketing officer and senior vice president at Vecna Robotics, which provides autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) for pallet handling and logistics operations. “Now we’re talking about pallets—moving material in bulk behind that line.”

Keep ReadingShow less

Featured

Jeremy Van Puffelen of Prism Logistics

InPerson interview: Jeremy Van Puffelen of Prism Logistics

Jeremy Van Puffelen grew up in a family-owned contract warehousing business and is now president of that firm, Prism Logistics. As a third-party logistics service provider (3PL), Prism operates a network of more than 2 million square feet of warehouse space in Northern California, serving clients in the consumer packaged goods (CPG), food and beverage, retail, and manufacturing sectors.

During his 21 years working at the family firm, Van Puffelen has taken on many of the jobs that are part of running a warehousing business, including custodial functions, operations, facilities management, business development, customer service, executive leadership, and team building. Since 2021, he has also served on the board of directors of the International Warehouse Logistics Association (IWLA), a trade organization for contract warehousing and logistics service providers.

Keep ReadingShow less
image of retail worker packing goods in a shopping bag

NRF: Retail sales increased again in September

Retail sales increased again in September as employment grew and inflation and interest rates fell, according to the National Retail Federation (NRF)’s analysisof U.S. Census Bureau data released today.

“While there have been some signs of tightening in consumer spending, September’s numbers show consumers are willing to spend where they see value,” NRF Chief Economist Jack Kleinhenz said in a release. “September sales come amid the recent trend of payroll gains and other positive economic signs. Clearly, consumers continue to carry the economy, and conditions for the retail sector remain favorable as we move into the holiday season.”

Keep ReadingShow less
MIT professor Weill speaks at IFS show

MIT: Businesses thrive more with real-time data flows

Companies that integrate real-time data flows into their operations consistently outperform their competitors, an MIT professor said in a session today at a conference held by IFS, the Swedish enterprise resource planning (ERP) and artificial intelligence (AI) firm.

A real-time business is one that uses trusted, real-time data to enable people and systems to make real-time decisions, Peter Weill, the chairman of MIT’s Center for Information Systems Research (CISR), said at the “IFS Unleashed” show in Orlando.

Keep ReadingShow less
exxon mobile oil drills in texas

Kinaxis to build supply chain planning tools for ExxonMobil

Supply chain orchestration software provider Kinaxis today announced a co-development deal with ExxonMobil to create supply chain technology solutions designed specifically for the energy sector.

“ExxonMobil is uniquely placed to understand the biggest opportunities in improving energy supply chains, from more accurate sales and operations planning, increased agility in field operations, effective management of enormous transportation networks and adapting quickly to complex regulatory environments,” John Sicard, Kinaxis CEO, said in a release.

Keep ReadingShow less