April 27 2016
By: Olivia Mitchell, Marketing Coordinator
Tradeshows require a great deal of time and preparation, but result in huge benefits for both those who attend and exhibit. Exhibitors have the opportunity to show off their products and solutions face-to-face in a hands-on manor, while attendees often come to the show with a clear plan to interact with specific companies, learn more and or compare specific products. Attendees also gain knowledge of solutions to help their business grow and prosper into the future. This year, Modex encompassed all of these things as attendees and exhibitors created supply chain solutions and worked through manufacturing problems.
The Show
With another Modex under our belts, Westfalia is proud to say the show was a success and full of life. We had the opportunity to interact with many great individuals and feature both our automated storage and retrieval system (AS/RS) and our Savanna.NET® WES software solution in a split carpet design. When attendees walked into our booth, they not only saw and heard our powerful videos, but were also able to walk through a 3D virtual reality tool to examine each part of an AS/RS. The 3D model allowed attendees to select locations within a warehouse to see an up close view of different components in motion. They could also use their fingers to walk around and zoom in and out of the AS/RS. We are happy to announce that we will be placing the interactive warehouse tour on our website. Stay tuned for the release of this new tool.
The Seminar
On Wednesday of the show, Westfalia’s Aaron Corcoran, accompanied by Mike Brown from Breakthru Beverage Group and Matt Schaub from Sargento Foods, gave a seminar titled, “What is it going to take to put you in an AS/RS today?” This seminar included Corcoran explaining how an AS/RS can be implemented in any size facility, as well as input from Brown and Schaub about their real life examples of working with automation and the results of their current AS/RS systems. Attendees were intrigued as Brown described how Breakthru Beverage Group planned for the future in the design of their building. Brown describes their design strategy by stating, “We went for design year of about 10 years out but we built the facility so we can hit 20 to 30 year growth plans by just adding to the AS/RS, not necessarily redesigning the building. So we built what we needed for our future inside our facility.” Schaub later explained the specific product requirements that need to be built into their AS/RS at Sargento Foods by explaining, “For us, we have a lot of shelf life requirements with our products. Our products code out very quickly so we had to make sure that we were sizing the lanes properly for getting the product out for FIFO and make sure we weren’t burying other products behind there, making sure that it was coming out timely and making sure we did not have to do much re-warehousing.” Watch the full seminar to learn more about the benefits of an AS/RS at Sargento and Breakthru Beverage Group.
Next Year
Tradeshows will continue to be an event where exhibitors have the opportunity to explain new ways to solve industry challenges and attendees get to explore the many new trends in their industries to help better their bottom lines. Westfalia awaits ProMat 2017 in Chicago and cannot wait to make new acquaintances and educate others about the power of automation.