MHD Supply Chain Solutions November 2022 by Prime Creative Media

NOVEMBER 2022

COVER STORY

DELIVERING WAREHOUSE AUTOMATION How Dematic made the difference for Leader Computers’ distribution

THE DIVERSECO DIFFERENCE MHD speaks with Diverseco Founder and Managing Director Brenton Cunningham

AGILE WAREHOUSE CHANGE Microlistics on delivering higher ROIs quicker than ever

Körber’s 2022 benchmarking report

Discover key factors shaping supply chain complexity

Download now

koerber-supplychain.com

MHD FROM THE EDITOR

MHD Supply Chain Solutions CONTACT MHD Supply Chain Solutions is published by Prime Creative Media 379 Docklands Drive, Docklands VIC 3008 Telephone: (+61) 03 9690 8766 Website: www.primecreative.com.au

THE TEAM CEO: John Murphy Chief Operating Officer: Christine Clancy Managing Editor: Syed Shah Editor: Edward Cranswick Journalist: Joseph Misuraca Business Development Manager: Beth Jarvis Design Production Manager: Michelle Weston Art Director: Blake Storey Graphic Designers: Louis Romero, Kerry Pert Client Success Manager: Janine Clements

FOR ADVERTISING OPTIONS Contact: Beth Jarvis beth.jarvis@primecreative.com.au

SUBSCRIBE Australian Subscription Rates (inc GST) 1yr (6 issues) for $78.00 2yrs (12 issues) for $120.00 – Saving 20% 3yrs (18 issues) for $157.50 – Saving 30% To subscribe and to view other overseas rates visit: www.mhdsupplychain.com.au or Email: subscriptions@primecreative.com.au

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT MHD Supply Chain Solutions magazine is recognised by the Australian Supply Chain Institute, the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport Australia, the Supply Chain and Logistics Association of Australia and the Singapore Logistics and Supply Chain Management Society.

ARTICLES All articles submitted for publication become the property of the publisher. The Editor reserves the right to adjust any article to conform with the magazine format. COPYRIGHT MHD magazine is owned by Prime Creative Media. All material in MHD is copyright and no part may be reproduced or copied in any form or by any means (graphic, electronic or mechanical including information and retrieval systems) without written permission of the publisher. The Editor welcomes contributions but reserves the right to accept or reject any material. While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of information Prime Creative Media will not accept responsibility for errors or omissions or for any consequences arising from reliance on information published. The opinions expressed in MHD are not necessarily the opinions of, or endorsed by the publisher unless otherwise stated.

STAYING RESILIENT

here have been a lot of words dedicated over the past two or so years to the theme of post-COVID recovery and resilience. But during that time a frequent refrain we’ve heard from readers and supply chain professionals is that ‘The only thing you can expect in supply chain is the unexpected.’ It’s vital to bear in mind that crises will come in all shapes and sizes. As of the time of writing, Victoria is afflicted with severe flooding, an echo of the flooding which has similarly struck other eastern states throughout the year. Thus, a key theme in this edition of MHD Supply Chain Solutions is the various ways of building resilience. This past month, project44 launched its Movement platform, the culmination of many original and acquired capabilities in the global supply chain visibility space – delivering on its brand promise of being the “connective tissue” of supply chain. With fresh disruptions within our borders – knowing where your goods are, at all times, no matter who you are within a supply chain is quite an advantage. In this issue we interviewed project44’s Archival Garcia to learn more about what Movement is bringing to the table to increase reactivity in the face of disruption. Sustainability is not a new subject – and is never far from supply chain professionals’ minds – but in this issue we interview Robyn Johnson of Blend ESQ and Peter Jones of Prological to ask the question of whether we’re thinking about sustainability in the right way. While headline metrics are important, Robyn says, her goal is to change the way everyone – from the C-Suite to the warehouse floor – thinks about it, such that it becomes more a way of life than a discrete set of abstract goals. Be sure also to check out our November Cover Story, which details Dematic’s work in optimising the distribution capabilities of Leader Computers, Australia’s largest manufacturer of PCs. Much has been made of the importance of developing native manufacturing tech-capability in Australia as a means of building resilience. In Leader Computers, we already have a sterling example of that capability – and Dematic have helped them to get their products where they need to go as we’ve changed our work habits and demand has surged. Happy reading – and stay resilient!

Edward Cranswick Editor edward.cranswick@primecreative.com.au MHD NOVEMBER 2022 | 3

NOVEMBER 2022

ISSUE #21 VOLUME 55

THIS ISSUE COVER STORY

12 Dematic delivering warehouse automation

REGULAR COLUMNS 16 Logical Outlook explores sustainability 18 Property Focus on Melbourne’s North and West

SUPPLY CHAIN 21 Körber on agility and resilience

COVER STORY

33 TMX outlines three steps to success 40 DiverseCo looking at future with robotics 44 ifm efector on just-in-time maintenance 46 project44 describes its service, Movement

MATERIALS HANDLING 24 TMHA forklifts for WA training company 42 Ozkor on why to switch to plastic pallets

INDUSTRIAL PROPERTY NOVEMBER 2022

37 Charter Hall looks at scaling up Brisbane to

meet demand

WAREHOUSING 27 Microlistics on WMS producing higher ROIs 30 Damon on automated pallet conveving

COVER STORY

DELIVERING WAREHOUSE AUTOMATION How Dematic made the difference for Leader Computers’ distribution

systems

THE DIVERSECO DIFFERENCE MHD speaks with Diverseco Founder and Managing Director Brenton Cunningham

AGILE WAREHOUSE CHANGE A supply chain consultant with global perspective discusses the imperatives of planning

ASSOCIATIONS, EVENTS, AND REGULARS 06 Industry News

ON THE COVER

48 ALC on past lessons for future supply chain

How Dematic made the difference

50 RWTA attends San Diego cold chain

for Leader Computers’ distribution

convention 53 Products 54 People on the Move MHD NOVEMBER 2022 | 5

MHD INDUSTRY NEWS

Argon & Co. partners with Intent Group

rgon & Co., the global management consultancy that specialises in operations strategy and transformation, says it has partnered with New Zealand-based operational consultancy, Intent Group. It notes the partnership will provide a step change in New Zealand (NZ), offering expertise from more local consultants, as well as enhancing existing capabilities in ANZ, raising the total to 98 on-the-ground consultants across Sydney, Melbourne, and Auckland. “We are thrilled that Intent Group are joining Argon & Co. at this exciting time,” Paul Eastwood, Managing Partner of the ANZ business of Argon & Co., says. “Our NZ business kicked off to a fantastic start, achieving well above our business plans and setting the foundation of a great culture,” he adds. Intent Group brings deep manufacturing excellence experience across a broad range of industries, complementing Argon & Co’s existing

offering and enabling a market leading full end-to-end supply chain proposition for the local market – notes the global management consultancy. Like Argon & Co., Intent Group has a passion for people development and helping clients improve business performance. “Intent Group was formed with the vision of helping NZ organisations become truly world class and ensuring their survival and growth through deploying global best practice,” Ian Walsh, Founder of Intent Group, says. “By joining Argon & Co., we will be able to offer leading operational and digital capability into the local marketplace giving progressive NZ organisations the opportunity to take their performance to the next level,” he adds. He will continue to lead the business in NZ alongside Chris Foord, Associate Partner of Argon & Co. NZ. “This is an exciting next chapter for Argon & Co. in New Zealand,” Chris says. “Together our broad proposition

and industry experience will provide on-the-ground capability and in-market expertise from local consultants offering even more value for our clients.” Paul says Intent Group will turbo charge Argon & Co.’s success in NZ by adding a complementary skillset, great people, and leadership capabilities, which will help it accelerate its plans in NZ even further and will underpin its goal to build a leading global management consultancy specialising in operations strategy and transformation.

Paul Eastwood says Intent Group will turbo charge Argon & Co.’s success in New Zealand by adding a complementary skillset, great people, and leadership capabilities.

Dematic partners with Google Cloud

Dematic has announced a partnership with Google Cloud, which it says will bolster supply chain resiliency and deliver go-to-market solutions by combining its supply chain expertise with Google Cloud’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) technologies. It says the partnership will allow it and Google Cloud to leverage shared learnings that will drive rapid cloud innovation. It adds it will improve customers’ supply chain execution by migrating its offerings to the cloud and introducing AI and ML. “This partnership is a continuation of our invaluable collaboration with the Google Cloud team, whose keen interest in helping us build and test the next generation of warehouse management solutions makes this alliance a perfect 6 | MHD NOVEMBER 2022

match for our growth strategy,” Dee Cusack, Dematic Chief Technology Officer, says. “Through this partnership we are helping our customers advance their positions in the industry,” she adds. This partnership will allow Dematic to develop and deploy a range of solutions, including e-commerce and omnichannel fulfilment, and control tower applications for key vertical markets including General Merchandise, Grocery, Apparel, and Food and Beverage. “We value Google Cloud’s drive for innovation and commitment to reimagining our customer solutions as we make our own transition to the cloud,” Dee says. “We’re excited to start the next chapter of our business together.” With Google Cloud, Dematic customers

will be able to create a more sustainable supply chain by leveraging data to understand efficiencies to be gained in areas such as operations, planning, labour, and inventory. “Google Cloud is committed to helping organisations across the supply chain address the rapidly-evolving needs and expectations of customers, suppliers, and fulfilment centres with cloud technology,” Kirsten Kliphouse, President, North America, Google Cloud, says. “We’re pleased to partner with Dematic to provide customers with innovative solutions and technologies that will help them quickly address changes across the industry and that support their digital transformation goals.”

VIRTUAL SHOWCASE 2022

Mastering Today’s Supply Chain Dematic international leaders provide a global perspective ONLINE EVENT: THURSDAY, 24 NOVEMBER À 10:00 SINGAPORE · 13:00 SYDNEY

Opportunities for a Strategic Competitive Advantage

¹ 15:00 AUCKLAND

Join us for our next Virtual Showcase event where Dematic APAC’s Pas Tomasiello and Michael Bradshaw will be joined by their counterparts from Europe and America for a review of the megatrends in their regions, the challenges and opportunities facing their customers, and the innovations that are being implemented by future-thinking businesses around the world.

Or scan to register!

Dematic.com 02 9486 5555 info.anz@dematic.com

• • • • •

Megatrends around the world Challenges and opportunities these trends pose for manufacturers through to retailers Types of technology being invested in by leading companies How the business and supply chain landscape will evolve Innovations in logistics automation

MHD INDUSTRY NEWS

HERE Technologies connecting with data

ERE Technologies, the data software company says the biggest challenge it is dealing with is connecting fleets. “Our data was derived in an offline mode, which means systems were running independent of each other,” Daniel Antonello, General Manager for Australia and New Zealand at HERE Technologies, says. “But in the last five years with vehicles being connected, location has been provided in real time,” he adds. Real time information includes traffic conditions, incidents on the road, and update of port availabilities. HERE says its platform consists of several layers. “Everything that happens on the road network, whether it’s the speed limit, the number of lanes, the

height, the way, the curvature of the road, is all captured,” Daniel explains. “This is the foundational layer that makes up the platform.” HERE makes its content freely available and easily accessible to its customers and achieves this through web-based APIs or JavaScript APIs, as well as through native SDKs, such as iOS and Android. “This means we can essentially turn that content into real time services,” notes Daniel. “It’s where you get mapping APIs routing and there’s the ability to create your own applications.” The third-party data set – whether it is a private site or warehouse that someone operates – can be merged with the HERE content and database, and then distributed through marketplace using

APIs and SDKs. Customers can interact with the HERE platform at any level, download the data, the content and use it offline. They can also take the APIs and use it online or can build their own customer applications for their own specific requirements. “The challenge with location is that all systems are not created the same,” Daniel says. “Getting a consistency across has always been a challenge. It is getting it out to our devices, whether it’s a car, truck, mobile phone – and they rely on connectivity for these systems. “HERE updates the map more than one million times a day. We make this map have the freshest available content available on the market globally.”

