Coming Soon: LogiMAT 2012 (Germany)

From March 13 to 15, Stuttgart (Germany) welcomes the 10th edition of its annual “International trade fair for distribution, materials handling and information flow”. LogiMAT (http://www.logimat.de) has been hosted since 2003 by the New Trade Fair Center, which is conveniently located right by Stuttgart’s airport and easily reachable by train and highway. With 65,000 m² of space, over 900 exhibitors from 25 countries and an attendance of 25,000 visitors makes this a key event for logistics industry professionals.

LogiMAT 2012 exhibits a comprehensive show of innovative products, services and the latest solutions for rationalization and cost-optimization of intra-logistics. This term describes the design, implementation and management of internal material flows (and corresponding information) of an organization’s internal supply chain (1).  A good example is the management of internal material flows from production to distribution centers. About the event’s success, Peter Kazender, Exhibition Director explains: “The exciting mix of latest product developments, valuable background information and the chance to make contact with all the key manufacturers and suppliers in intra-logistics in a single, compact forum is LogiMAT´s main strength”.

LogiMAT 2012 Program (2)

Top-ranked companies are going to make use of LogiMAT to showcase many new products and developments in an impressive number of fields, such as materials handling, storage technology, warehousing and operational equipment, warehouse and production controls, loading technology, order-picking systems, labeling and identification, software for storage system as well as logistics facilities. For instance, Joloda BV (based in the Limburg area, The Netherlands) will give a wide presentation of its delivery program (3), which varies from simple mechanical operated paper reel skates via the famous Hydraroll air cargo tracks (extensively used in air freight forwarding operations) to the professional and fully automated loading / unloading systems. Apart from the exhibition itself, a value-added accompanying program will enable visitors to increase their knowledge and debate with their peers. Several trade forums with experts from trade associations and training establishments will take place during the fair, with subjects such as “Saving Energy in the Warehouse” or “Assessment of Packaging Solutions seen from the Sustainability Angle”. In addition, four innovation forums will propose thematic live events about automation in order-picking and packaging, load securing, tracking and tracing and efficient warehousing. All of this is available to you for an entrance price of just €35, making this event definitely not to be missed!

Insights about the Materials Handling Industry

According to the European Federation of Materials Handling, this industry employs around 400,000 people in Europe, working for more than 17,000 companies and with a total production value of €65.5 billion (all figures for EU 27 in 2008). Materials handling is an enabling industry. Without it, logistics and transportation service costs and delays would never be met! Think about operating a distribution center without forklift trucks, it simply wouldn’t work. Material handling equipment is becoming more automated and integrated into complete systems. Special attention is given to system controls, information processing and telecommunication, like voice-picking systems for example. Thus, the materials handling industry is characterized by a high level of technology and innovation in order to provide tailor-made solutions for complex production, storage, and logistics requirements. Material handling products and systems are found in almost every manufacturing and distribution company and for an endless array of goods. They are also present throughout the entire supply and logistics chain and, more generally, during the entire life-cycle of a product, from manufacturing to distribution, to consumption and disposal.

LogiMAT:  A Showcase for the Materials Handling Industry

LogiMAT 2012 is an unmissable event where logistics professionals, from Warehouse Managers to Process Engineers, can network with innovative and trend-setting companies. Logistics industry and materials handling specialists are unquestionably your best allies in making your supply chain work!

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Sources

Image source: LogiMat

Text source (1): Logistics Journal

Text source (2): Event’s program Logimat

Text source (3): Jolada Company website

Text source (4): European Federation of Materials Handling

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Coming Soon : Transport & Logistics Fair 2012 (Bulgaria)

Sofia, capital city of the Republic of Bulgaria, welcomes the 6th edition of its annual Transport & Logistics Fair (T&L). Hosted by the International Exposition Center (www.iec.bg), the event takes place from the 28th of February to the 2nd of March 2012. It constitutes the most-attended exposition related to the logistics industry in the country (1). T&L is a business-to-business forum for this industry’s professionals, counting with national as well as foreign attendance. The main exhibition themes are: international and domestic transportation, air freight forwarding and customs brokers, logistics infrastructures, warehousing and distribution techniques, and equipment. In this article, we will first provide you with a detailed description of what the T&L Fair is all about.  Next, we will focus on the transportation and logistics industries‘ situation in East-Central Europe.

