IEN: How can/will the sector answer industry demand for increased automation and flexibility?

Gerace: Automation and flexibility are the result of proper integration of hardware and software capabilities. On the hardware side, manufacturers of barcode scanners are leading a push into ever smaller and more affordable vision-based systems. This gives customers the flexibility to use more information-rich barcodes (2-d, PDF) than previously practical. On the software side, XML continues to be a growing technology for defining flexible data and system interfaces.

IEN: What innovations are in store for users of equipment, systems, and peripherals? What enhancements can be expected in the software that drives this technology?

Gerace: The industry is increasingly relying upon PC-based or "Soft PLC" solutions such as the Tompkins Control System. There are several new initiatives in PC-based control from industry leaders Entivity and Rockwell Automation. Such PC-based control gives equipment manufacturers a flexible and easily upgradeable control capability. At the same time, equipment manufacturers are taking advantage of the increased capability and lower cost of embedded PLC solutions to refine the controls of a wide range of material handling equipment such as case erectors, print-and-apply labelers, etc.

IEN: What advances do you see in plant floor connectivity? Web services?

Gerace: Software providers continue to add web-based communications to their offerings. HTML browsers are used to provide visibility into plant floor equipment and processes. In addition, XML-based messaging is being used to provide visibility into plant-floor operations.

IEN: Will remote material handling operations take hold?

Gerace: Remote material handling operations have a niche application today in hazardous material handling. For this technology to move beyond this market we believe a significant increase in the cost of labor or a critical shortage of low cost laborers would have to take place. Both of these conditions seem very unlikely within a 5-10 year horizon.

IEN: Where are other R & D hot spots?

Gerace: Device-level Ethernet is a maturing technology that is gaining considerable interest.

IEN: Will wireless become more prevalent?

Gerace: Wireless technology will absolutely become more prevalent in warehouse and material handling operations as Bluetooth, the 802.11b "Wi-Fi" standard, becomes an accepted part of the Information Technology landscape. The security concerns raised by many customers are being addressed by a wide variety of RF firewall systems from such industry heavyweights as Cisco and Symbol.

IEN: How can downtime issues be resolved? Through RCM, web-based monitoring, embedded maintenance?

Gerace: All of these technologies have their place, although web-based monitoring and automated maintenance notifications have the widest base of implementation.

IEN: Safety and security remain leading concerns. What progress is being made in these areas?

Gerace: Material handling safety is a fairly mature area where innovation is tending toward adding more information-rich capabilities to existing safety equipment -- such as e-stops that also contain a fieldbus interface (DeviceNet) to provide status and diagnostic information. Security these days means information security. This is most actively being addressed by the manufacturers of RF equipment -- they all provide some level of encryption or firewall protection with their RF network products.

IEN: How much progress do you see toward tying together material handling with the overall enterprise (front office, back offices, and all aspects of logistics)? What major hurdles remain?

Gerace: In a nutshell, this is the challenge of supply-chain integration. The major hurdle in such an effort is identifying the data that need to flow through the enterprise, and then handling that data in a flexible format. Progress is being made in this area by enterprise software vendors (WMS, TMS, ERPs), but the key to success is to find the right partner who understands the science of integration.

IEN: Third-party logistics has become popular in recent years; are 3PL vendors expanding their horizons to the plant floor?

Gerace: Yes, the larger 3PL vendors are already working on the plant floor by providing value-added services for such companies as Dell Computer.

IEN: Given the increasing sophistication of technology, how can companies maintain legacy equipment as part of state-of-the-art material handling systems, in the spirit of the lean enterprise?

Gerace: The key to keeping legacy equipment productive is to choose a flexible warehouse control system when upgrading a material handling system. The WCS should handle control via PC, PLC, and direct I/O. The Tompkins Control System is one such WCS.