Australia needing 1.8 million sqm for e-commerce boom

ccording to CBRE’s latest E-Commerce Trend and Trajectory report, an additional 1.8 million sqm of industrial and logistics space will be needed in Australia over the next five years. It says this will be necessary to accommodate the growing area of online shopping. In the report, it analyses the ongoing rise of the sector in Australia, and its impact on commercial property. “E-commerce has grown significantly in the past five years, and that continued adoption requires large amounts of logistics space,” Sass J-Baleh, CBRE’s Head of Industrial and Logistics Research, says. “In the case of Australia, the forecast growth equates to needing an additional 1.8 million sqm of space, amid what’s already a chronic shortage of supply and a relatively limited pipeline of new stock. “It’s set to fuel rental growth in over the coming years, as occupiers compete for supply, but more broadly there is a question of how to facilitate this growing 8 | MHD NOVEMBER 2022

requirement, including whether it’s possible to unlock alternative space or intensify the use of available space.” Satisfying this requirement is set to be a challenge – notes CBRE – given Australia has the lowest vacancy rate in the world, at 0.8 per cent, and a pipeline that represents just two per cent of its current supply. Fuelled by shifts in retail habits amid COVID-19 lockdowns – it adds – online sales rose from representing nine per cent of total retail spending in 2019 to 14.3 per cent in July 2022 and are forecast to reach 17 per cent by 2026. It also notes Australian consumers’ total spending online rose from $30 billion in 2019 to $53 billion last year and is projected to hit $78 billion by 2026. “Markets with more of the fundamentals in place experienced higher peaks during the pandemic, only for the rate to drop after restrictions eased, whereas Australia’s growth has been sustained,” Sass says. “Online grocery shopping is an

example of changing consumer behaviour, and it accounted for 20 per cent of Australia’s total online retail spend in 2021,” she adds. “However, that’s still only three per cent of the total grocery spend in the country, highlighting that there’s still significant scope for growth.” CBRE’s Global E-Commerce Drivers Index measures six drivers for e-commerce penetration; share of urban population, mobile internet sales ratio, debit and credit card use, digital skills of the population, the presence of a dominant e-commerce player, and the percentage of population with a fixed broadband connection. It rates Australia at 37 out of 100 – scoring lowly on mobile internet sales and the presence of a dominant e-commerce player – to be 14th out of the 31 countries measured. The online grocery sector is set to be one of the biggest drivers over the coming years, with revenue forecast to total $17 billion in FY2027, almost double the FY2022 figure.

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MHD INDUSTRY NEWS

Amazon opening Craigieburn sort centre

mazon Australia says its first standalone sort centre at Goodman Group’s new Amaroo Business Park in Craigieburn, Melbourne is nearly completed, and once it is, it will provide 200 jobs. These roles range from entry level positions involving sorting customer orders to specialist positions including human resources, workplace health and safety to team leader positions, with applications now open. “We’re thrilled to open our first Australian sort centre here in Melbourne, the home of our very first fulfilment centre in 2017,” Mindy EspidioGarcia, Amazon Australia’s Director of Operations, says. “Our continued investment in the state is a signal of our commitment to benefit both customers in the region with faster delivery speeds, as well as in the Victorian economy through the creation of thousands of local jobs for residents across our logistics sites,” she adds. She says the opening of the site will

further enhance the company’s logistics capability and enable faster delivery for the thousands of Australians who sell their products on its website. Amazon says construction of the site, which is 15,600 sqm – around the size of the Melbourne Cricket Ground – started in March this year and generated more than 700 jobs. It adds it will be operating by the end-of-year holidays. “Our latest development for Amazon clearly demonstrate how Goodman optimises our properties for our customers, their people and technology – helping deliver the infrastructure shaping Australia’s digital economy,” Jason Little, Goodman Australia CEO, says. “Together with Amazon, we believe it’s important to make a tangible difference to the planet and the people on it, which is why several environmentally sustainable design features have been incorporated,” he adds. As part of Amazon’s commitment to

be net-zero carbon across its business by 2040, the building is 100 per cent powered by electricity, notes the e-commerce and logistics company. “Council is delighted to welcome Amazon to Hume City, and we are very excited for the 200 ongoing jobs it will create, as well as the 700 constructions jobs it created within our community,” Cr Sam Misho, Hume City Council Deputy Mayor, says. “This facility is the first of its kind for Amazon, which is also an exciting development for Hume,” he adds. “We will develop and continue to grow our relationship with Amazon to support their establishment, growth, and sustainability in Hume.” Amazon says its Craigieburn Sort Centre is its fifth operations site in Melbourne, supporting the company’s existing fulfilment and logistics network in Victoria which includes fulfilment centres in Dandenong South and Ravenhall, and Amazon Logistics in Tullamarine and Mulgrave.

“With that, e-commerce is set to take a growing proportion of total consumer spend,” he adds. The What’s Next in E-Commerce survey polled SMEs and consumers in 11 markets with the AMEA – including Australia – in July 2022, to explore the continuing evolution of e-commerce in the region and identify the trends that could fuel their future growth, notes the express transportation company. “The growth of e-commerce, changing consumer behaviours and the evolving expectations across Australia and beyond has opened up new and exciting opportunities for businesses to succeed,” Peter Langley, Senior Vice President of FedEx Australasia, says. “By providing simple streamlined solutions, we make order fulfilment

easier, and enable SMEs to ride this wave of growth and remain competitive,” he adds. FedEx Express adds that Australia is the eleventh largest e-commerce market globally, generating US $31.3 billion in revenue and growing by 15 per cent in 2021, which contributed to the 15 per cent global growth rate. Additionally, it says APAC will account for more than 45 per cent of the global absolute value growth in e-commerce in the period of 2020-2025. While the impacts of staffing shortages and resignations have been less pronounced in Australia than in most other AMEA markets, 65 per cent of AMEA e-tailers reported they were struggling to handle their growing number of orders.

FedEx survey reveals e-commerce growth

ccording to the latest e-commerce report commissioned by FedEx Express, 77 per cent of Australian small-to-medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) agree e-commerce will become more important to their business growth over the next three years. FedEx Express says leveraging e-commerce growth is a golden opportunity for APAC SMEs, where cross-border e-commerce is estimated to grow at a 13 per cent annual growth rate between 2020-2025 to US $247.5 billion. “COVID has accelerated our lifestyles to a pivot point where shopping online has been normalised across all demographics, and there’s no going back,” Kawal Preet, President of the Asia Pacific, Middle East, and Africa at FedEx Express, says. 10 | MHD NOVEMBER 2022

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MHD COVER STORY

Leader Computers is the largest Australianowned PC manufacturer, with warehousing and sales offices located in Adelaide, Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, and Perth.

DELIVERING WAREHOUSE AUTOMATION Dematic partnered with Leader Computers to deliver a level of warehouse automation and innovation that has done the largest 100 per cent, Australian privately owned, national IT distributor, proud.

eader Computers is a manufacturer and distributor of high-quality Information Communications Technology (ICT) products. Leader is the largest Australian-owned PC manufacturer, with warehousing and sales offices located in Adelaide, Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, and Perth. Leader supplies exclusively to IT resellers, with a large client base across the country. The company distributes products from over 70 vendors, including the world’s leading brands such as Microsoft, LG, Lenovo, Ubiquiti, ASUS, Gigabyte, MSI, Corsair, plus many more. Leader also manufactures Leader branded PCs, Notebooks, Tablets, and Intel™ white box series products. Leader distributes a huge range of IT products and peripherals, including: • Leader PCs, notebooks, tablets, AIO and servers • Leader business & corporate range of computers • Leader, HP, Toshiba and ASUS notebooks and tablets • LG, AOC, ViewSonic, and Asus monitors • Gigabyte, ASUS, MSI, Sapphire 12 | MHD NOVEMBER 2022

mainboards and video cards “Leader Computers, which is a trade-only distributor of IT products and solutions, was looking to upgrade its Lidcombe warehouse facility in Sydney,” says David Lamb, Consulting Manager, Dematic. “As an integrator of automated warehousing solutions, Dematic was able to help Leader to transform its warehouse with automation.”

ASSESSING LEADER COMPUTERS’ NEEDS Leader Computers’ Lidcombe warehouse stores approximately 8500 product SKUs, including very large server racks and monitors, right through to very small products such as thumb drives and CPUs. “Throughout the pandemic, working from home and homeschooling really started to take off,” says David. “Webcams and all the other IT infrastructure that were necessary really had an explosion of throughput. This led to Leader Computers experiencing increased orders from the resellers they work with and more pressure on warehouse operations.” In response to the increased

demand and as a leading technology company, Leader Computers wanted to upgrade its warehouse with automation that would increase business efficiency, accuracy, and productivity, as well as make better use of the available warehouse space. “The requirements for this automation project were, one, to save labour; two, to save on footprint; and thirdly, for Leader Computers to walk the talk of how you can use technology to better improve your business,” David says. The most important aspects to consider when designing a system are throughput, order profile and storage profile. Leader had a high number of product SKUs, but 90 per cent of orders were for 10 units or less, plus it needed room for product growth in the future. Based on these requirements Dematic determined that its AutoStore™ solution was the best fit for Leader.

DEMATIC AUTOMATES LEADER’S WAREHOUSE AutoStore is an automated storage, goods-to-person (GTP) picking and fulfilment solution, designed to

MHD COVER STORY

In response to pandemic-driven demand, Leader Computers wanted to upgrade its warehouse with automation that would increase business efficiency, accuracy, and productivity.

maximise warehouse space and minimise manual labour. “The Leader AutoStore solution features nine robots, three goods-to person ports and 6662 bins,” explains David. “The products are manually put into aluminium and cubebased grids via an operator from a pallet, which are then picked up by a robot stored in the grid, and when it’s required following an order, is picked up and delivered back to the carousel port for the operator. “The robots have two batteries in play, and they run approximately eight hours during a shift. When the robots get low on charge, they’ll return to their charging station where they’ll stay in play for up to an hour where they can get full recovery of a hundred percent.” The implementation of AutoStore at Leader Computers’ warehouse took eight weeks during a period of COVID-19 interruptions. Dematic continues to offer 24-hour on-call support and scheduled maintenance.

“

With the AutoStore solution, security is built in. You literally can’t get into the system manually without all the appropriate controls. This was another key benefit of the system for Leader Computers.

”

AUTOSTORE – KEY FEATURES AND BENEFITS When compared to a typical manual warehouse operation, AutoStore streamlines the process significantly, creating an efficient picking process with a single operator doing the equivalent work of four to five manual pickers. People are no longer walking around the warehouse to locate the next pick slot. AutoStore utilises a goods-to-person (GTP) methodology, where the products are brought directly to the picker. “Before the AutoStore solution was implemented at Leader Computers, a large order of a few different types of hard drives would take five to six hours to pick,” says David. “With this new AutoStore system, they’ve been able to pick a similar type of order in just 30 minutes.” Under their manual operation, Leader was picking and packing 20-40 lines per hour, which with Autostore has now increased to 150-200. Likewise, replenishment and returns can be effectively streamlined with AutoStore. MHD NOVEMBER 2022 | 13

MHD COVER STORY

The Leader AutoStore solution features nine robots, three goods-toperson ports and 6662 bins.

Items are received directly to a single location for insertion into the system. This is especially beneficial for reverse logistics, which in a manual operation, can be a tedious effort to walk around the warehouse and visit each slot to replenish single units. With AutoStore, the bins are delivered directly to the receiving area, then whisked away by robots for storage. Returns can also be consolidated with existing stock at receiving by delivering specific bins in sequence to the operator. The expense of storage space and footprint is another key challenge for Australian warehouses. AutoStore has the highest storage density of any GTP solution in the market, allowing businesses to clear up to 80 per cent of the footprint from their existing manual warehousing space, thus avoiding having to move to a larger facility. 14 | MHD NOVEMBER 2022

The solution improves ergonomics, stock accuracy, pick accuracy and product security. “With the AutoStore solution, security is built in. You literally can’t get into the system manually without all the appropriate controls. This was another key benefit of the system for Leader Computers,” David adds. With Dematic and the AutoStore solution, stock levels are accurate with continuous cycle-counting, pick rates are clear, and fast-moving and slow-moving SKUs are easily identified. Likewise, service levels are measurable and easy improvements often reveal themselves within the data and reporting space. Furthermore, the interface can be tailored to integrate with a business’s ERP or WMS. “The solution is highly adaptable when it comes to service levels and can be quickly expanded,” David

AutoStore utilises a goods-toperson (GTP) methodology, where the products are brought directly to the picker.

MHD COVER STORY

Autostore is one of the most sustainable warehouse picking solutions on the market.

notes. “If Leader has a day of higher volume orders, they now have the flexibility to just run the system for longer hours to make sure they get the orders out the door within that timeframe.” The Leader Computers’ AutoStore solution has already been built for 10 per cent annual growth over three years. However, the grid can also be easily expanded and progressively filled with bins, plus robots added, as SKU and storage demand increases. This scaling up can all be done with minimal interruption to operations. “An additional benefit of AutoStore for businesses like Leader who lease their premises is that the entire system can be easily and quickly relocated should they need to move into a new warehouse space,” David says. AutoStore is also one of the most sustainable warehouse picking solutions on the market. It uses power regeneration technology with robots to make AutoStore one of the lowest energy consuming technologies in warehousing. In fact, a turnkey system with 10 robots and a GTP port will consume the same energy as a

domestic toaster: 1200 Watts.

THE DEMATIC APPROACH Dematic has a consultative approach, with an emphasis placed on developing strong relationships with its customers. “We’ve had a successful rollout of AutoStore for Leader Computers,” David says. “When I recently spoke with them, Leader said they considered Dematic as family – and they’re really proud of this technology as well. “All in all, AutoStore is a leading warehouse innovation making an intelligent use of space, streamlining picking, packing, and replenishment operations, while also allowing room for future growth. We’re really excited

to see where this technology takes Leader Computers.” Most importantly of all, AutoStore has already enabled Leader Computers to deliver an enhanced level of customer service to its reseller network, according to Theo Kristoris, Managing Director, Leader Computers. “Leader’s purpose is to help our resellers grow and be highly profitable,” Theo notes. “We are always looking at fast ways to get stock to our resellers. The Auto store gives us a solution that helps ship fast and on time to thousands of MSP’s/IT resellers in Australia. We are proud to be at the cutting edge of technology and to bring this automation to our resellers.” ■

AutoStore streamlines the process significantly, creating an efficient picking process with a single operator doing the equivalent work of four to five manual pickers.