T&L 2012 Program (2)

Leading companies will be presenting their know-how in terms of national and international transportation, which shipment requires road, sea, air, rail, or river transport modes, as well as container management and (air) freight forwarding solutions for intermodal logistics. In addition, other companies will showcase their experience in the logistics field (distribution center operators, customs brokers, courier services, consulting services for logistics industry properties, etc.). Furthermore, the logistics infrastructure branch is also represented, with organizations operating in port terminals, airports and railway networks. Last but not least, the visitor should not miss the chance to learn more about warehousing and distribution techniques and equipment, as many different companies will exhibit in this sector (i.e. electric, gas and fuel forklift trucks, loading and unloading equipment, racking systems, warehouse construction and automation). So, this one-week-fair is a great opportunity to establish new contacts locally and to get familiar with the latest trends and future projects happening in the Eastern-European logistics world, as it introduces companies from a broad range of specialties!

Insights about Transportation and Logistics in East-Central Europe (3)

ECE countries (Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia – to name the most important) fulfill a geographical bridge between Europe and Russia. As opposed to Western Europe, where freight flow orientation is North-South, they frequently follow an East-West orientation in the ECE. The railway network is extremely dense as it was a very suitable transport mode to ship heavy industry and mining products. Nonetheless, most of it is obsolete due to a lack of investment in its renovation.  For instance, only 20% of the rail network allows a speed higher than 120 km/h. The road network is well-developed but underperforms the western-style super highways.  Some roads were built with EU subsidies, in order to prepare for the 2004 and 2007 enlargements. As the networking between East and West improved, and because of attractive labor-costs, many companies moved their production facilities to ECE countries (automotive and electronic industries for example). This has drastically increased the need for logistics services. Major players of the logistics industry answered this need by setting up warehousing and distribution facilities in ECE (own-named or via mergers and acquisitions), whereas most local players were family-owned and relatively small logistics service companies. Furthermore, retail companies, like Carrefour and Tesco, seized the enlargement to ECE countries to grow their business, thus generating an increased demand for logistics and (air) freight forwarding services.

From Limburg to the World!

The T&L 2012 fair is a key event for the Eastern-Europe transportation and logistics world, with local and international companies showcasing their know-how in a wide variety of logistics subjects. In addition, as the East-West flow grows stronger every year, many logistics service providers are now able to offer state-of-the-art solutions on this route. World-class companies (Schenker, CEVA, Eurofrigo, Geodis, Ziegler or DHL – which are present in the Limburg area) can help you in organizing your logistics to ECE countries. Take a look at our website to discover more!

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Sources:

Image source: Foiresinfo.fr

Text source (1): Expodatabase.com

Text source (2): Event’s website

Text source (3): Wikipedia
Regard est

Posted in Events by patrick

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Road, sea or air freight forwarding? Find your intermodal logistics contacts

More than one transport mode, or intermodal logistics is becoming more important every day. As companies want to deliver their products faster and as cheap as possible, the combination of transport modes becomes indispensable. However, logistic services also become much more complex with intermodal logistics.

Companies want to be able to track and trace their shipments at any given time. That may sound easy, but it isn’t. For example, we need to consider detention time at ports, dangerous cargo waiting for captain approval to be shipped and containers at trans shipment ports that are “lost” for long  times.

Not only the traceability of each shipment, but also other factors such as, the EDI integration with forwarders, use of 3PL, 4PL, define SLA (Service Level Agreement), current market offers, hiring insurance companies or just contracting carrier services is very important for exporters and importers in intermodal logistics.

By visiting the 5^th Intermodal Asia fair you will get direct access to conferences presented by professionals on this intermodal logistics area but the most important is the chance to meet colleagues and develop your network for intermodal contacts and companies providing intermodal logistics services in Asia.

The fair will take place on February 9^th and 10^th in Australia.

