Adaptive technologies are helping visually impaired employees at a Pennsylvania warehouse thrive. But the employer says it's the one reaping the rewards.
Mitch Mac Donald has more than 30 years of experience in both the newspaper and magazine businesses. He has covered the logistics and supply chain fields since 1988. Twice named one of the Top 10 Business Journalists in the U.S., he has served in a multitude of editorial and publishing roles. The leading force behind the launch of Supply Chain Management Review, he was that brand's founding publisher and editorial director from 1997 to 2000. Additionally, he has served as news editor, chief editor, publisher and editorial director of Logistics Management, as well as publisher of Modern Materials Handling. Mitch is also the president and CEO of Agile Business Media, LLC, the parent company of DC VELOCITY and CSCMP's Supply Chain Quarterly.
At first glance, the warehouse run by North Central Sight Services (NCSS) in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, looks like any other fulfillment operation. Workers there carry out the same kinds of tasks performed by their counterparts at third-party fulfillment centers everywhere—in this case, counting, packaging, and shipping office supplies, flash drives, labels, and CD/DVD packs for their client, the U.S. AbilityOne Commission. But there's one important difference in this operation: The 29 workers at the site are all visually impaired.
The facility in question is a collaborative venture between NCSS, a not-for-profit agency that provides services and employment to individuals who are blind or visually impaired, and the U.S. AbilityOne Commission, a federal agency that provides employment opportunities for people who are blind or have significant disabilities in the manufacture and delivery of products and services to the government.
What brought the site to our attention was an announcement highlighting the results of its recent warehouse modernization program. In late September, NCSS, in collaboration with Zebra Technologies and CSSI Technologies, completely overhauled the operation, introducing automated systems and processes. As part of the initiative, NCSS equipped its workers with customized mobile computers (Zebra's MC3300 models) that feature large characters, color coding, and voice-directed picking capabilities and run on a customized warehouse management system developed by CSSI.
A driving force in the design process was James Morley-Smith, global director of user experience design at Zebra. "Zebra is committed to providing reasonable accommodations for persons with disabilities, " he said in a statement. "[We] design products with an 'accessible-first' approach," Morley-Smith added. "This allows us to provide an improved user experience for all end users—from those with disabilities like complete loss of sight to those with situational impairments like bulky work gloves."
Morley-Smith's interest in adaptive technologies is both personal and professional. His son, Fintan, lost his sight to cancer at an early age. "By watching how Fintan adapted to his environment without his sight, I realized that warehouse workers might face similar challenges—dimly lit conditions and protective goggles that impair their vision while they work," he wrote in a blog post on Zebra's website. "Recently, my team and I drew on this experience in designing tools for these front-line workers, developing larger buttons and other design modifications that ... help the users perform their jobs better and with fewer risks for error." (Editor's note: You can learn more about his work and inspiration in his TED Talk, "How your impairments can be an advantage," here.)
As for the project's outcome, the results speak for themselves. "The solution has helped us modernize our warehouse from a manual-based process to an automated one that has increased worker productivity and picking accuracy, which has led to the near elimination of returns," said Terri Kio, industry operations manager at NCSS, in the statement.
There's a broader lesson in this story than just the benefits of automation or the rewards of helping others. It also holds an important message for an industry that's chronically strapped for labor. Though it wasn't designed as a recruitment initiative, the NCSS project nonetheless illustrates how fresh thinking and the innovative application of logistics technology can open up career opportunities to a previously overlooked pool of candidates and, at the same time, help DCs ease their staffing woes.
Creating work environments that allow people with disabilities to not only work, but thrive, is one way to take the edge off the labor crunch. More than that, it enables companies to do well while doing good.
Supply chain planning (SCP) leaders working on transformation efforts are focused on two major high-impact technology trends, including composite AI and supply chain data governance, according to a study from Gartner, Inc.
"SCP leaders are in the process of developing transformation roadmaps that will prioritize delivering on advanced decision intelligence and automated decision making," Eva Dawkins, Director Analyst in Gartner’s Supply Chain practice, said in a release. "Composite AI, which is the combined application of different AI techniques to improve learning efficiency, will drive the optimization and automation of many planning activities at scale, while supply chain data governance is the foundational key for digital transformation.”
Their pursuit of those roadmaps is often complicated by frequent disruptions and the rapid pace of technological innovation. But Gartner says those leaders can accelerate the realized value of technology investments by facilitating a shift from IT-led to business-led digital leadership, with SCP leaders taking ownership of multidisciplinary teams to advance business operations, channels and products.
“A sound data governance strategy supports advanced technologies, such as composite AI, while also facilitating collaboration throughout the supply chain technology ecosystem,” said Dawkins. “Without attention to data governance, SCP leaders will likely struggle to achieve their expected ROI on key technology investments.”
The British logistics robot vendor Dexory this week said it has raised $80 million in venture funding to support an expansion of its artificial intelligence (AI) powered features, grow its global team, and accelerate the deployment of its autonomous robots.