MHD NOVEMBER 2022 | 15

Robyn Johnson, Director at Blend ESQ.

HOW TO THINK ABOUT SUSTAINABILITY MHD sat down with Robyn Johnson, Director at Blend ESQ, and Prological’s Managing Director Peter Jones, to better understand how long-term sustainability objectives can be attained – and why small changes and small ideas are as important as headline-grabbing corporate sustainability targets.

obyn Johnson, Director at Blend ESQ, is an expert in helping people and companies effect behavioural change in how they approach issues of sustainability. She says that real, long-term change comes about by changing how people think and act on a day-to-day basis, rather than solely thinking about headline sustainability metrics. Host of the ‘Wollongong, Let’s Get Salty’ podcast, she says that one of the first things she asks guests of the show or clients of Blend ESQ is: ‘What is your favourite way to immerse yourself in nature?’ “It’s a way to remind us to get outdoors and enjoy these beautiful places and environments we live in and sometimes take for granted,” Robyn says. “When we care about the environment, and feel a personal connection to it, we’re more likely to do something about it.” Blend ESQ is a consultancy that works across environment, health, and safety (ESQ) quality management services. “We do this across various industries, including professional technical services and manufacturing,” Robyn says. “Basically, we offer either short- or long-term contracts, and we come in 16 | MHD NOVEMBER 2022

to support existing ESQ teams where they need to put programmes in place, or implement policies, procedures, or training.” Blend ESQ recently partnered with Prological because they share a similar mindset when it comes to consultancy practice, as well as developing sustainability mindsets. While everyone likes, these days, to talk a big game about sustainability, Robyn says there’s still much work to be done.

CHANGING MINDSETS, CHANGING BEHAVIOURS “With big corporates, there’s a lot of focus on sustainability metrics and monitoring – which is certainly important, but it’s not the whole story,” she says. “Reports and scorecards on these things can take years to pull together, and a report doesn’t always mean change will be implemented across a business. What we need to focus on more – and what we at Blend ESQ try to bring to the table – is a focus on empowerment: really trying to have an influence over workforces and have individuals make changes in their thinking and adjustments in their personal and professional lives.”

This might be as little as considering how someone gets to and from work to considerations around the procurement choices across the organisation: stationery, furniture, appliance choices. Looking at choices both big and small, Blend ESQ helps companies to weave sustainability thinking into quality management systems and business operations at a larger scale – with buy-in from all stakeholders. “You can really get some benefit to individual staff and subcontractors across your supply chain when you start thinking in terms of reducing consumption, and working with what you have,” Robyn says. “The big things to focus on are transport energy (personnel travel and freight), what it is you’re procuring, packaging and stationary – they’re the four things that are really going to be the bulk of the initiatives you need to put in place. But if you start with policy and metrics – as can be the case especially in large organisations – it can take a long while to drill down into individual behaviours. But that’s where longlasting change occurs.” Robyn says that changing mindsets is more important than setting goals, per se, because if you change mindsets, then

people will figure out new ways to achieve sustainability objectives in a grass-roots manner. With actual buy-in and interest, it will be more about intrinsic motivation to solve sustainability problems than top-down coercion. “A great example is icare, a Victorian paper manufacturer, toilet paper in particular,” Robyn says. “They don’t make a big deal about sustainability metrics on their website – they’re not about being flashy. But what they do tell you is how they solve problems. They tell you how they invested in reuse of wastewater within their process and how much of an impact that has had on their water volume consumption; this is vital for sustainability, because it’s not often enough acknowledged within industry that a lot of our electricity consumption comes from water use.” Sometimes, overmuch focus on ESG metrics can be a replacement for taking concrete action, Robyn says. “We don’t want to look back in five years and say, ‘Well, we really focused on monitoring how badly we’re performing – and we’re still performing badly!” Instead, companies should focus on changing mindsets from the ground up because that’s where great sustainability initiatives often come from.

WORKING TOGETHER Changing mindsets and behaviours around sustainability can’t be the responsibility of any one company or consultancy. It’s essential to get buy-in from all partners in supply chain. That’s why Blend ESQ and Prological recently joined forces, as the two companies share values and objectives while bringing different perspectives and skillsets to the table. “What both our companies are focused on,” says Robyn, “is making Australian industry sustainable. And a lot of that change needs to come from small- to medium size businesses. Prological and Blend ESQ can play a key role here, because a lot of those businesses aren’t big enough to have their own in-house resources to address sustainability objectives in a holistic fashion.” “Peter and the Prological team are playing an important role, here, because they tie in sustainability considerations into practical supply chain planning projects,” Robyn says. “For instance, SMEs that are planning new warehouse solutions often need help – because from my perspective the industrial property sector could do with a lot of improvement. For those companies that are working with existing infrastructure, they often need guidance on how to use that infrastructure in

“

What we need to focus on more – and what we at Blend ESQ try to bring to the table – is a focus on empowerment: really trying to have an influence over workforces and have individuals make changes in their thinking and adjustments in their personal and professional lives.

”

the most sustainable fashion – because they don’t have the resources to do a new build or create a sustainable warehouse from scratch.” In this connection, Robyn notes that there’s a perception within industry that tenants don’t have any influence over landlords in terms of demanding things like solar and battery charging stations. “I think a lot of people don’t even ask about, let alone demand, certain sustainability infrastructure,” she says. “That’s why it’s crucial for us at Blend ESQ and Prological to be advocates for the environment in this space. Landlords and occupiers both need to progress, so it’s vital that a plan is in place that gets occupiers and landlords on the same page for sustainability objectives. Occupiers need property and infrastructure, but landlords need tenants, too. With the correct approach, occupiers might be surprised how much influence they can exert on their landlords.” “We all need to work together for a sustainable future,” Peter Jones says, “and I think Robyn’s team and our team at Prological are complementary. There are lots of pieces to the puzzle, and we’ve worked with the Sustainable Buildings Research Centre at the University of Wollongong – tapping into their best minds, as well – to develop maturity and methodology into our consulting practice and bring sustainable energy production, storage, and consumption into a new world. That component has been incorporated into our future warehouse thinking, and we’re working hard to get clients to roll out strategies to that end.” But while Prological can help companies deliver big sustainability gains, Peter says that will still only take care of 25 per cent of the problem. “My gut feeling is that were we to run a full Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions assessment across large companies, and they went full tilt at what we’re already capable of doing – I daresay that we’d still only have put a dent in what is still a very big sustainability liability ledger they’re carrying. Robyn’s team understands all the other bits as well as an ability to lead personal change within the people of the organisation – and that’s why we wanted to work with Blend ESQ. “Metrics and monitoring show us where we’re falling short, and so provide the stick in the carrot-and-stick approach to sustainability goals. What we need more of is the carrot approach, which is what Robyn and her team provide. Getting people motivated, personally engaged, and proactive – that’s what creates small changes. And then small changes, small ideas, can be industrialised – scaled up – by supply chain experts.” ■ MHD NOVEMBER 2022 | 17

MHD COLLIERS PROPERTY FOCUS

SERVICING MELBOURNE’S NORTH AND WEST

Melbourne’s north and west encompass a massive industrial market. These areas have cheaper rents and property prices than comparable locations in rival Australian capital cities like Sydney. Colliers’ National Directors, Nick Saunders and Hugh Gilbert, explain to MHD what Australia’s second largest city has to offer. Melbourne’s west is the largest standalone industrial market nationwide with institutional investors owning 60 per cent of it.

olliers’ Melbourne team focuses its energies on the city’s north and west where most of its industrial developments are located. Melbourne’s west is the largest standalone industrial market nationwide with institutional investors owning 60 per cent of it. National Directors, Nick Saunders and Hugh Gilbert, deal with the pre-leasing, leasing, and sales of warehouses and DCs, which range from 5000 sqm to 100,000 sqm. 18 | MHD NOVEMBER 2022

The real estate services and investment management company says these industrial properties are purpose-built facilities and signed development sites. Nick and Hugh cover the core industrial markets servicing Melbourne – from Williamstown in the city’s inner west to Bundoora in the outer north. They occasionally have opportunities emerge in regional locations like Albury and Shepparton, but these only occur once every year

or two. When they arise, the pair work with their regional partner officers to lease or sell the sites to owner-occupiers and tenants.

NORTH AND WEST OFFERINGS The agents have a 24,000 sqm logistics facility for lease at 32-58 William Angliss Drive in Laverton North. They also have a sub development site of 6.6 hectares and another development site of nearly 50 hectares in Truganina.

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Nick Saunders, Colliers National Director. “We’ve got a vacancy of 0.6 per cent in Melbourne’s west,” Hugh explains. “This is the tightest it’s ever been. Demand has slowed a little, but there’s still a fair bit of demand. While some buildings are available, there’s a shortage of land supply. We don’t see this improving any time soon although markets are growing exponentially. They’ve grown to 11 million sqm – which is 30 per cent larger than what it was three years ago.” He says there are a lot of redevelopments and refurbishments occurring in the inner western market. Tenants have no choice but to look at and consider older sites that have been refurbished and this is due to the tight vacancy rates. “Owner-occupiers – with the

heightened demand – are buying these older buildings, demolishing them and building new facilities,” notes Nick. “Some sites in Tottenham, West Footscray and Brooklyn are going through these redevelopment phases. These are long-established industrial locations with low clearance buildings.” There’s plenty of activity happening in these suburbs where land values are high. Long-term passive owners are repositioning these assets, catering for last mile logistics and the next wave of sophisticated occupiers. These new developments have height functionality, improved access, awnings, recessed docks, and enhanced truck articulation. “The number of imports and containers that are coming through the Port of Melbourne are increasing year on year,” Hugh says. “Owneroccupiers are reconsidering how they should design their new facilities to ensure they accommodate these ongoing changes and remain suitable for years to come.”

SHORTENING TRAVEL TIMES Nick and Hugh note that multistorey warehousing won’t be coming to Melbourne just yet. “There have been a couple of schemes and people are discussing the concept, but it’s only conducive to constrained markets like the Port

Nick and Hugh cover the core industrial markets servicing Melbourne – from Williamstown in the city’s inner west to Bundoora in the outer north.

Hugh Gilbert, Colliers National Director. of Melbourne,” Hugh explains. “We haven’t seen someone go ahead and test the waters here. Sydney will be the real litmus test. People are looking at what’s happening there.” He adds that building multi-storey warehouses is risky and expensive. Firstly, the west, and secondly, the north, have great and updated infrastructure, notes Hugh. “It’s easy to travel to the airport, city, and Port Melbourne from these areas. More warehouses are appearing in locations like Laverton North, Derrimut, Altona, Altona North, Melton, Werribee, and Truganina.” “Melbourne’s topography is flat,” Nick says. “Truganina is the biggest industrial market in the west. You compare it to locations in other capital cities like Sydney where the industrial market isn’t on the doorstep of the CBD. Travelling from Western Sydney to the city is like travelling from Melbourne to Lara or Avalon. “Victoria has the West Gate Tunnel and is renowned for having big building infrastructure projects – these lure businesses to Melbourne. It’s also cheaper to set up and works well for a business that wants to do big box warehousing. “You can drive with a truck from the city to Truganina in 20 minutes whereas in Sydney, the same distance might take about an hour and a half. This is one of the advantages Melbourne has over its rival cities. It’s easy for businesses to open a warehouse or DC or make some other serious industrial investment.” ■ MHD NOVEMBER 2022 | 19

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MHD SUPPLY CHAIN

Flooding on the east coast this year has underscored the importance of building as much resilience and agility into supply chains as possible.

THE IMPORTANCE OF AGILITY AND RESILIENCE

Even as the pandemic recedes from view, it seems that each day fresh supply chain disruptions enter the picture. The only thing to expect is the unexpected, and that’s why Körber Supply Chain is focused on delivering technological agility and resilience that will see companies through turbulent times.

n late August Australia Post reported that the rapid growth in e-commerce experienced early in 2022 was expected to moderate moving forward. But while the uptake of e-commerce thrust upon us in wake of the pandemic may be expected to plateau, it doesn’t alter the fact that resilience and agility will only get more important as the sophistication, speed, complexity, and interconnectedness of supply chains increases. There are always knowns and unknowns when it comes to supply chain disruption, and it’s important to be ready for both. While we can plan for seasonal fluctuations – like the forthcoming annual Christmas shopping boom – and the scaling up or down of distribution within standard parameters, there are always the unknowns to contend with, too: inflation spikes, natural disasters, global health crises, cyberattacks, and disruptions arising from geopolitical tensions – just to name a few. All these contribute to one of the most complex business environments the world has ever seen. Alongside this, there’s an increasing emphasis on sustainability considerations, both from an environmental point of view and to

future-proof businesses against climaterelated shocks. Indeed, just this year Australia has been ravaged by floods, and bushfires will again threaten supply chain security as we look towards the summer. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has stated that extreme weather events will become more frequent in Australia in future, owing to climate change. With so much instability and turbulence, long-term business growth is difficult to focus on and as a result, for the past three years many businesses have found themselves treading water instead of focusing their attention and efforts on sustainable future growth. The businesses that will best cope are those that have strategies and technologies in place to deal with disruptions expected and unexpected.

