U.S. Roadmap for Material Handling & Logistics Version 2.0 Released at ProMat

On Tuesday, April 4, 2017, the U.S. Roadmap for Material Handling & Logistics: Version 2.0 was released at ProMat 2017, held at McCormick Place in Chicago.

Published on www.MHLroadmap.org, the Roadmap 2.0’s report and action plan is the next generation of the original Roadmap, published in January 2014.

As an update of the preceding document, the Roadmap 2.0 will help the industry determine how logistics and supply chain trends and challenges can be turned into action plans to develop needed capabilities in the U.S. between now and 2030.

“The first Roadmap was called by some ‘the most important document to be published by the industry in more than 20 years,’” recalls Gary Forger, who spearheaded the effort to develop the original document during his tenure at MHI.

“While it was comprehensive for the time, the staggering rate of change in the field during the past three years prompted the creation of this second edition.”

“The ultimate outcome is to grow jobs, increase America’s global competitiveness and advance our standard of living.”

The Roadmap 2.0 was developed in a 7-month-long process. Its content is based on input from nearly 200 strategic thinkers thought leaders - 70 percent of whom did not participate in the development of the first Roadmap - including material handling and logistics practitioners, suppliers, academia, associations and government.

Attendees contributed their thoughts during five separate roundtable events, held August through November in Atlanta, Georgia; Trenton, New Jersey; Ontario, California; Tucson, Arizona; and Chicago, Illinois.

In addition to Forger, who served as editor of Roadmap 2.0, a five-person writing team developed the report. They include:

• Charles Edwards, North Carolina Department of Transportation
• Bill Ferrell, Clemson University
• Steve Hopper, Inviscid Consulting
• Dana Magliola, Supply Chain Resource Cooperative at North Carolina State University
• David Schneider, We Are The Practitioners – David K. Schneider & Company

As part of the document’s release, its five authors joined Forger today during “Get Ready for the Next 10 Years in Material Handling and Logistics,” a ProMat on-floor education session to discuss Roadmap 2.0’s content, and share insights into ways the industry can use the document to refine their own strategic planning initiatives.

The Roadmap 2.0 is a collaborative industry effort, involving five association partners and seven publication partners.

Association Partners:

• Center for Excellence in Logistics and Distribution (CELDi)
• College Industry Council on Material Handling Education (CICMHE)
• Material Handling Equipment Distributors Association (MHEDA)
• MHI
• Warehousing Education and Research Council (WERC)

Publication Partners:

• CSCMP’s Supply Chain Quarterly
• DC Velocity
• Inbound Logistics
• Logistics Management
• Material Handling & Logistics
• Modern Materials Handling
• Supply Chain Management Review

MHI is providing administrative and financial support for the development of the Roadmap 2.0.