Pundits, progenitors, and prognosticators are apt to riff on the emerging trends of a given industry. Not surprisingly, a longitudinal view of such trends leads us to infer that the emergence of such patterns is less an instance of Aphrodite’s divinity spontaneously rising from the primordial sea foam than it is one of the all-too-human Agamemnon and his men rowing their long boat across the Aegean from his citadel at Mycenae to the broad plains of Hector’s Ilium.

That is to say, a trend is a flower that opens not over the course of days, but over the course of years.

A look across the many industry tendencies that have faced, and continue to face, the material handling industry tells us that these trends affect all aspects of the companies involved — from HR and finance through product design and delivery. For companies producing the equipment that serves the needs of the material handling industry, a few of these trends are especially noteworthy, particularly in their ramifications for business systems.

Companies can no longer rely on spreadsheets and CAD drawings alone to compete, as industry shifts continue to place greater pressure on companies to supply equipment quickly, accurately, and profitably in response to changing market needs.

Below are a few items, culled from the article above, that continue to affect the business systems of the future in support of the companies working within this changing industry.

The prevalence of robotics and automation

With the increased desire to automate as much of the supply chain as possible, the ability to move product with a minimum of human intervention becomes increasingly important. Companies need to tailor their offerings to provide integrated solutions that address these requirements. They also need to integrate these different elements into cohesive systems — not only physically, but from a sales, engineering, production, and delivery point of view.

The increased use of sensor, wireless, and mobile technology

Coupled with automation are the needs for greater integration between material handling subsystems, and between the overall material handling system and the facility in which it resides. From an enterprise application standpoint, the ability to quickly and consistently translate new features and options into their component materials and related operations becomes increasingly important.

The continued emphasis on mass personalization

As mass personalization continues to figure prominently in product delivery and distribution, companies producing equipment to serve these industries similarly encounter the need for increased personalization and configurability in the equipment used as part of the delivery cycle. No two warehouse facilities are the same, and material handling equipment frequently needs to be tailored to support the differences between buildings, workflows, products, and fulfillment requirements.

For producers of equipment serving these industries, the challenges manifest themselves not only in the material handling products delivered, but also in the processes and systems used to orchestrate the creation and delivery of those products. Making the best equipment is not enough if it cannot be designed, produced, and delivered at the right time and at the right price point.

In support of this, configurability continues to be of great importance, as do the abilities to quickly generate requests for proposals, rapidly engineer custom orders, and maintain reliable information across the quote-to-cash cycle. With its extensive product configuration capabilities, tightly bound to its bill-of-material structures, Epicor ERP remains a strong enterprise software option for companies looking to scale their organizations to meet the challenges of the manufacturing industry.