BUILDING AGILITY AND RESILIENCE Processes and people are key to running a warehouse or DC to its best potential. Technology should only enhance what is already there. Building both agility and resilience into a logistics operation means having the right tools in place to combine human capability

with technology. But how is this done? One company that tackled this challenge – in partnership with Körber Supply Chain – is Super Retail Group. Super Retail Group, one of the largest retailers in Australia, is home to wellknown household brands including Rebel, Macpac, BCF and Super Cheap Auto. At its Annual General Meeting in October 2021, Super Retail Group reported 22 per cent year-on-year growth in sales across the Group, reaching a record $3.4b. In online sales, the Group reported 43 per cent year-on-year growth and announced that online sales now represented 12 per cent of total sales. Click and collect sales also grew more than 50 per cent and the Group completed more than 1.5 million homedelivery orders. Having gone through a significant period of expansion and acquisitions over the past 30 years, Super Retail Group is now focused on establishing a stable foundation to support further growth – with the agility and resilience needed to weather any future storms. With three decades of growth and expansion, there is no doubt that Super Retail Group has the people and the MHD NOVEMBER 2022 | 21

MHD SUPPLY CHAIN

culture in place – but by partnering with Körber Supply Chain it is in the process of adding the technological capabilities that complement its strong personnel. “We’ve had a long history of expansion and now our strategy is very much focused on getting the Group to work well together by establishing some really good core processes,” Patrick Fountain, General Manager – Supply Chain Strategy at Super Retail Group says. Prior to partnering with Körber Supply Chain, Super Retail Group was operating several disjointed legacy Warehouse Management Systems across its broad brand portfolio. “We had a number of different systems that were working on legacy hardware. At the same time, we were pumping through an immense volume of orders, particularly around December peak period. We recognised this was huge risk for us. If we can’t get our product to the store or customer quickly, our customers will just go elsewhere,” Patrick says. After a near three-year tender process, the leading retailer has selected Körber Supply Chain’s K. Motion Warehouse Advantage Warehouse Management System as the future foundation of its omnichannel operations. Super Retail Group is rolling out Körber’s WMS across its entire fulfilment operation, which includes six distribution centres in Australia and New Zealand. The distribution centres currently service more than 670 stores and store an impressive 24,870 Stock Keeping Units (SKUs) and the deployment is expected to be complete by FY23. “There’s just no way that you could run a business at our scale and our complexity on paper. So, a huge driving factor in our decision to invest in a WMS was the risk factor. We needed a system that could scale up and be as stable in December as it in April or May,” Patrick explains. Through the tender process, Patrick says once the team got deeper into the numbers, they realised the incredible importance of WMS. “Though the journey with Körber, we started to understand how the capability in this space had moved on and how the WMS was central to us setting ourselves up as a true omnichannel retailer,” he says. Historically, Super Retail Group ran its home delivery business through its store network. However, as the Group 22 | MHD NOVEMBER 2022

Super Retail Group is taking the initiative in using technology to build agility and resilience. continues to experience growth in online, there are limitations to operating this way and the retailer has plans to fulfil online orders direct from its distribution centre network. “We want to have far more online orders moving through our warehouses than through our stores, and this new WMS is really the leapfrog in this strategy,” Patrick says.

could focus on the core of their business. “We want to worry about the things we need to worry about. We don’t need to have these immense internal capabilities in technical areas when it’s not a point of difference for us. We instead have confidence in the Körber cloud offering to take care of the technical side and ensure that we have stability, security and high performance,” Patrick says.

ENTERING THE CLOUD

AGILITY AND RESILIENCE IN TURBULENT TIMES

Building and maintaining IT performance in-house can be challenging, due to the level of infrastructure off-premises. By moving it to the cloud, a business reduces its risk – for example, in the case of fire, flooding, sabotage or system disfunction. It also significantly reduces the expense of hardware and hiring the necessary expertise, and thereby the cost of ownership. Having a system Super Retail Group could rely on to withstand disruption was a crucial part of replacing its legacy systems, and as a result cloud-first was non-negotiable. For Super Retail Group, Körber’s flexible upgrade path was a real point of difference. “Many WMS providers offer a forced upgrade monthly or fortnightly, but Körber’s WMS features an optional upgrade, and this was something that we were very impressed with. Of course, it’s important to have an upgrade path, but knowing that we have the choice is helpful for us given the nature of our operation and intense peak periods we experience,” Patrick says. Another reason for cloud capabilities was in ensuring that Super Retail Group

In supply chain and logistics, everything can change in a moment. COVID-19 demonstrated how customer needs can change rapidly – shifting online, with no chance of turning back. In a world of pandemics, cyberattacks, geopolitical tensions, and increasing threats of natural disaster – an agile and resilient supply chain is indispensable. As supply chain complexity increases, agile and resilient supply businesses will be able to support new business models more easily in the future. As well as e-commerce, these models might include direct-to-consumer (D2C), selling through a partner’s physical stores, or via circular economy implementations such as reverse logistics. Most new business models will impact the supply chain to a greater or lesser extent, and agility and resilience will support them through this. ■ Learn how Körber Supply Chain technology solutions can improve the efficiency and optimisation of your warehouse operations by visiting www.koerber-supplychain.com

MHD MATERIALS HANDLING

ONLY TOYOTA FORKLIFTS WILL DO FOR NATIONWIDE TRAINING A renowned Western Australian forklift and dangerous goods training company has used the fantastic reliability and safety of Toyota Material Handling Australia (TMHA) equipment to help grow its business.

Nationwide Training’s forklift safety business depends on the reliability of Toyota forklifts.

ationwide Training, based in the Perth suburb of Osborne Park, provides training courses and accreditation for businesses concerning forklift and order picker operation and dangerous goods handling and storage, among other workplace training. For more than 10 years, Nationwide Training has depended on the superb reliability of Toyota forklifts to deliver its training courses, with the company using three Toyota forklifts to train workers. For Nationwide Training CEO Gavin Trim, Toyota forklifts have stood out 24 | MHD NOVEMBER 2022

from the competition for as long as the has been using them. “We’ll go out to sites and they obviously have their own brands of machines as well, but even with all the different machines I’ve used, Toyota has been hands down the best machine,” Gavin says. “I’ve trained with many and sometimes you just scratch your head and think, ‘Why does this machine work like this when the Toyota is so easy?’” Nationwide Training was formed by Gavin’s parents, with the company

starting out by leasing Toyota forklifts. However, when the opportunity arose to purchase his own equipment, he jumped at the opportunity and is now the proud owner of two 8-series gas forklifts and a Toyota order picker. “When I started managing the business mum and dad already had a Toyota forklift which we rented, and the leasing company was moving away from their Toyota contract, so I investigated TMHA through the company people and started leasing from them,” Gavin says. “Now we’ve purchased the machines,

MHD MATERIALS HANDLING

I’m a big believer in the product and I tell everyone how good they are. They’re very reliable machines and the technology you get in them is really good.” As a former Toyota automotive technician, Gavin is well versed in the mechanical excellence of the brand’s products. And while the incredible durability of the machines is a clear selling point, the TMHA benefits do not stop there. “There’s lots about the machine I like – the reliability is fantastic,” he says. “The machine also has the System of Active Stability (SAS), which other manufacturers don’t have. The new machine I got has even got a steering wheel indicator and mast leveling feature on it. The layout, design and ergonomics of the machine are great. “People laugh at me because I love my machines so much!” For Nationwide Training, another reason to stick with TMHA has been the excellent service and aftersales support offered by area sales manager Tony

McGuire and his team. Gavin says Nationwide Training prides itself on delivering high-quality training to corporate groups, which would not be possible without the machines running efficiently. The service provided by Tony’s team ensure that the operations run as smoothly as possible. “Tony’s always there to help me, he provides any support I need,” Gavin says. “When we finance the machines, they’ve always been helpful there; when we needed a machine, they’ve always been able to assist us and provide us with exactly the machine we need. They come up with all the service I need.” Tony says he was acutely aware of how important it is for any business to have their forklifts in prime working order. “If the forklift doesn’t start you lose a class, and Gavin’s got six or eight classes a day. You don’t want to put them off to the next day or the day after because you’re double-booking yourself.” A reputation for offering consistently

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excellent training programs has seen Nationwide Training develop a strong reputation in Perth, with employee training contracts from the likes of Australia Post, Bunnings, Government and Defence departments, and various transport companies around the city. With TMHA by its side, Nationwide Training hopes to continue providing top-tier training and accreditation for businesses long into the future. Gavin says the machines he invested in have been worth every penny. “Not everyone wants to pay the money for a Toyota, but I’m sure that if they realised how good they are they’d soon have them as one of their first priorities to buy one,” he says. “Every time I’ve needed anything or wanted something – or I’m getting a new machine, things like that – they’ve always been there to support us and make things happen.” ■ For more freecall 1800 425 438 or www.toyotamaterialhandling.com.au

MHD WAREHOUSING

AGILE WAREHOUSE CHANGE DELIVERS HIGHER ROI, MORE QUICKLY Businesses with warehouses and DCs who want to evolve their operations to save time, improve efficiency, and gain quicker return on investments should look at combining an agile approach to warehouse change with configurable, modular, and scalable technologies. Michael Weir, Managing Director at Microlistics, explains how Microlistics WMS makes this possible.

The vendor controls and upgrades the cloud based system as a company goes about its everyday business, and it doesn’t involve any additional costs – unless they’re turning on a new module.

icrolistics is in the business of helping retailers, manufacturers, 3PLs and logistics companies update their warehouses and DCs through an evolutionary approach to warehouse management. This approach has many benefits, including providing a faster speed to technology benefit, reducing business costs, and making for a higher and quicker return on investments (ROIs). Microlistics WMS is a cloudbased system which Michael Weir, Managing Director of Microlistics, says can provide warehouses with a configurable, modular, scalable tool that will provide immediate and ongoing

returns from day one.

FLEXIBLE WAREHOUSE MANAGEMENT WITH THE CLOUD Cloud-based systems use a modular approach allowing scaling up of the solution and supporting infrastructure over time. As business needs evolve processing power can be increased up to match, whereas traditional on-premise installations require a business to consider what sort of hardware it needs in its facility, both today and for the future. The Microlistics WMS is a modular system – i.e., it is split into separable modules for different applications.

Because hosting is outsourced to the cloud, there is no server hardware requirement on-premises. This means that it’s easier to scale upwards as and when a business needs more processing, whereas if a business’s WMS capability had on-premise infrastructure, then it would have to consider adding to that physical infrastructure to get the desired processing capability – an additional and unnecessary burden. “With on-premise installations customers provide hardware and we provide them with the WMS application,” Michael explains. “They need to set up and manage the infrastructure, whereas with Microlistics Cloud we provide a fully hosted solution that the business simply connects to. “By opting for a cloud-based system, our customers save time and effort, allowing them to focus on being great logistics businesses. We handle the infrastructure, the hosting and operating of the systems, managing the databases, updating the software, dealing with disaster recovery, and the platform’s administration.” Another reason why Microlistics recommends a cloud-driven WMS is because it’s less expensive upfront than the on-premise option. The installation of an on-premise setup has upfront licencing fees and ongoing support costs in addition to initial server infrastructure, while cloud-based alternatives only require a monthly MHD NOVEMBER 2022 | 27

MHD WAREHOUSING

service fee. “This can help a business with its ROI by reducing software costs to a lower monthly fee from day one,” says Michael. “There’s a lot less investment upfront so it keeps the initial cost down by not requiring you to purchase expensive hardware on a larger scale. Cloud-based systems are also more scalable, and less IT team support is necessary so businesses don’t need to hire experts in that field or delegate these roles to other staff – meaning those staff can focus on other duties. “You don’t need to predict from a hardware and infrastructure point of view what your future operations will be, especially important with larger organisations rolling out WMS across multiple entities, warehouses, and potentially multiple countries. With the cloud you can start small and as the system requirements increase – based on expanded usage – you can build on the cloud infrastructure, which gives you a better cost upfront and guarantees flexibility over time. You can alter the system as needed.” When businesses want to install the WMS into multiple facilities or locations, they can start with one, then “copy and paste” the configuration to others, saving time, energy, and money. In contrast, an on-premise install can require costly infrastructure additions or upgrades for expansion which eats into a company’s ROI. Companies that want to futureproof their operations and ensure long-term benefits can fall into a trap, notes Mike. “Organisations wanting to future proof their investment may look to design an all-encompassing solution upfront, but that becomes a very lengthy process. “It takes a long time to understand requirements and design operational and system solutions over a large scale, across many warehouses and even countries. Configuring, deploying, testing, and rolling it out all takes significant time. The trap we see is that by the time solutions are finally rolled out to operations, business requirements change, and those solutions become redundant and the opportunity for earlier gains has passed. “When you build something that’s complex, that becomes rigid, it’s hard for the business to gain benefits. This is why it’s important to take an agile approach 28 | MHD NOVEMBER 2022

Microlistics recommends a cloud-driven WMS because it’s less expensive upfront than the on-premise option. to warehouse change and choose modular, capable, and configurable technology. “You need to think about what tomorrow’s challenges might be and allow for those possibilities, but not be locked into them because the business is quickly changing. “You need to make quicker progress on today’s goals and build some excitement from delivering improvements to the operation. “As businesses and their customers are becoming more demanding, those businesses in turn are more demanding on the logistics operations, so you need to be ready to embrace the change. “Focusing on iterative improvement and expansion rather than trying to achieve everything today and working with a WMS that is modular and configurable allows you to have that agile approach when rolling it throughout your business.”

