Insights Shared at the MHEDA Board Meeting
The MHEDA Board of Directors, Executive Committee and Manufacturer Board of Advisors include 21 executives from material handling businesses across North America. These industry leaders gather twice a year for face-to-face discussions about industry trends, MHEDA programs and how to improve MHEDA resources to best serve the material handling industry.
To lay the groundwork for creating programs and services for MHEDA members, the Board of Directors, Executive Committee and Manufacturer Board of Advisors conduct a Business Scan where they talk about what is going on within their businesses. They met from February 26-28, 2024, for their Winter Board Meeting. At this meeting, the business scans were broken into three groups: industrial truck, systems integrators and storage and handling. Each participant shared their thoughts on the current business conditions in their markets. Here is a snapshot of the key themes and comments from that discussion:
Industrial Truck
Financial pressure is increasing within the industrial truck market with an excess in inventory creating a stretch in cash flow.
Aftermarket and parts are strong with rental utilization, and new equipment sales are showing an upward trend. Used equipment values are down. New equipment is predicted to be slow throughout Q1 and Q2, then stabilize.
The commercial market finished higher than the 10-year average, with a higher number of electrics sold over internal combustion equipment.
2024 is predicted to be the “return to normalcy” year, which means sales and numbers will stabilize to how they were in 2019.
Systems Integrators
Systems integrators are predicting the first half of 2024 to be slow and then pick up in the second half, which will lead to aggressive growth in 2025.
There is a lot of demand for conveyors, sortation and more. This requires sales reps to have an in-depth understanding of how products flow throughout the warehouse.
Customers are becoming increasingly concerned about sustainability. For example, if they are interested in changing the configuration in their warehouse, they would like to use their existing equipment to do so.
Storage and Handling
The overall outlook for 2024 is flat, but 2025 and 2026 are predicted to be large growth years.
The steel market has settled down for 2024.
Buyers are pushing back, which is putting pressure on pricing models. This is a shift from previous years when the main driver was getting the product.
Cold storage is increasingly in demand and many facilities with this are being built.
Many companies are facing global sourcing concerns and nearshoring is a priority.
Employee Training
Employee training is critical right now in the material handling industry for both new and old employees. Reliable, skilled labor is hard to find in all sectors.
There is an increase in applications to open positions within the industry and the skill levels can be the bare minimum for applicants, so on-the-job training is pivotal in onboarding.
Technology, Automation and AI
In all sectors, the industry is shifting to automated solutions such as VLMs, conveyors, AMRs and more. Customers are increasingly interested in doing more with fewer people, and it is important to have strategies in place.
AI is being used throughout the industry for automated invoicing, document control, marketing and more.
With the growth of technological solutions implemented in the industry, cyber security is at the forefront of conversations. It is important to have cyber security solutions implemented to protect your business, customers and more from potential attacks.
MHEDA Resources
Through MHEDA’s website, there are many resources available for businesses to utilize in the workplace. These include webinars, The MHEDA Journal, DSC reporting and more.
For training opportunities, MHEDA’s Learning Management System (LMS) has various industry boot camps available: Material Handling Bootcamp, Forklift Bootcamp and Material Handling Sales Bootcamp.
Explore MHEDA’s website for various resources and industry information at www.mheda.org.
