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Materials Handling Middle East 2017 The 2017 edition brought together big names from the materials handling industry, a budding display of international and local suppliers alike
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he Middle East’s dedicated trade fair for intralogistics, supply chain management, freight, and cargo saw a successful three-days of busy networking and discussions of the latest trends and innovations in the current market scene. The event was inaugurated by Mattar Al Tayer, director-general and chairman of the board of executive directors of the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA). The ninth edition of the biennial three-day event featured 126 exhibitors from 21 countries, and welcomed 3,300 visitors from 50 countries, at the Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Centre. The event saw the participation of seven of the world’s top 20 materials handling systems suppliers, including the global giants Daifuku from Japan, German company SSI Schaefer, and the American-headquartered Dematic. Also in attendance were major local suppliers and service providers such as Kanoo Machinery, Al Futtaim Motors, General Navigation and Commerce Company (GENAVCO), SPAN, and ACME, while a two-day Supply Chain and Logistics Forum and a Forklift driving competition ensured visitors and exhibitors alike were informed and entertained. Much of the discussion on the show-floor centred around the increasing popularity of warehouse automation in the GCC, with exhibitors showcasing a full range of wares from manual wracking and semi-automated order picking solutions, to fully automated high-bay warehouses incorporating artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things (IoT), otherwise known as Industry 4.0. Dematic, one of the world’s leading specialists in automated intralogistics solutions, was a debut exhibitor at Materials Handling Middle East 2017. In January 2016, it secured the contract for what will be the Gulf region’s largest automated distribution centre
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upon its completion toward the end of 2018. Michael Kreeft, sales manager for Dematic Europe, Middle East, and Africa region, commented on Dematic’s progress on the centre: “We signed the project in January 2016 and it’s going live next summer hopefully. There’ll be people working in pick stations, but it’s highly automated. We have project managers working on it, and 50 resident engineers based here along with a customer service office. It’ll take two and a half years to build along with testing and then it’ll go live.” UAE-based ACME is a regular exhibitor at Materials Handling Middle East, and a full spectrum industrial and warehouse automation solution provider with more than 40 years’ experience in the Middle East. This year, the company put on display a semi-automated
man to goods order picking solution called Cavalry. Holger Humburg, vice-president of projects at ACME, said the ACME-designed solution is a mobile version of the sort to light system, using a guided manned mini-load crane, and capable of travelling along aisles 100m long and up to 25m high. He said: “When we tell anybody that we have a fully automated system, many of them get scared because they need trained people for operation, and they need maintenance from experienced staff. However, people can operate Cavalry without specialist skills or qualifications, and that’s why we’re going to the market with a more or less semi-automated system. This type of system will be particularly popular in this region because the first step of automation is semi-automation
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