REAPING ROIS: PIECE BY PIECE The easiest way to build returns and to get them quickly is to be mindful when investing. By limiting the initial investment in terms of time, effort from the internal team, and cost, then a business will obtain a higher return quicker. The trick is to not overinvest at the beginning, to achieve early results, reduce expenses, increase throughput, then reinvest in further ongoing improvements. The COVID pandemic has shown businesses and their warehouses need to be adaptable and able to rapidly change. “Warehouses on a day-to-day basis

are driven by repetition, which gives efficiency; but that strength in efficiency can also make it difficult for them to change,” notes Michael. “Considering the scope when installing a WMS is essential, as well as establishing an iterative approach where a business gets the outcomes it needs overtime. “You’re going to get that return from your effort and your investment quickly, at a smaller scale, and then continue to iterate on a more agile basis and grow from there.” He says this gives a business several advantages, including immediate runs on the board and keeping it flexible so the business isn’t locked into a plan.

THE MICROLISTICS CLOUDBASED WMS DIFFERENCE Microlistics WMS is an advanced platform for optimising warehouse operations. It provides core warehouse efficiencies as well as allowing a business to utilise other key technologies, whether it’s automation or integration. “Microlistics’ WMS gives its users a strong flexible platform that allows the warehouse operation to achieve what it needs initially,” Michael says. “The risk, though, with updating any operational software is that it requires a considerable amount of time and money and can be a drawn-out process over months or even years.” He adds that it’s about having a sensible approach that gets a business onto an updated system which gives it those speed-totechnology benefits and a quicker turnaround of its requirements. ■

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MHD MATERIALS HANDLING

DAMON HANDLING GOODS WITH PALLET CONVEYORS

Damon, the intelligent logistics and systems and core equipment provider, explains how its automated pallet conveying systems can improve warehousing efficiency, safety, reduce energy-related costs, and be integrated with other solutions.

o reduce the dangers and high costs of using forklifts for transportation, Damon has developed efficient and automatic solutions for handling heavy goods. With more than 20 years’ experience in the industry, Damon’s pallet conveyors have been designed to be integrated with AS/RS warehousing systems, forklifts, AGVs, and other various equipment. Our pallet conveying solutions are used in a wide range of industries including e-commerce, pharmaceutical, apparel, cold chain, automotive, 3PL, and intelligent manufacturing.

The new generation of Damon pallet conveyor products include pallet chain conveyors, pallet roller conveyors 90-degree transfers and turntables.

EXPERTS IN HIGHLY EFFICIENT AND HEAVY LOAD CONVEYING The new generation of Damon pallet conveyor products include pallet chain conveyors, pallet roller conveyors 90-degree transfers and turntables. Our new design uses a new profile to increase strength and provide stable and reliable performance with high conveying speeds of 18 metres per minute and a load rating of 1500 kg per metre. All equipment, drive components and accessories have been optimised to reduce cost and reduce manufacturing and delivery times.

ADVANTAGES OF DAMON’S PALLET CONVEYING SYSTEMS Intelligent interconnection • Based on IoT technology and the DSmartTM Starter, automatic sensing and intelligent control are realised. • Phegda (PHM) provides predictive maintenance services so customers can keep the system in the “best state” at all times. Reliable and durable • The new profile, overall conveyor 30 | MHD NOVEMBER 2022

and accessories are designed to meet international safety standards and provide reliable operation under heavy loads with real time between failures at almost zero. • Integrated roll forming, processing in mould and other modern manufacturing techniques provide high precision, improve product assembly accuracy, rigidity, and quality.

to suit all types of applications and greatly shortens the delivery time. Environmentally responsible and energy saving • Intelligent ‘sleep’ mode automatically suspends conveyor operations when there are no goods detected to minimise power consumption. • Low noise, high efficiency motors are adopted to save energy.

Flexible and easy to use • The standardised design utilising universal side frames, legs and side guides support rapid assembly, disassembly, and replacement of new equipment into the original system. • Using building block design, the system can be quickly configured

Damon has always been committed to providing global customers with highly efficient, reliable, intelligent pallet conveying systems and solutions. Comprehensive innovation enables this series of products to better empower companies in improving their efficiency and reducing energy costs. ■

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MHD INDUSTRIAL PROPERTY

THREE STEPS TO SUCCESS THAT DCS NEED TO KNOW One of TMX’s latest technological innovations is its Metaverse virtual reality solution. Justin Fried, TMX Executive Director, Property, explains to MHD what disruptions are occurring in the industrial property sector, and how this tool can help businesses with designing and optimising their facilities. TMX Metaverse, a virtual reality solution, can help businesses review their operations in an immersive world.

hree key challenges for the industrial property market loom in the coming years: • Planning ahead • Agility in an uncertain world and • Dealing with external factors beyond your control.

1. PLANNING AHEAD Justin Fried says that with unprecedented demand, historically low existing building vacancy and a post-COVID development pipeline that is playing catch up, major occupiers must be well prepared or risk an expensive compromised solution. What this means is that planning ahead will be key. “The major industrial markets of Melbourne, Sydney, Perth – and Brisbane to a lesser extent – are experiencing

their lowest vacancy rates for quite some time,” Justin explains. “This means occupiers have less choice for short-term decision making, which is creating a wave of pent-up demand, as these groups seek properties to meet operational requirements. “The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated demand and stalled development of speculative assets, resulting in short supply of stock. “These demand and supply conditions, coupled with a sharp increase in construction costs, have driven rents up considerably.” As a result, significant new sites won’t come online until late 2023 to mid 2024. “With such high demand, we’re seeing a lot of that space being pre-committed very early on,” Justin says. “Will future supply ease this? We don’t

know just yet, with the potential release of considerable overflow space taken up during the pandemic another factor at play. “The major message here is to plan ahead. Don’t be caught out by waiting for your future property needs to be known entirely before you begin that process.” Given the short supply and long development pipeline lead times, occupiers should be determining their supply chain – and resulting property network requirements well ahead of critical lease dates – to enable a procurement process within an appropriate timeframe. This initial phase of review, how businesses handle and move their stock and where they store inventory, is a critical piece of analysis. By being prepared, businesses can MHD NOVEMBER 2022 | 33

MHD INDUSTRIAL PROPERTY

avoid unnecessary operational pressures and safeguard against the swings of market supply and demand.

2. AGILITY IN AN UNCERTAIN WORLD The second key challenge is about responding to changing market movements. Automation has been the catchcry for some years, as the primary path to achieving productivity gains and fulfilment reliability. Justin says that while automation will remain a critical factor in supply chain success for the foreseeable future, an ability to remain responsive is a more pressing short-term consideration. “With so much uncertainty remaining in global supply chains, agility and flexibility to changing market conditions will help predict the winners from the failures,” he says. “Businesses need to have a network that can adapt to change, particularly in a post-COVID environment. “Initially, there was a big push for automation, which is still relevant, but the bigger consideration now is being flexible and agile.”

3. EXTERNAL FACTORS BEYOND YOUR CONTROL The third key challenge for the industrial property sector involves external factors such as: • Regulatory enforced supply-chain shutdowns • Rising interest rates and • The structural shift to online shopping. “COVID has certainly taught industry a lesson. It taught us about the need to respond to unforeseen circumstances,” Justin says. “For those who were unprepared, or incapable of responding, they have come out of COVID in a worse position than others who were better prepared. “These external factors, and government-imposed shutdowns globally, remain possible in the future. The last few years have proved that. “Consumer behaviour is also changing and is perhaps a little more predictable. “For example, it’s not a matter of if retailers will grow their e-commerce offering, it’s a matter of how much and when, and thinking about how they’ll develop a supply chain to cater towards 34 | MHD NOVEMBER 2022

those new channels of demands. ”Finally, the cost of money is increasing around the world as central banks raise interest rates in an attempt to contain surging inflation. “The previous record low interest rates meant that risk may not have been adequately priced into the decisionmaking process of some players in the supply chain, which will pose an increasing challenge for the next few years at least, until or if inflation is brought under control.” What does all this mean? How can investors and occupiers prepare their supply chain around a property that isn’t even operational yet? Firstly, take good advice. Secondly, look to innovation.

INNOVATION This is where TMX Metaverse, a virtual reality solution that can help businesses review their operations in a digitalimmersive world, comes in. Metaverse allows businesses to see how the flow of their facility will work – before construction starts. They can sit side by side with TMX’s designers to amend the project in real time. Such thinking should be part of every company’s planning process. TMX Metaverse allows all stakeholders involved in the design of a warehouse to use virtual reality headsets, interacting with each other inside a fully designed, virtually operational 3D warehouse. Incredibly, they can virtually create and adjust features in real time, seeing them come immediately to life. Being immersed in a virtual environment enables stakeholders to understand the space and design, something that cannot be achieved via a traditional 2D plan. Not only that, but the Metaverse Showroom allows users to see how the latest automation, robotics and material handling equipment will work inside a warehouse. It is like looking into the future. Metaverse can radically cut down the costs of trial runs, as well as allowing warehouse designers and users to prepare for contingencies, unforeseen implementation hurdles, and unexpected opportunities before a purchase is made, or construction begun. In other words, using the metaverse can help you remain agile and

Justin Fried, TMX Executive Director, Property. responsive, the second great challenge of our age. “Metaverse allows our clients to virtually design their facility one day, and then facilitate early team training,” Justin says. “Eighteen months later they will stand in the physical real estate and operating solution. By using this technological solution, they can design and prove it before they procure it. “Given the often-significant capital sums involved for warehouse design, Metaverse shows key stakeholders how their facility is going to work, before the warehouse is built, which can accelerate the decision-making process and promote business-wide buy-in.”

GET GOOD ADVICE Finally, end-to-end solutions are critical for both the supply chain and property networks because the two aren’t just connected to each other, they’re one and the same. As a result, get the best advice available, before you start planning. “There needs to be a holistic discussion about the solution and that’s where businesses like TMX can assess the operational requirements well ahead of time to then be able to establish the most efficient and effective supply chain model design,” Justin says. “We are experts with a team of more than 200 industry professionals across property, supply chain and project management who can provide advice. “All facets need to be considered from an operational and design perspective as well as how the metrics of the market are going to work to make the procurement possible.” “The more they can do now to plan and understand their future state before committing to it, the better prepared they will be and ultimately the higher quality of the result they will achieve.” ■

Think 20 years down the line. Scan the QR code to unlock more insights from our experts in a video series on Melbourne’s Industrial & Logistics Land Supply.

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MHD INDUSTRIAL PROPERTY

BRISBANE’S INDUSTRIAL MARKET SCALES UP TO MEET GROWING DEMAND Charter Hall explains to MHD what’s happening in Brisbane’s industrial and logistics property market as it skyrockets due to the booming e-commerce industry for the first time in nine years, and what prime assets it has available for investors and tenants.

