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AMHSA Autumn Conference – Greater Outlooks

By 1st December 2021 No Comments

AMHSA Members Enjoy In-Person Conference – The Future Has A Bright Outlook

 

Nearly two years after the pandemic hit the news headlines and the shores of Europe, causing global uncertainty and bringing an abrupt end to the usual in person attended events, AMHSA members came together once again at the Harborough Innovation Centre for, the long awaited, Autumn Conference.

On Wednesday 17th November, AMHSA members were treated to a series of presentations from the AMHSA Secretariat Team and guest speakers who delivered updates, news, trends and the latest innovative and collaborative partnerships from around the industry. Key speakers included Clare Bottle, Chief Executive – UKWA, Rob Fisher, Group Director – IMHX (Informa Markets) and Rueben Scriven Senior Analyst – Interact Analysis.

 

Safety In Numbers – AMHSA Continues to Attract New Members

Dave Berridge and Matt Jones delivered their update and state of the nation address for all things AMHSA. Following the UK’s departure from the European Union and after an economic crisis in a year like no other, in living memory, we might be forgiven for thinking that trade associations might not be the safe havens for businesses seeking the safety and security of networking opportunities. However, after a series of online events designed to share key information and promote best practise to help members it appears that efforts have not gone unrewarded. AMHSA has attracted another six members this year and is hopeful of continuing to grow its membership in 2022.

To bolster this drive for membership growth the association are developing an exciting programme of events to develop member and brand exposure in the the coming year. Continuity and Resilience and Environmental and Community Partnership based seminars and discussion sessions, aiding members’ business planning and strategy development, are just some of the topics for next year’s calendar. Matt Jones indicated that “by adding further diversity to the existing blend of informative and educational series of events, we are confident of attracting interest from more businesses”. 

UK Warehousing Is World’s E-Commerce leader

Clare Bottle, Chief Executive – UKWA presented her understanding of the state of the UK sector and comparison to other parts of the world. Clare was keen to share the state of growth within the UK warehousing sector, some green credentials and sustainability issues. It was clear that, similar to the Automated Material Handling Systems sector, that the pandemic, in part, had driven the desire to do more. It was clear that in all areas of the warehousing sector, significant growth had been evident. None more so than in the Online Retail sector.

It is clear that the UK now leads the world in the Online Retail Warehousing sector and that all eyes are trained on us as the rest of the world look for inspiration. But with this power comes responsibility and Clare was keen to express the cost – Green Credentials and how we are to deliver considered sustainability.

Gro Harlem Bruntland, former Prime Minister of Norway, was referred in the presentation as having been an inspiration and innovator in the thinking about environmentalism and green credentials 40 years ago. In addition the Global Warming Stripes chart, introduced by Professor Ed Hawkins in 2018, was displayed which focussed the audiences’ minds on how global temperatures had risen in the last 150 years and what we needed to do to help prevent a global catastrophe.

Clare was keen to impress that – True Sustainability is economic, social and environmental. 

IMHX 2022 – The UK’s largest Exhibition is back!

Rob Fisher, Group Director – Informa Markets reported on a difficult couple of years, but was keen to impress, how IMHX had demonstrated their own resilience and wanted to share their own green credentials and how sustainability would feature at IMHX 2022.

Informa are keen to INSPIRE and develop sustainability amongst their suppliers, exhibitors and other stakeholders; operate an increasingly environmentally responsible exhibition by reducing carbon emissions, reducing waste and finally consider how they run all of their events in a socially responsible manner by ensuring they conduct business safely and ethically, consider wellbeing and by having positive impacts on their host cities – and that’s a global consideration!

Rob is convinced that with the considerations that Informa are making, the ongoing support – Road Map to IMHX 2022, a blend of online digital capability and support, environmental efforts and generous considerations for AMHSA members, that next year’s show will demonstrate a commitment to making the experience not to be missed.

And, with new exciting innovative features being added all the time it promises to be sensational.

Proud to be part of it all – Elmleigh Electrical Systems

A quick introduction – Simon Sliwinski, M.D. & Darren Cornwall, Commercial Manager gave an explanation about the company detailing their history,  capabilities and business relationships with major suppliers across many sectors and their aspirations to develop further operational associations within the automated material handling systems arena.

Elmleigh are keen to develop their business and demonstrate their aspiration to grow their business and will be moving to new state of the art premises in the new year. The team are happy to meet and provide information and support for any AMHSA members and can be contacted using the details on our website.  

AMHSA Apprenticeship – Toyota UK

Kelvin Sanders, Senior Specialist – Toyota Manufacturing UK updated the group in relation to the apprenticeship scheme operated at their Apprenticeship Development Centre, Burnaston, Derbyshire.

The team had had to adapt rapidly in the wake of the Coronavirus pandemic and make changes that ensured the safety of the staff and apprenticeships operating at the centre. The AMHSA scheme, now in its sixth year, continued to attract candidates from several member companies, delivering high quality, highly qualified and well balanced all round engineers. The scheme has been further tailored with new qualification attainment ensuring that apprentices are being trained to the appropriate levels and standards required to maintain and solve the engineering problems are faced in the modern automated material handling warehousing and distribution facilities. The programme adopts many ideologies and theories from the business world and applies them to the young people starting them with solid roots and growing into highly trained professionals. One “acorns to oaks”  philosophy is the centres’ attempt to nurture, develop and mange the apprentices into tomorrows engineers, fulfilling AMHSA’s aspiration to help bring new talent into the industry.

If you would like to propose a candidate to the centre onto to the programme then contact Kelvin directly and he will be able to help.

A global warehouse automation forecast

Rueben Scriven, Senior Analyst – Interact Analysis, is one of the warehouse automation industry’s leading analysts and is a regular speaker at leading industry events and conference, and has contributed to CNBC and is regularly quoted in the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times and Yahoo Finance.

Interact Analysis rely on their high quality market intelligence developed from primary research to predict the latest trends within the warehousing and logistics sector.

Working with major global blue chip businesses and being able to formulate appropriate models the predictions for global warehouse automation revenues remain positive. Expectations are that the global revenues will increase from $38B today to nearly $58b by 2024 an increase of 52%. With the growth of the UK warehousing market and the desire for automation as a result of the pandemic and Brexit it remains that the future is promising for the UK automated material handling systems sector.

Furthermore the forecast is for more robotic technologies to experience larger growth over the more conventional fixed systems over the course of the next three years. Are we therefore about to see further changes to the use of warehousing and distribution space and witness them becoming more than just the conventional spaces that we are used to? Add to the mix the rise of Micro Fulfilment Centres, last mile considerations and the drive to become ever greener, we may be about to witness the most radical shake up of the logistics sector in years.

It is estimated that 75% of the global warehouse stock by automation level is currently manual meaning the future is extremely bright for automation.

Look out for our feature in the December issue of SHD Logistics magazine online.

AMHSA – On our own we are powerful together we are unstoppable.