IEN: How can this sector meet rising demand for greater automation and flexibility?
Melville: The demand for greater automation and flexibility can be met by bringing existing and evolving technologies to the marketplace. When combined with a Systems Integrator to deliver a complete solution, productivity, rapid response, and improved safety are possible. The ability to track and control material, combined with "mined data," will enable decision making to improve the security of the enterprise or operation.
IEN: What innovations are in store for users of equipment, systems, components, materials, and software?
Melville: On the software front, supply chain execution and planning systems are continuing to evolve into visibility tools that provide actionable information to increasingly higher level elements of manufacturing and distribution organizations. As for equipment and systems, the incessant drive to greater performance at lower cost continues to yield innovations that can be used to an organization''s advantage. Product identification and inspection technologies like vision system and radio frequency identification (RFID) are a couple of examples. If you don''t take advantage of them, your competitor will.
IEN: What advances do you see in plant floor connectivity? Web services? Remote material handling?
Melville: The trend toward increasingly integrated systems, even if they are implemented at different times by different entities, shows no sign of slowing. That trend extends to the enterprise level as well. An example is the Integrated Data System implemented by the world''s largest national postal service. The system allows data at all levels of the organization to be amassed and mined for actionable information at both the plant and headquarters level. Accessing that data, as well as using it for troubleshooting material handling problems, is a logical progression for the technology.
IEN: Where are other R & D hot spots?
Melville: Product identification and inspection are both hot topics. Vision systems provide the ability to uniquely identify product as well as determine flaws in manufacturing. Applying those systems rather than person-in-the-loop processes yield higher productivity as well as more consistent results. Another research and development topic is RFID. RFID tags and readers provide identification flexibility along with the ability to associate more information with an item, case, or pallet.
On the airline baggage handling integration front, explosive detection systems (EDS) are improving the safety of the traveling public by quickly and efficiently identifying threats in checked luggage. Lockheed Martin established its presence in the airline baggage handling and EDS inline integration marketplace to take advantage of the opportunities which exist to service airports, airlines, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), and traveling public.
IEN: Will wireless become more prevalent?
Melville: Wireless technologies are intuitively beneficial to the manufacturing and distribution arena. Wireless technologies facilitate remote monitoring of material handling systems, push actionable information to decision makers no matter where they are, and help organizations realize greater productivity. One noteworthy example of wireless technologies benefits is the trend in the warehouse management systems (WMS) market for support to PDAs. By pushing information to a powerful handheld device, organizations are making managers, supervisors, and maintainers more productive and effective. In addition, those devices are freeing key personnel from the confines of their office.
IEN: How can downtime issues be resolved? Through RCM, web-based monitoring, embedded maintenance? Other solutions?
Melville: Integrated solutions including remote monitoring tools allow diagnostic and troubleshooting resources to be brought to bear on a problem more quickly. For example, Lockheed Martin routinely includes remote tools on material handling systems it implements. Those tools allow our technicians and engineers to access a troubled system from anywhere in the world, day or night, to diagnose -- and oftentimes fix -- a system problem. Those tools preclude travel and coordination time, ultimately reducing system downtime.
IEN: What progress do you see in meeting safety and security goals?
Melville: More advanced material handling technologies are transforming the tasks performed by a workforce. That transformation process is reducing touch labor with a corresponding increase in decision-making, machine controls tasks. The shift is translating into safer manufacturing and distribution operations. On the security front, access control, more precise product tracking, and more effective quality control borne of technological advances are all having very positive benefits.
IEN: Will collaborative manufacturing play a role?
Melville: Absolutely. Capitalizing on manufacturing partners, processes, and technologies to improve your operations will yield safety and security benefits.
IEN: What is the future of third-party logistics vendors in plant floor material handling operations?
Melville: For many organizations, especially smaller organizations with limited material handing experience or systems, a logical business consideration is whether or not to take advantage of a third party logistics solution. After all, a good third party logistics teammate has extensive material handling expertise that can reduce the cost of your operation.