As the war in Ukraine continues to add to the shortages in materials compounding already tricky trading and supply conditions there is a temptation to sit back and ride out the storm and you could be forgiven for that. However for most of us this extended reduction in normal trading has given us cause to rethink how we do things. We are rethinking everything form energy transfers to how supply chains will continue to operate in what emerges from the ruins of passed 6 years since 2016.
New markets are a two-way thing, posing both opportunities and threats to our economy; war destroys plant and equipment as well as lives but creates new pathways for anthropological survival and resistance. Disease both kills and creates new advances in biological understanding and research and the employment that goes with that.
Two things that we should understand: Cost structures and Size, matter more now than at any time in the passed.
It has never been more important to create flexible asset bases this includes:
- Buildings, which easily re-purpose.
- Energy sources, which are as independent as possible from global trade.
- Transportation systems that don’t clog or overload infrastructure.
The materials handling industry in its part has led the way with its use of electricity, minimising storage footprints and of course increasing carrying capacities by better-designed distribution systems. Our work in logistics is essential, but it doesn’t stop there, we are in mining, food production and health too. Everywhere you look the MHI is right behind you keeping you alive.
If you are thinking of the future, the materials handling industry is on the front line of it and always pleased to assist, invent, innovate and keep things moving on demand.
Just as armies can’t survive without food and ordinance, today’s world stops without materials storage and distribution.
