Thought Leaders to Turn MHI Annual Industry Report Findings into Actionable Strategies

Content was pulled from MHI Solutions Magazine Q3.2018

The “e” in e-commerce could stand for “explosion” these days, and it’s showing no signs of slowing down. But we don’t have to tell you that.

“When you look at a large-scale fulfillment center, whether it’s highly automated or a manual facility, it can actually require two or three times the number of workers that a retail replenishment would have,” says Jason Franklin, product manager, labor and business intelligence for MHI member Intelligrated. “And that’s because of the picking.”

Amazon and other large-scale entities may have enlisted the automated help of Kiva robots, he notes, but they still need a human workforce—and so do the rest of the companies in the supply chain. And as online orders continue to pour in, the Baby Boomers continue to age out.

“We’ve got this blue-collar generation that was all about ‘do what your Dad did, work hard and stay with the same company and you’ll grow,’” Franklin explains. “Those things are out the door now. And because of that, Millennials have a different expectation as to what a job should provide.”

Franklin tells the story of a Nashville facility that’s dealing with some labor challenges.

Read full article in MHI Solutions Magazine

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