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Automation industry poised for growth

Outlook calls for double-digit growth in automation investment in 2021, survey shows.

Automation industry poised for growth

Automation investments are expected to increase 26% this year as more companies seek to add robotics and other technologies to streamline operations.

That’s according to a survey from Interact Analysis and the Association for Advancing Automation (A3), released this week. The groups surveyed more than 200 professionals at automation-related companies and found that most expect double-digit growth across the industry this year. They also said they expect automotive industry customers to lead that investment growth, followed closely by food and beverage companies. Respondents said they expect revenue growth of 24% and headcount growth of 20% at their own firms.


Survey respondents also weighed in on how the Covid-19 pandemic has affected their business. More than 31% said travel restrictions and the inability to see customers are the biggest challenges they currently face. Other challenges include meeting customer demand: 20% said they are unable to meet increasing demand while 19% said weak demand is their greatest problem. On the plus side, two-thirds of respondents said they believe that Covid-19 will no longer affect their business within the next 12 months.

The survey was conducted in February and March and was released in conjunction with the Automate Forward virtual trade show and conference, being held this week.

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Tennessee waltzes off with top prize at IANA case study competition

If you were in charge of attracting new drivers to the intermodal industry, would you choose an owner-operator or a company-driver business model? That was the question posed to students competing in the Intermodal Association of North America’s (IANA) 2024 Intermodal Case Study Competition.

A team from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, walked away with top honors at this year’s event. It was the school’s first time competing in the scholarship competition, which was held during IANA’s Intermodal Expo in September.

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Parcel express market confronts a shifting landscape
Parcel express market confronts a shifting landscape

Parcel express market confronts a shifting landscape

Having survived the demand surge of the pandemic and its aftermath, the parcel express market is undergoing an evolution of unprecedented proportions as the nation’s largest express carriers struggle to address multiple challenges—from a growing cast of new competitors, to rationalizing their networks and reining in surging costs, to dealing with flattening e-commerce volumes and a stubborn weakness in U.S. manufacturing and industrial output that’s putting a damper on parcel growth.

Shippers have serious issues with the high cost of parcel service, exacerbated by a flurry of surcharges and changes implemented for this peak season, says Bart De Muynck, principal at strategic supply chain consulting firm Bart De Muynck LLC. “If you are doing high volumes in peak season, those increases mean tens of millions of dollars in extra parcel shipping costs,” he says.

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Deli-meat producer takes company communications into the digital age

Family-owned business Cibao Meat Products, a producer of Hispanic-style sausages and deli meats, has long prided itself on staying true to the traditions and values the company was founded on in 1969—like a commitment to high-quality ingredients and a family workplace atmosphere. Less of a source of pride, however, was its continuing reliance on the same, mostly manual, processes and data management techniques used at its inception.

With the company now selling its meats to retail giants such as BJ’s, Sam’s Club, and Costco as well as 500 supermarkets and restaurants across the U.S., Cibao president Heinz Vieluf Jr. knew that it was time to take the company into the digital age. “As a third-generation leader of a multigenerational company, I put an emphasis on bringing our business into the digital future and utilizing technologies that will help propel success,” he said in a statement.

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Going deep on self-driving vehicles

As autonomous systems take on a bigger role in logistics and industrial production applications, the race is on to make the equipment smarter, more efficient, and safer. To accelerate work in this area, the German lift truck and logistics technology vendor Kion Group is partnering with a local university to support expanded studies on artificial intelligence (AI) and autonomous systems.

Through a grant of $1.1 million over a period of five years, Kion has funded an endowed professorship for Safe Autonomous Systems at TU Dortmund University. The program will be headed up by computer science professor Sebastian Peitz.

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Photo courtesy of ET Browne

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American skin-care company ET Browne—best known for its Palmer’s Cocoa Butter—has trimmed costs, boosted revenue, and increased profits thanks to a recent IT upgrade from its longtime technology partner Syspro, a global enterprise resource planning (ERP) software provider that specializes in serving manufacturing and distribution businesses. ET Browne has run on Syspro software for 25 years and racked up some of its biggest year-over-year improvements following a 2023 upgrade to the latest version of Syspro ERP—an enhancement that allowed it to leverage the platform’s material requirements and planning (MRP) capabilities to build a just-in-time inventory system.

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