A “significant focus” continues to be on expanding across the U.S. market, where Dexory is live with customers in seven states and last month opened a U.S. headquarters in Nashville. The Series B will also enhance development and production facilities at its UK headquarters, the firm said.
The “series B” funding round was led by DTCP, with participation from Latitude Ventures, Wave-X and Bootstrap Europe, along with existing investors Atomico, Lakestar, Capnamic, and several angels from the logistics industry. With the close of the round, Dexory has now raised $120 million over the past three years.
Dexory says its product, DexoryView, provides real-time visibility across warehouses of any size through its autonomous mobile robots and AI. The rolling bots use sensor and image data and continuous data collection to perform rapid warehouse scans and create digital twins of warehouse spaces, allowing for optimized performance and future scenario simulations.
Originally announced in September, the move will allow Deutsche Bahn to “fully focus on restructuring the rail infrastructure in Germany and providing climate-friendly passenger and freight transport operations in Germany and Europe,” Werner Gatzer, Chairman of the DB Supervisory Board, said in a release.
For its purchase price, DSV gains an organization with around 72,700 employees at over 1,850 locations. The new owner says it plans to investment around one billion euros in coming years to promote additional growth in German operations. Together, DSV and Schenker will have a combined workforce of approximately 147,000 employees in more than 90 countries, earning pro forma revenue of approximately $43.3 billion (based on 2023 numbers), DSV said.
After removing that unit, Deutsche Bahn retains its core business called the “Systemverbund Bahn,” which includes passenger transport activities in Germany, rail freight activities, operational service units, and railroad infrastructure companies. The DB Group, headquartered in Berlin, employs around 340,000 people.
“We have set clear goals to structurally modernize Deutsche Bahn in the areas of infrastructure, operations and profitability and focus on the core business. The proceeds from the sale will significantly reduce DB’s debt and thus make an important contribution to the financial stability of the DB Group. At the same time, DB Schenker will gain a strong strategic owner in DSV,” Deutsche Bahn CEO Richard Lutz said in a release.
Transportation industry veteran Anne Reinke will become president & CEO of trade group the Intermodal Association of North America (IANA) at the end of the year, stepping into the position from her previous post leading third party logistics (3PL) trade group the Transportation Intermediaries Association (TIA), both organizations said today.
Meanwhile, TIA today announced that insider Christopher Burroughs would fill Reinke’s shoes as president & CEO. Burroughs has been with TIA for 13 years, most recently as its vice president of Government Affairs for the past six years, during which time he oversaw all legislative and regulatory efforts before Congress and the federal agencies.
Before her four years leading TIA, Reinke spent two years as Deputy Assistant Secretary with the U.S. Department of Transportation and 16 years with CSX Corporation.
Serious inland flooding and widespread power outages are likely to sweep across Florida and other Southeast states in coming days with the arrival of Hurricane Helene, which is now predicted to make landfall Thursday evening along Florida’s northwest coast as a major hurricane, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
While the most catastrophic landfall impact is expected in the sparsely-population Big Bend area of Florida, it’s not only sea-front cities that are at risk. Since Helene is an “unusually large storm,” its flooding, rainfall, and high winds won’t be limited only to the Gulf Coast, but are expected to travel hundreds of miles inland, the weather service said. Heavy rainfall is expected to begin in the region even before the storm comes ashore, and the wet conditions will continue to move northward into the southern Appalachians region through Friday, dumping storm total rainfall amounts of up to 18 inches. Specifically, the major flood risk includes the urban areas around Tallahassee, metro Atlanta, and western North Carolina.
In addition to its human toll, the storm could exert serious business impacts, according to the supply chain mapping and monitoring firm Resilinc. Those will be largely triggered by significant flooding, which could halt oil operations, force mandatory evacuations, restrict ports, and disrupt air traffic.
While the storm’s track is currently forecast to miss the critical ports of Miami and New Orleans, it could still hurt operations throughout the Southeast agricultural belt, which produces products like soybeans, cotton, peanuts, corn, and tobacco, according to Everstream Analytics.
That widespread footprint could also hinder supply chain and logistics flows along stretches of interstate highways I-10 and I-75 and on regional rail lines operated by Norfolk Southern and CSX. And Hurricane Helene could also likely impact business operations by unleashing power outages, deep flooding, and wind damage in northern Florida portions of Georgia, Everstream Analytics said.
Before the storm had even touched Florida soil, recovery efforts were already being launched by humanitarian aid group the American Logistics Aid Network (ALAN). In a statement on Wednesday, the group said it is urging residents in the storm's path across the Southeast to heed evacuation notices and safety advisories, and reminding members of the logistics community that their post-storm help could be needed soon. The group will continue to update its Disaster Micro-Site with Hurricane Helene resources and with requests for donated logistics assistance, most of which will start arriving within 24 to 72 hours after the storm’s initial landfall, ALAN said.