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Sources:
Image source: http://theintermodal-transportation.blogspot.com/2010_07_01_archive.html
Text source 1 : http://www.transportevents.com/EventsDetails.aspx?EventID=EVE019

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Coming soon : Cool Chain Logistics Europe 2012

From the 30th of January to the 1st of February, Basel (Switzerland) welcomes the 11th annual Cool Chain Europe event (www.coolchaineurope.com). This conference is focused on life science applications, like pharmaceutical products, and is gathering specialists from all over-the-world to speak about international regulatory compliance, latest distribution models (sea freight cold chain for example) and other cost-effective logistics services solutions used in the Pharma industry. This article aims at presenting you this key logistics industry event, as well as provide insights on the specificities of life science products’ cold chain.

Day one: pharma and cold chain
This year, the Cool Chain Logistics Europe 2012 event consists of a two-day set of conferences, followed by a two-day training program (1). On the first day of conference, attendees will be able to hear from high-level supply chain executives about the critical function of cold chain in Pharma business, the logistics services challenges of penetrating new markets or best practices in ocean and air freight forwarding refrigerated transportation.
In addition, the afternoon’s sessions are arranged so that attendees can chose amongst three different themes, based on their personal interest: tactical warehousing & distribution in EU, quality assessment of ambient products or logistics strategic planning and partnering.

Day two: regulations & packaging
For the second day, two tracks are proposed to the attendance: temperature controlled transportation in ocean and air freight forwarding, as well as a set of interventions about cost effective packaging and qualification; the afternoon sessions being dedicated to international regulatory requirements (with speakers from the World Health Organization or the Dutch Healthcare inspectorate for instance). The two-day training program is dedicated to good practices in the logistics industry of temperature sensitive health care products. As you see, the program is quite extensive and the possibilities of networking impressive, therefore, for a logistics service provider specialized in cold chain, or a logistics professional working in the field of life science, this is a event that should not be missed.

The importance of the cold chain for life science
Cold chain logistics services comprehend the succession of operations needed to deliver a product from the point of production to the point of consumption and is realized under a strictly controlled temperature throughout the chain. This may sounds simple in principle, but think about the case of vaccines warehousing & distribution to remote and tropical countries. Life science applications need to be transported and stored within a very narrow temperature range, or it can lead to the product being altered and losing efficiency, which constitutes a fail against regulatory guidelines, without even speaking of the possible harm to the company’s reputation and the fact that lives can be lost.

The pressure to reduce costs in the logistics industry, increasingly tough global regulations, tightening air freight forwarding capacity and time management constraints make the warehousing & distribution of life science products a real puzzle for logistics service and supply chain professionals. Furthermore, emerging markets do not necessarily have the required logistics infrastructure for such products’ distribution.

A survey (2) conducted by Cold Chain IQ and in association with Cool Chain Logistics Europe 2012 shows that increasing partnerships with logistics service providers is the most common step taken by companies to improve service levels in their cold supply chain. When choosing a logistics service provider, its global reputation, local expertise and global reach are the most important criterion (cost-related aspects arriving at the last rank). In addition, tracking or supply chain visibility solutions is amongst the most important focus area for life science companies. You can deduce from those trends that finding the right logistics service partner is not sufficient, and companies are willing to extensively collaborate with logistics service providers to make their cold chain compliant, efficient and  transparent in terms of information management.

Cold chain: a complex process
As a conclusion, you realized how complex is the implementation and management of a life science related cold chain, as well as the new trends in terms of customer – logistics service provider cooperation. The Cool Chain Logistics Europe 2012 is one of the key logistics events of this year for the Pharma and Healthcare industries.

Many key players in  life science and medical devices industry (Abbott, Boston Scientific, Charles River Laboratories, Medtronic, Nobel Biocare and others) have decided to set up operations (including warehouse distribution centers) in the Limburg area (Netherlands). Take a look at our website to discover why!

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Sources:

Image source: http://www.coolchaineurope.com/Event.aspx?id=550992
Text source (1): http://www.coolchaineurope.com/Event.aspx?id=551018
Text source (2) : www.coolchaineurope.com/invest

Posted in Events by patrick

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