In March, the manufacturing and supply chain community came together in a big way for a record-setting ProMat event. With an overall registration count of 50,924 and 1,051 exhibitors, the event featured 562,700 net square feet of exhibit solutions and over 150 educational sessions encompassing 1.2 million square feet at Chicago’s McCormick Place.
Made4net had a blast connecting with customers and partners and were thrilled to meet many new faces too! There was truly something for everyone at this year’s event. Here’s a summary of what a few industry experts enjoyed most.
Drew Eubank, EVP & Co-Founder, Zion
For Drew, it was the show itself. “This is the first time we’ve been in Chicago since 2019. The last time we were here we took up just half the hall. This year, we are spread across two halls and we have room to move and meet!”
He also enjoyed all the technology and seeing some of the newer technologies bring their best. “We’re used to seeing the big names come out with their big shiny object and everybody gets in awe. But now some of the smaller players who are up and coming, who maybe even have a better product, are bringing their best to show. We can actually go up and feel it and touch it and see it. And, that’s exciting to me.”
Chuck Fuerst, CMO, ReverseLogix
Chuck found it hard to isolate it down to one thing. “I’m always in awe of just the level of automation. Every time there’s more of it! It started out with a lot of robots. Now we’ve got a lot more sophistication on picking and cranes and moving totes. I’m impressed by the sheer level of automation.”
The scale of some of the booths also blew Chuck away. “Some are taking up a full corner of the floor, and it must take weeks to put that in place.”
Mike Raboy, Client Relations Manager, Voodoo Robotics
Mike was impressed by a particular vendor. “The more intriguing application that I found is from a company called SVT Robotics. Their claim to fame is the ability to have multiple diverse technologies integrated into their platform so that as a client continues to add more technologies, they’re able to handle that. And that seems to be the way of the future in automation.”
Raumi Sidki, Staff Robotics Engineer, Robust.AI
Raumi really liked the Agility demo of Digit, the first human-centric, multi-purpose robot made for logistics work. “I had seen them, I think, about seven or more years ago when they just had a simple model, so it’s really cool to see the progress of that technology.” In general, he thought it was amazing to see that everybody has some automation or robotics around certain parts of the entire warehouse experience.
Tyler Linderman, Director Services and Alliances, Bricz
For Tyler, it came down to two things. One was from a prospect that stopped by the Bricz booth. This company had turned an office building into a small distribution center. He first thought, “Oh, this is probably a fairly simplistic operation,” but then this company shared a binder of pictures from their distribution center and they had some of the most advanced robotics he’d ever seen. “They were working with things like the OPEX Sure Sort and a Kardex Vertical Lift system that they’ve retrofitted into a literal office building that’s operating as a distribution center.”
The other thing he found really interesting was the Boston Dynamics Stretch Robot that reaches into the trailer and unloads goods. He feels the ability to offload lower value tasks to robots is a solid investment that will provide a good and quick ROI.
To hear more from these experts and others, check out our Ask the Expert Series recorded at ProMat. We can’t wait to see everyone at MODEX 2024 in Atlanta next March.