North Maclean in Brisbane’s latest market is in the spotlight as it provides excellent connectivity locally and to the major arterial routes including the Logan, Gateway, and Pacific Motorways.

risbane’s industrial and logistics property market shows no signs of slowing down, reporting one of the strongest annual performances with FY22 being one of the most active years since 2013 with 676,000 sqm of leasing activity, well above the 10-year average of 481,000 sqm. [JLL, Charter Hall Research, Period to 2Q22]. This is being fuelled by supply chain repositioning and business growth underpinned by the ongoing e-commerce boom, which continues to take share of spend from traditional

bricks and mortar retail. Many leading Australian and international brands are experiencing exponential growth combined with the need to hold greater inventory, which is translating into the need for ever larger distribution and production facilities to keep up with demand. Gross take-up of space over the quarter to June 2022 was more than double the 10-year historical average (124,400 sqm) and totalled 429,900 sqm; the second highest level on record across the Brisbane market and a third

of the national total. Manufacturing, transport, postal and warehousing followed by wholesale trade business are leading this growth. This strong occupier demand is expected to continue for the sector for the rest of the year and into 2023. [Jones Lang Lasalle Brisbane Industrial Market 2Q22 report, Real Estate Intelligence Service (REIS) July 2022]. This unprecedented demand comes at a time when the availability of largescale high-quality facilities is limited with established industrial hubs almost MHD NOVEMBER 2022 | 37

MHD INDUSTRIAL PROPERTY

Next generation facilities at Flagstone will be designed to cater to the latest innovations in automated fulfilment solutions through to cold storage and ambient facilities. at capacity and a scarcity of serviced land close to Brisbane and key logistics routes to the Gold Coast, greater Queensland and beyond. North Maclean in Brisbane’s latest market is in the spotlight as it provides excellent connectivity locally and to the major arterial routes including the Logan, Gateway, and Pacific Motorways. Given the lack of options in Brisbane for users requiring greater than 20,000 sqm, North Maclean is ideal for locally based businesses that require larger facilities and national groups looking to expand into Brisbane to complete their service solution on the eastern seaboard. Charter Hall’s latest flagship industrial development in the heart of North Maclean is tailor-made to meet this pent-up demand. Strategically located on the Mount Lindesay Highway, Flagstone Logistics Estate provides 100 hectares offering unmatched scale and flexibility for companies looking to scale up their operation and secure space for their future growth. Brisbane’s first hyper-scale warehouse and logistics estate is already setting new standards for flexibility with large configurable lots from 10,000 to 100,000 sqm, with a flexible planning regime, highly efficient building to land ratios and 24/7 hours of operations permitted. The site offers some of the largest pre-lease opportunities in the area providing businesses with an unrivalled opportunity to scale-up their operations now and accommodate

ambitious plans for growth in the future. Positioned adjacent to the Mount Lindesay Highway, and directly accessible through the diamond interchange, the estate provides exceptional efficiency connecting businesses to Brisbane’s CBD and surrounds, Brisbane Airport and Port of Brisbane in less than 40 minutes. The site also benefits from its location in the Flagstone Priority Development Area, Queensland’s fastest growth corridor with significant investment from the state government. This combines with new residential developments of more than 50,000 homes in the local area, supported by key infrastructure and amenities for the current population of close to one million within 30 minutes’ drive from the site. In today’s want it now, same-day delivery culture, being closer to your customers and supply chain is a key competitive advantage. Certainty of delivery and convenience are essential drivers of success. Flagstone Logistics Estate offers the least variance of travel times in peak periods when compared to more established industrial precincts, providing certainty businesses and customers can count on. Businesses are increasingly prioritising a better workplace experience for their workforce in recognition of the role this plays in employee attraction, talent retention and ultimately productivity. At Charter Hall, we are proudly

taking an industry-leading position to create healthy work environments in the Industrial and Logistics sector, from working with social enterprise partners such as Payce Foundation’s Kick Start program who help young people facing barriers to employment to designed as a place where people thrive with advanced wellbeing features and valued amenities planned onsite such as a café and high-quality showers, change rooms and bike racks supporting active lifestyles. In line with Charter Hall’s longterm commitment to sustainability, the estate is targeting a minimum of 5-Star Green Star Design and As Built Ratings representing Australian best practice environmental performance. Backed by Charter Hall’s 30 years track record in property development and Australia’s largest industrial and logistics property team, forwardthinking businesses can leverage our integrated expertise and local knowledge to purpose build state-ofthe-art premises that drive business performance to the next level and provide a true competitive edge. Increasingly, we are seeing both major bands and start-ups in the technology and e-commerce sectors favouring new design and construct developments over leasing existing space, as this enables greater flexibility and control over the end design and specifications to suit their specific needs. Next generation facilities at Flagstone will be designed to cater to the latest innovations in automated fulfilment solutions through to cold storage and ambient facilities to Third Party Logistics, transport and e-commerce tailored to each businesses’ requirements to the long term. As Australia enters a new phase of post-pandemic conditions with e-commerce penetration set to grow further reaching a forecast share of market of 17 per cent by 2026. [Source: CBRE online research report], the demand for large, flexible high-quality premises is only set to continue. With macro global and local economic and political headwinds emerging, the time to act is now for businesses reassessing their property strategy and seeking to expand or consolidate their operations in Brisbane. ■

38 | MHD NOVEMBER 2022

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MHD MATERIALS HANDLING

THE DIVERSECO DIFFERENCE

Brenton Cunningham, Founder and Managing Director of Diverseco, has always kept his focus on practicalities and problem solving as he’s extended the scope and reach of his business over the years. He sat down with MHD to reflect on his and the company’s journey – and his ambitions for the future: from weighing and measuring to robotics.

Diverseco is working to develop trades skills in robotics.

he company today called ‘Diverseco’ has a long and winding history – but in that time it has been overseen by the steady hand of its Managing Director, Brenton Cunningham. Brenton was one of two partners who originated one of the businesses that would later be folded within the Diverseco brand, 30 years ago. Coming from a trades background, Brenton’s focus has been squarely on solving problems – and during his career new and diverse companies (hence the relatively recent re-brand as ‘Diverseco’) have been added to the mix. It would be fair to say that industrial

40 | MHD NOVEMBER 2022

weighing and measuring is Diverseco’s bread-and-butter, but part of the reason for rebranding numerous distinct acquired business entities under the Diverseco name is that ‘diversity’ is the keyword. Brenton says he has a colourful history of naming and re-naming companies to encapsulate the precise nature of his various businesses, but diversity is the common theme. With new ventures into robotics in motion – the road is wide open with technological possibilities, so why hamper a company with too restrictive a name? MHD asked Brenton what his overarching philosophy throughout

the past three decades has been? He illustrates with a simple example from early in his career. Shortly before striking out on his own, Brenton was building a team in a weighing and measuring company. “That’s when I invited a friend, a mechanic friend, into the business because I could see there was a gap in the industrial weighing and measuring market for people with critical thinking skills,” Brenton says. That last phrase, “critical thinking skills”, is essential – because Brenton didn’t want simply to be a vendor who sold a product to a customer, checked to make sure it was working, and left it

MHD MATERIALS HANDLING

Brenton Cunningham, Managing Director, Diverseco. at that. “So, a customer calls up and says, ‘My cement hopper is overloaded, so your scales must be out of whack’. Now, a typical scale company would go in and check it and say to them, ‘There’s nothing wrong with the scales, mate, they’re working perfectly’, and be on their way. What I tried to introduce is a mentality that we don’t just walk away from such a problem, even if it’s not strictly our fault. So, we would ask questions and use those critical thinking skills to find out where the problem was – and help solve it. The problem might be a sticky valve upstream which has caused the cement hopper to overfill, for instance. “We wanted to go that extra mile.”

A PEOPLE COMPANY Brenton says the common thread throughout Diverseco’s long history of acquisition and expansion into new domains has been the fact that – more than anything – he and his team have been in “the relationship business”. “People don’t walk in and buy a weighbridge off the street, they don’t walk in and buy a million-dollar freight logistics materials handling system off the street,” he says. “It’s a long process. So, I’ve always been a people person, and a company is not a company without the people.” Brenton is by nature humble, so is reluctant to say that he and the leadership team have been successful in leading a values-driven organisation. But one can reasonably surmise that by putting so much effort into the values, that is itself indicative of the fact that it really is a values- and people-driven organisation.

“It’s easy to pay a lot of lip service to notions of ‘values’ and ‘people’ and – believe me – you can trip yourself up when thinking through this process,” he says. “We went through quite a process in defining our core values; we didn’t just rip them out of somebody else’s brochure. I can’t say that I’ve always been successful, but what we’ve really tried to do is have a positive attitude, a loyal attitude, and a can-do attitude – both internally and externally. Getting that right at the leadership level, on my own level, is always an ongoing challenge – and getting those values working throughout the organisation is an additional challenge, but I’d like to think we’ve made headway.” Given that Brenton and his founding partner started out with fewer than 10 people, and since then have grown the company to 150 people today – and stretching across far more solutions, technologies, and offerings than they began with – it would be fair to say that headway has been made. “I’ve thought about this as we’ve moved from a weighing and measuring company to an automation company, and now into a bit of a robotics company. The fact is that we’re more than anything a people company. We’ve put a lot of effort into training and recognition and rewards. Sometimes, at the expense of the short-term bottom line. But over the long-term, I think it’s helped the company survive rough times; our people and our customers know we’re here for the long haul, come what may.”

LAYING THE GROUND FOR THE FUTURE “Being there for the long haul” is a notion that doubtless informs Brenton’s approach to what might be the most exciting – at least from the outside – development of Diverseco’s business: robots and cobots (collaborative robots). “One of the clear problems that companies face at the moment, in Australia, is that they often can’t get enough people,” Brenton says. “So, immediately they ask, ‘Can I just get a robot to do these tasks instead?’ “One of the things we try to educate people on is the fact that these things aren’t R2-D2 yet. Cobots are becoming more user friendly, but we’re a long way from having robots – without human involvement – just doing everything.

The challenge for us instead is to make cobots accessible to practical end-users who are not academically trained experts. It’s not feasible for people to implement robots or cobots but then still have to pay a mechatronics engineer to come in and type out some code to adjust to a new task or every problem.” “One of the biggest problems we face is that we don’t have enough people who know how to operate and work with robotics,” he says. “That’s why we’re developing dedicated micro-credentials with Charles Darwin University to – in effect – create a robotics trade accreditation. Because, at the moment, there’s no mechatronics trade. You can be a mechatronics engineer yet still have almost no experience in practical, on the ground understanding.” The more robotics develops, Brenton says, the more the trades will need to feed into the academic engineering side and complement it. “Going forward the industry will need people with a robotics tradesperson’s understanding; operators who know how things work on the ground without relying on schematic or abstract models of how things should work, and instead solving problems right-here, right-now, so they do work.” Brenton did not follow the traditional pathway to Directorship through university qualifications but instead came through the pathway of apprenticeship followed by numerous high level leadership, finance, and management courses, finished off with his graduating from the Australian Institute Directors Course. In addition to this, his commitment to charitable organisations and donations evidence his commitment to living out the same values in his personal and professional life: “Live your life in such a way that you’ll be remembered for your kindness, compassion, fairness, character, benevolence, and as a force for good who had much respect for life, in general.” It’s this combination of the practical, the humane and the visionary – wading into new fields but bringing them down to nuts and bolts – that has set Brenton and Diverseco in such good stead for three decades. One can only wish him luck as the company moves boldly forward – although he probably doesn’t need it. ■ MHD NOVEMBER 2022 | 41

MHD MATERIALS HANDLING

Ozkor is a Sydney-based ISO-certified company specialising in the design and manufacture of plastic pallets for a wide range of industrial applications.

SUPPLY CHAIN PALLET CRISIS – WHY SWITCH TO PLASTIC PALLETS?

Ozkor explains to MHD the differences between wooden and plastic pallets, and why the latter is a better and safer alternative. It encourages businesses to determine what specifications they require the product to have, and to know exactly how they’re going to use the pallets so they can get optimal use out of them.

o matter what business you are in today: whether it’s food, pharmaceutical, or the exports of goods overseas, cost, hygiene, pest control, and product service life will be important considerations for most companies. This means making the right decisions when it comes to the purchase of pallets is vital. In this regard, many companies are now moving to re-usable and returnable plastic pallets as alternatives to wood. According to one of Australia’s leading plastic pallet manufacturers, Ozkor Pty Ltd, this issue has taken on particular significance in recent times when trying to service the supply chain of goods where a serious lack of good quality wooden pallets is available to fulfil orders. This has been brought about by COVID lockdown issues and related international supply chain disruptions. Whether wooden pallets are purchased or rented, it has become evident that industry has been under stress for some time to access supplies where the quality of available stocks of rented wooden pallets has significantly diminished. To compound this issue, wood is

many companies have expressed concerns that this could create a situation where production is stopped due to inadequate and unreliable pallet supplies. Ozkor is a Sydney-based ISOcertified company specialising in the design and manufacture of plastic pallets for a wide range of industrial applications. Customers include major retailers, manufacturers and exporters who can buy or rent plastic pallets that provide many advantages over traditional wooden pallets. Ozkor’s National Marketing Manager Alan Morgan considers pallets as being vitally important logistical tools and an essential, integrated link in global supply chain networks that ensures the smooth passage of goods around the world. Recent events, however, have concentrated the minds of industry leaders to consider a more reliable and safer alternative such as plastic pallets. “We are being approached by many of Australia’s major companies to discuss how Ozkor can contribute to the mitigation of the current wooden pallet shortages by renting or selling plastic pallets in order to overcome this current crisis,” Alan says.

not only increasing in price but also very difficult to come by in adequate quantities to fill industry demands. According to reliable industry sources,

PROBLEMS WITH WOODEN PALLETS

42 | MHD NOVEMBER 2022

While no doubt wooden pallets

will still be around in Australia for some time, an increasing number of companies need to carefully consider the choice of pallet material chosen to accommodate other operational conditions. For example, wooden pallets, when wet, are like sponges as they are porous and susceptible to moisture absorption especially when they are exposed to rain or wet storage conditions. This can result in dangerous conditions due to the potential of retaining harmful pathogens presenting significant risks in high care environments such as the food, pharmaceutical, and healthcare industries. Furthermore, wooden pallets become much heavier when wet, causing them to warp and change dimensions. Extreme weather and operational environmental conditions can exacerbate this problem. Heavier wooden pallets mean businesses are forced to pay higher transportation fees than necessary when goods and pallets exceed their expected weight. With the advent of more advanced Automated Warehousing Racking Systems (ASRS) being built, tolerance levels for non-compliant pallets are more stringent and less forgiving. Concern with damaged and dimensionally compromised wooden pallets, that are poorly maintained, can result in system disruption and

MHD MATERIALS HANDLING

very expensive production downtime to address the problem to resume normal operational standards. Plastic pallet designs provide consistent dimensional integrity and tare weights coupled with high impact resistant qualities that can be easily accommodated in automated systems without any fear of downtime. For warehouse workers, wooden pallets pose additional OH&S difficulties. Rusty nails, splinters associated with the use of wooden pallets, presents a clear and common safety risk to the workers handling them. When it comes to exporting such are the difficulties of wooden pallets – particularly as they relate to hygiene and pest infestation concerns – many countries are discouraging the use of single disposable wooden export pallets because they’re at high risk of bearing pests such as white ants. The consequences of which can result in a country’s agricultural system being seriously compromised.

