Many innovative organizations have already moved beyond the thinking that materials handling automation's main goal is to get more throughput from a smaller labor force. In fact, using labor reduction as a key metric in making the automation decision is slowly losing steam. Instead, savvy organizations are installing new automation systems that are designed to improve broader supply chain activities such as inventory, transportation and—in a significant shift in strategy—labor management. In this session, Bryan Jensen, vice president and principal at St. Onge Company, examined the new ways the user community is putting materials handling automation to work. He kicked off the session by discussing the following benefits of automation: Higher productivity, labor savings, the ability to take advantage of potential cycle time decreases, increased accuracy and other non-labor dollar reductions.
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