Manufacturing logistics and procurement – June 2023

Developments in logistics
L.E.K. Consulting has published a report (832 kB) about the top priorities for U.S. industrial equipment and technology companies. U.S. manufacturing companies are dealing with an unprecedented confluence of challenges: the highest inflation in more than 40 years (8.2% in September 2022), ongoing supply chain disruptions and the war in Ukraine (and the broader geopolitical instability overall) along with labour market shortages.

Automatic gathering and packaging machine for fresh food products
Typical main-course salads you can buy in a supermarket contain lettuce, raw vegetables, pasta, potatoes, fruit, nuts, eggs, cheese, meat and fish. To date, there is no option to automatically gather and package all these different products without the input of human labour. In the coming five years WUR experts in computer vision, robotics and AI want to change that in the coming five years in collaboration with industrial partners. Successful development of such a machine would save a lot of line workers, which, in turn, saves costs in an increasingly shallow labour pool.

The power and promise of 5G integration for manufacturers
UL Solutions has released a report (6,71 MB) entitled ‘The Power And Promise of 5G Integration For Manufacturers’. The report reveals that 5G private networks are most effective when integrated with other technologies associated with digital transformation, such as artificial intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT).

Developments in robotics
Researchers at Columbia Engineering have designed a robot hand that combines an advanced sense of touch with motor learning algorithms in order to achieve a high level of dexterity. The robot hand does not rely on vision to manipulate objects.
The ShanghaiTech Automation and Robotics Center (STAR Center) of SIST focusses on research and innovation in the fields of robotics and automation. In a recent article, some new research results are discussed, including developments in advanced sensing.

Global Supply Chain Top 25
Gartner has released the results from its annual Global Supply Chain Top 25, identifying leading supply chain organisations, highlighting trends and sharing best practices. Schneider Electric claimed the top position in the list this year, followed in second place by Cisco Systems. Colgate-Palmolive, Johnson & Johnson and PepsiCo rounded out the top five positions. Tesla, AB InBev, GlaxoSmithKline and Dow were the new entrants in the list. You can download the report after filling in your details.
 

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