Given that Ozkor plastic pallets don’t absorb harmful contaminants, they are more hygienic and ideal for exporting agricultural and pharmaceutical items. “Ozkor’s decision to bring the production of its plastic export pallets back to Australia has enabled the company to pass on significant savings to its customers and provided a more reliable platform for servicing the local market,” Alan explains.

A BETTER CHOICE OF PALLET DESIGN Ozkor recommends businesses should consider several factors when renting or buying plastic pallets. It recommends seeking professional assistance and advice from specialists in the fields of plastic pallet manufacturing and ensure the product fulfils their requirements, as well as consider its life expectancy, the environment in which they will be used – sub-zero or ambient temperatures, for instance – and whether they need a

light or heavy-duty pallet. “Ozkor’s plastic pallets are especially geared towards companies who require a high standard of product performance where extreme operational conditions exist and priced at a competitive rate,” says Alan. He equates pallets to the purchase of footwear in that they must be fit for purpose. “When people buy shoes, they can be required for a diverse range of applications such as dancing, running, hiking, or some other activity. Customers want their investment to meet the demands of the application in which they are to be used over a long period of time. Likewise, when we design a plastic pallet, we must ensure it is designed to meet the operational and environmental standards relevant to the industries where they are used.”■ For further information call: Ozkor Pty Ltd (+61 2 9672 8588 or go to website: www.plasticpallet.com.au

MHD WAREHOUSING

Reactive maintenance is very common, mainly because organisations are resigned to the fact that all machines fail, and their job is to respond to these failures as efficiently as possible.

JUST IN TIME MAINTENANCE IN WAREHOUSES Kannan Kathiresan, Product Sales Manager Industrial Networking and Controls at ifm efector, explains condition monitoring and its role in maintaining automated equipment in businesses’ warehouses and DCs.

ith supply chain pressures ever-present, and industrial automation on the rise, condition monitoring of machines has never been more important. In warehouses and distribution centres, crossbelt sorters, shoe sorters, conveyors, highly dynamic elevators/ storage and retrieval systems, and the like must be monitored for decreases in performance or abnormal behaviour. This is especially true for the motors, gears, and bearings that operate within such machines. Proper monitoring allows for early detection of issues, and early detection can prevent sudden and unexpected system failure. It is paramount to understand the different types of maintenance strategies out there and pick what is suitable for your plant.

COMMON MAINTENANCE APPROACHES Reactive maintenance is very common, mainly because organisations are resigned to the fact that all machines fail, and their job is to respond to these failures 44 | MHD NOVEMBER 2022

as efficiently as possible. Doing so, you lose control over production and people are stressed trying to put fires out. This strategy is only recommended if the breakdown does not impact production, or if it is inexpensive to repair or replace the equipment. The second most common strategy employed by organisations is preventative/calendar-based maintenance. This approach is inefficient as they often lead to overmaintenance, which is expensive, or under-maintenance, which results in machine breakages and downtime. The third approach is just in time maintenance or predictive maintenance. This essentially means you carry out the maintenance just in time to prevent something going wrong, but not too early so the costs are reduced. The right point of time is determined by a series of predictive and fixed, measurable factors such as the performance of machinery and equipment failure characteristics and deteriorating conditions. This is probably the most

challenging approach because getting actionable insights from your production is not easy. Due to the lack of quality data, inefficiencies creep in, becomes harder to justify capital expenditures, and you are faced with unexpected machine downtime and production losses which all contribute to a lower Overall Equipment Efficiency (OEE).

R T

WHAT IS THE SOLUTION? ifm provides the right information at the right time to the right person – to make the right decision. We provide real time visibility of your entire plant using our condition monitoring systems that can help gather actionable heights. We have various sensors that can help record vibration signals that will help in detecting all sorts of common faults such as unbalance, looseness, misalignment, bearing faults, rubbing, lubrication, etc. These sensors are installed on your critical assets and now they can signal when threshold values have been reached. So, the replacement of components can be planned and made

th be

OVE

MHD WAREHOUSING

before a defect causes a breakdown. We can also provide customer specific dashboards with simple traffic light indication for quick status overview, integrated alarm functions and automated ticket generation. ifm has been in the condition monitoring space for more than 20 years providing real-time maintenance. Condition monitoring can also be done in an intermittent way where you normally use a handheld analyser to record the raw vibration data and then a vibration expert can analyse it to see what sort of problems you are having. However, this method only records a snapshot of the data. The fault may not even occur during the time while it is being recorded. Sometimes, the deviation on the data is only for a fraction of a second, it could be a sudden impact. Hence, having the machine be monitored 24/7 will help you get around this problem as someone will

be immediately notified in real time. Also, real-time monitoring is better suited for hard-to-access areas. Another misconception I normally see in the industry is organisations tend to think new equipment does not need to be monitored as they are less likely to fail. However, it is just as important to monitor a machine when it is new as it is advancing on age since we get the added benefit of recording a base line of what the equipment is like when it is brand new. So, in the future as you continue to the monitor the same equipment, even when you start seeing slight deviations, you can then prevent it from failing.

WHERE DO I START WITH MY PLANT/BUSINESS? Before picking a maintenance strategy, it is best to carry out and perform a review of all the plant equipment. Issues that must be considered are:

1. R eliability requirements (how likely is it to fail? Which machine is most susceptible to mechanical wear? 2. The importance of the process (how critical is it to the process – what happens if it fails? 3. Is there any redundant equipment (spare, easy to replace?) 4. Physical accessibility and location (environment too hot, too dark, remote site, hazards?) Once you have carried out the process above, then it is best to pick a small asset and trial a real-time condition monitoring system. You do not need thousands of dollars to roll it across the plant. At ifm, we believe in starting small and growing big. Once you have been able to gather insights and justify to the management on the ROI, it would be wise to start rolling it across the plant. The investment in monitoring your machines is normally paid off even in the pilot phase of many projects based on our experience. ■

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MHD SUPPLY CHAIN

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ven as we emerge from the shadow of the pandemic, fresh supply chain disruptions continue apace – with natural disasters, price increases, geopolitical tensions, and more all adding further

Archival Garcia, Vice President and General Manager for ANZ and SEA at project44.

46 | MHD NOVEMBER 2022

complexity and difficulty to what was already a very stretched international supply chain network. Project44, “the connective tissue of the global supply chain”, has, over the past eight years, established itself as the world-leader in supply chain visibility – delivering real-time data and insights that are more useful and necessary today than ever before. In September, project44 announced the launch of Movement by project44, its new platform that gives all supply chain partners – including shippers, carriers, logistics professionals and more – the transparency and collaborative ability needed to make supply chains work. Movement combines the power of the entire project44 product suite, including its internally developed products and acquired capabilities, into one cohesive platform. Archival Garcia, Vice President and General Manager for ANZ and SEA at project44, says that the key pain point that Movement addresses is the lack of a reliable standard for data capture. It’s not a new problem, but it’s one that is ever more pressing by the day. “There’s no international and uniform standard for what type of data should be captured, and what it should be measured against,” says Archival. “Different companies capture different data, different systems are used for different legs of the journey, and even internally, different departments within one company will be focused on different data; there’s no holistic view of the

whole journey, with everyone using and accessing the same data. This makes it very hard to deliver on the basic promise to the customer: ‘This is when your stuff is going to arrive.” Movement, Archival says, provides the opportunity for that single standard – a true yardstick by which to measure performance and delivery for all stakeholders within any given supply chain. Movement empowers teams to manage exceptions, streamline shipment operations, automate manual processes, and collaborate to resolve customer issues, all from a single platform. It delivers value by providing complete order-level visibility across all modes globally, including multimodal estimates, from raw material to consumer door. It provides insights and workflow capabilities end to end — before, during and after transit. Everyone in the supply chain can use it, regardless of role, and it can deliver data to any person or system. The intuitive interface and unified APIs simplify issue resolution, and Movement enables seamless, datadriven operations.

SAME DATA, DIFFERENT USERS Movement means that everyone is singing from the same hymn sheet, data-wise, while also allowing different users to concern themselves with only that segment of data they need to be concerned with. “For people who are concerned about ocean transit, they care

MHD SUPPLY CHAIN about containers,” Archival says. “With Movement they can have a view of all their containers and shipments: what’s coming today, what’s yet to arrive, and what project44 is predicting with respect to delay issues or milestones, and so forth. “By contrast, if you’re an inventory person, it matters less to you what container you’re dealing with – you just want to know what inventory is coming your way. But when you send a purchase order out, you have very little control over what container it’s going to be on or what vessel it’s going to be on.” In the Australian context, Archival says, many retailers and shippers have traditionally only found out what’s inside a container once they’ve opened it. “What project44’s Movement provides is the ability to look that much further upstream, so they can plan better,” he says. “You can tell a freight forwarder to prioritise containers in order of what you need most. If you’re a retailer with a new promo in-store, you can use the information to tell your warehouse managers what containers you need most and to, in turn, relay that information upstream accordingly.” Movement has the largest network of connected carriers, logistics service providers, shippers, technology providers and consumers in the industry and can create connections for those who are not already part of the network faster than any competitor. project44 also has the most robust dataset and the most sophisticated data science technology in the sector and provides the greatest breadth, depth, and quality of visibility available anywhere.

COUNTING THE TIME Unlocking the ability to properly manage time – for whomever is accessing the data, at whatever point in a journey – is invaluable for each leg in the supply chain that wants to improve its own efficiency and effectiveness. “It used to be the case that everyone would be trying to tell the time using their own different watches, moving at different speeds” Archival says. “With Movement, everyone is looking at the same, accurate watch.” Shippers can increase lead time reliability and improve on-time delivery to cut costs and improve customer satisfaction. Logistics professionals can use Movement to improve data accuracy and increase productivity to grow revenue. Movement enables carriers to drive digital

“

What project44’s Movement provides is the ability to look that much further upstream, so they can plan better. You can tell a freight forwarder to prioritise containers in order of what you need most. If you’re a retailer with a new promo in-store, you can use the information to tell your warehouse managers what containers you need most and to, in-turn, relay that information upstream accordingly.

”

adoption, increase data accuracy and improve efficiency through automation to become more competitive. 3PLs can reduce check calls and dwell times, providing real-time visibility and securing more profitable loads while gaining advantages as a preferred carrier.

SIMPLE AND STRAIGHTFORWARD Movement’s user interface is highly adaptive and more intuitive and useful to a broad audience, and project44’s ecosystem partnerships and API-first architecture ensure compatibility with any third-party or system. Both the back-end architecture of the product and the user interface have been redesigned to optimise customer experience. “In practical terms, a Movement user can simply take a hyperlink of the view they’ve set up for a particular shipment they’re tracking or order of the shipment they’re tracking and share it with whomever they’re collaborating with,” Archival explains. “It might be a customer service person, it might be a warehouse person, it might be a customer, it might be a transportation worker. It enables everyone involved throughout the supply chain to quickly surface the exact same data as everyone else – thereby improving transparency and accountability, as well as flexibility in the face of changing circumstances affecting different workers.” The real-time visibility functionality that project44’s Movement provides is analogous, Archival says, to having an Uber delivery experience. “Users can see when a shipment has departed, and can track it live as conditions change,” he says. “No longer are you relying on static predictions based on limited variables such as distance and speed. With Movement, ETAs are dynamic and predictive. It factors in what the last billion shipments were like, it factors in congestion, it factors in today’s issues around resources – everything. And the closer it gets to the date, the more accurate it gets. So, it affords you greater information and, consequently, flexibility to re-prioritise in the days and weeks ahead; but it also means that when your shipment leaves it’s final depot, you can be confident that the ETA will be precise, and you’ll be there to receive it. “Time is our most precious resource,” Archival concludes. “With project44’s Movement, you won’t be wasting it.” ■ MHD NOVEMBER 2022 | 47

MHD ALC

The pandemic exposed our vulnerabilities as a vast island nation.

PAST LESSONS SHAPING FUTURE SUPPLY CHAIN Dr Hermione Parsons, CEO of the Australian Logistics Council (ALC), writes about the lessons industry learned from the COVID-19 pandemic, and what role the ALC will help play in shaping the future of supply chain across the country.

hinking back to 2019, supply chains rarely got a mention outside our industry. Despite being essential to almost every part of life, we operated largely unseen. Now, supply chain stories dominate mainstream media. When COVID-19 hit, and Australia’s borders slammed shut, it highlighted the importance of the freight and logistics sector. With almost no flights into the country, Australia faced the prospect of a shortage of critical supplies, including life-saving medications and PPE to combat the virus. At the same time, exporters reliant on airfreight capacity were facing a crisis of their own, as international competitors eyed lucrative market share. To make matters worse, as the pandemic progressed, a confluence of factors came to a head for sea freight, with skyrocketing rates, limited capacity, delays, and cancellations wreaking more havoc on severely strained supply chains. In short, the pandemic exposed our vulnerabilities as a vast island nation. Without working air and sea freight, 48 | MHD NOVEMBER 2022

Australia is isolated from the rest of the world. And the problem doesn’t end at the border. The sheer size of our country means we are equally reliant on functioning and rail supply chains. Australia’s economic and social success depends on an efficient, sustainable, and cost-effective freight and logistics industry. Each year our freight and logistics companies and infrastructure operators move about four billion tonnes of goods across Australia – that’s 163 tonnes of freight for every person. The industry contributes more than $140 billion annually to the economy (8.6 per cent of GDP) and employs a workforce of more than 1.2 million. Australia’s supply chain workers were the unsung heroes of the pandemic and are key to restoring our national and international supply chains. The challenges facing Australia’s freight and logistics industry are significant. Responding to the continuing pressures including worldwide shortages of fuel, containers, pallets, and skilled workers will take time and commitment.

Now is the time to re-evaluate, to re-invest and to re-build our supply chains. Even before the pandemic, supply chain business models were being transformed by globalisation,

MHD ALC

The ALC is focused on delivering enhanced end-to-end supply chain safety, productivity, efficiency, and sustainability.

technological change and an increased focus on ethical supply chains and environmental sustainability. The pandemic created the perfect storm, exposing Australia’s susceptibility to global disruption and bringing the role of supply chains into sharper focus. From climate change, geopolitical tensions, escalating trade wars, digital disruption and future pandemics, our supply chains will need to be resilient enough to survive a multitude of scenarios. We need to think

innovatively and collaboratively both across the sector and externally to meet these challenges. The Australian Logistics Council represents the country’s major logistics supply chain customers, providers, infrastructure owners and suppliers. Together, we take a leading role in shaping Australia’s supply chain future. The ALC is focused on delivering enhanced end-to-end supply chain

When COVID-19 hit, and Australia’s borders slammed shut, it highlighted the importance of the freight and logistics sector.

safety, productivity, efficiency, and sustainability. It connects industry with governments, policy makers and regulators at all levels to ensure they consider the needs of the sector in their investment, policy, and regulatory decisions. ALC members stretch the length and breadth of the supply chain and provide a unique perspective on the challenges and opportunities in the sector. We guide government by providing innovative policy options to shape safe, sustainable, streamlined supply chains, as well as providing practical advice to tackle immediate challenges. I truly believe that the key to affecting real change is bringing industry and government together to talk openly and candidly, which is why we are bolstering strategic advocacy and participation across government forums at state, territory, and federal level. The pandemic showed how much we can achieve when we put aside our differences, pool our resources and work towards a common goal. The challenges are significant, but we can’t lose momentum. Now is the time to capitalise on what we’ve learned and use it to shape our future supply chains, together. ■ Dr Hermione Parsons, CEO of the Australian Logistics Council MHD NOVEMBER 2022 | 49

MHD RWTA

RWTA ATTENDS SAN DIEGO CONVENTION

Marianne Kintzel, Executive Officer at the Refrigerated Warehouse and Transport Association of Australia, attended a four-day-long industry convention in San Diego. She gives MHD insights into what was discussed and happened at the cold chain event.

Kicking off on Sunday 9th October, the Cold Chain Café drew people together to discuss all manner of topics that affect cold chain warehouses and logistics.

he 131st IARW-WFLO Convention was held from the 8th till the 12th of October in San Diego, California at the Omni La Costa Resort & Spa. It was a sell-out event, announcing to one and all that COVID is behind us and that nothing compares to bringing people in from all over the world to talk all things cold chain. The Executive Officer and Members of the Refrigerated Warehouse and Transport Association of Australia were in attendance with other executives of temperature-controlled warehousing and logistics companies and industry suppliers eager to advance the cold chain. 50 | MHD NOVEMBER 2022

Kicking off on Sunday 9th October, the Cold Chain Café drew people together to discuss all manner of topics that affect cold chain warehouses and logistics. Topics covered included energy Food Safety Regulations, Refrigeration Regulation and Compliance, Supply Chain Disruptions and Solutions, Cold Chain Development, Automation, Strategies for Managing Inflation, Talent: Recruitment, Retention and Development, Energy Availability and Management. Delegates chose three topics to be discussed. Learning from one another and meeting others with shared issues created a platform for further

discussion in the coming year. Peter Sheahan, CEO, Thought Leader, best-selling author and award-winning speaker, was the keynote speaker on Sunday evening, a fast-paced business discussion that was both thought provoking and challenged the way to think about bringing people into our teams, retaining and maintaining their interest and getting the very best out of people to ensure growth and success in business in the coming years. There were assorted opportunities to network with the 500-strong crowd, social activities, receptions, and the Supplier Showcase to give industry

MHD RWTA

The 131st IARW-WFLO Convention was held from the 8th till the 12th of October in San Diego, California at the Omni La Costa Resort & Spa.

suppliers unparalleled access to build relationships with warehousing and logistics leaders. The Conference welcomed Ronald Brownstein, CNN Senior Political Analyst, Senior Editor for The Atlantic, and Contributing Editor for National Journal to speak on US Politics, Today and Tomorrow. Ron Brownstein explored the state of each party today. Blending history, a sophisticated analysis of polls and voting trends, and insider assessments of both parties’ brands, he explores what is next for the US’ major political parties. He combined the assessment of the electoral environment with an analysis of the current presidential term, the

challenges that face upcoming elections, and what legitimate policy choices exist for resolving hotly debated issues. The Global Cold Chain Alliance continues to expand its global advocacy initiatives through dedicated resources in both Canada and Brazil, newly formed partnerships in Europe and the UK, as well as the education offered during the recent Global Cold Chain Policy Forum. Discussing key disruptors impacting the cold chain globally and how the association can work with members to mitigate the impact of these issues on your businesses they see as critical. The international industry leaders panel discussed everything

from Energy to Supply Chain, Labour, and Climate/Environmental Regulations. The moderator was Lowell Randel, Senior VP of Government Legal Affairs, GCCA and included RWTA’s Marianne Kintzel (Australia), Lisa Battino, US Cold (USA), Shane Brennan, Cold Chain Federation (U.K.), Vivianne Leite, CAP Logistica Frigorificada (Brazil), Tim Ludwig and Bradner Cold Storage (Canada). There were many opportunities to discuss business opportunities, create solutions with like-minded industry players and network with people from all over the US and indeed the world. A great cold chain conference, not to be missed in the coming years. ■

Topics covered included energy Food Safety Regulations, Refrigeration Regulation and Compliance, Supply Chain Disruptions and Solutions, and more.

MHD NOVEMBER 2022 | 51

MHD PRODUCT SHOWCASE

GEOTAB’S GO9 DEVICE

O2I – MULTICODE READER

Completely redesigned and enhanced, the Geotab GO9 device is optimised for the collection and analysis of near real-time vehicle data. The GO9 features a faster processor, more memory, and a gyroscope. Expanded capacity allows even more and ongoing vehicle support, including better fuel usage support, and increased electric vehicle compatibility. Using Geotab’s patented tracking algorithm, the GO9 accurately recreates vehicle trips and analyses incidents. The GO9 also offers in-vehicle alerts to instantly notify drivers of infractions and – with hardware Add-Ons – provides live coaching for driver’s on-road performance.

ifm’s O2I500 multicode reader is simple to use like a sensor, and reliably detects 1D and 2D codes. It delivers reliable reading results even in extremely difficult conditions, reading up to four different codes in milliseconds, which ensures efficient, and high-quality production. Thanks to the one-button teach function and the viewfinder, it makes the product immediately ready for use, saving time and costs. In addition to this, the O2I500 can be configured via an app or using the award-winning Vision Assistant software. The device has an exchangeable ifm memory stick, which can be used to save or load complete configurations of the multicode reader. This simplifies device replacement and the set-up of several units for the same application. The integrated optional illumination with polarisation filter, ensures sufficient contrasts to reliably detect codes even in the case of shiny surfaces such as metal. The ifm O2I500 multicode reader combines robustness, compelling design, and intuitive handling.

To find out more, visit www.geotab.com/au/vehicle-tracking-device

For more information visit www.ifm.com/au/en

THE NEW COMBI-MR4 WITH DYNAMIC 360° ™ STEERING Since Combilift launched its first C4000 model in 1998, multidirectional capability has been one of the major hallmarks of the company’s wide range of handling solutions. 24 years and thousands of R&D hours later, its latest product takes multidirectional capability to the next level. The Combi-MR4 is a 4-wheel electric powered multidirectional reach-truck, which incorporates Combilift’s new Dynamic 360° ™ steering, which provides rotation on each wheel, enabling seamless directional change of the truck while on the move. The system allows this extremely agile forklift to work in forward, sideward and crab steer mode, guaranteeing swift operation and excellent manoeuvrability. Hence the full name of the new model: the Combi-MR4 Dynamic 360.

PROJECT44 OCEAN VISIBILITY Poor ocean visibility puts a strain on global supply chains, logistics costs, and customer service. At the root of the issue is low-quality data that hinders personnel productivity, streamlined operations, and proactive exception management. Today, more than ever shippers and 3PLs need global ocean visibility with the data quality, intelligence, ETAs, and proactive exception management that ensures efficient, cost-effective, reliable, and sustainable global transportation. project44’s Ocean Visibility solutions is here to help, with a suite of solutions that uses first-in-class data and analytics to improve personnel productivity, allow for proactive exception management, reduce logistics costs, improve customer service, and empower users for agile transport planning and procurement.

For more information visit www.combilift.com/combi-mr4 For more information visit www.project44.com

MHD NOVEMBER 2022 | 53

MHD PEOPLE ON THE MOVE

PEOPLE ON THE MOVE A monthly wrap up of the latest appointments in the supply chain, materials handling and logistics industry.

PRESIDENT FOR TOLL GROUP’S GLOBAL FORWARDING DIVISION APPOINTED Matthew Warrington has been appointed as President for the Toll Group’s Global Forwarding division. He joined Toll 18 months ago to lead the company’s strategy function, where he oversaw the successful divestment of its Australian Express business. Matthew has more than 30 years of experience in contract logistics and freight forwarding. He has a unique perspective, having worked on both the customer and operator sides across global companies, including Linfox, BevChain, Visy Group and GrainCorp. Before joining Toll, Matthew was a Partner and Director at the Boston Consulting Group, leading the Supply Chain practice area for Australia and New Zealand.

VATIVE’S NEW QLD TRANSFORMATION MANAGER Chris Cleary is the latest appointment to join Vative’s Queensland team. Chris is an enthusiastic senior leader with 40 years of practical industry experience in business improvement most significantly in the Resources sector. Chris is passionate to deliver purposeful training and education from Frontline through to the Executive Suite aligned with enabling practical change results. He will work directly in partnership with Vative’s Queensland clients.

TMX GLOBAL MAKES SENIOR APPOINTMENT IN RESPONSE TO SURGING CLIENT DEMAND Craig Albiston is now in TMX Global’s newly created role of Executive Director – Supply Chain, Australia, and New Zealand. He joins the company’s 11 strong executive management team after he worked at Deloitte where he was Principal and Senior Leader in Supply Chain and Procurement Practice, including National Logistics and Distribution Lead. He previously spent more than 20 years in both management consulting and industry, and has experience in retail, consumer, industrial products and construction, transport and logistics, energy and resources, and government and public sector. He looks forward to supporting clients with supply chain-enabled strategy through to implementation and transformation.

Do you have career news to share? Email Edward Cranswick at Edward.Cranswick@primecreative.com.au to be featured.

54 | MHD NOVEMBER 2022

Operational design and product slotting using data science and analytics

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