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Logistics Tech Summit: Labor shortage, space constraints challenge warehousing industry

‘We feel like technology is one of the ways to reach the workforce,’ says Kenco Logistics Services VP

Kristi Montgomery, VP of Kenco Logistics Services, discusses how warehouse technology may improve the lives of warehouse workers and open the roles up to a wider range of candidates with Andrew Cox at FreightWaves’ North American Logistics Tech Summit on Wednesday.

This fireside chat is from FreightWaves’ North American Logistics Tech Summit on Wednesday.

FIRESIDE CHAT TOPIC: The future of your average warehouse 

DETAILS: Innovation is key to addressing the labor shortage at warehouses to keep up with surging consumer demand on the supply chain, Kenco’s Kristi Montgomery told FreightWaves’ Andrew Cox at the North American Logistics Tech Summit on Wednesday.

SPEAKER: Montgomery is the VP of innovation, research and development at Kenco Logistics Services.


BIO:  Montgomery has spent more than 30 years with Kenco Logistics Services, headquartered in Chattanooga, Tennessee. She leads the Kenco Innovation Lab, a dedicated team of specialists who identify, research and prototype creative ideas with the potential to impact the supply chain. 

KEY QUOTES FROM MONTGOMERY:

“I think there is a bit of a misconception for sure that there’s high levels of automation in every warehouse out there. … We are seeing that change a little bit as the pandemic has hit and automation is growing, but you still see a lot of manual processes in the warehouse today.”

“The biggest challenge that every warehouse I know of today has is labor, just the shortage of labor, finding labor. Space constraints is another big one. So you combine ‘I don’t have enough space’ and ‘I can’t find enough labor’ and we are significantly challenged right now within the supply chain to get things to where they need to go on time and in full. So we are driving a lot of innovation around those two key components. How do we overcome those challenges that are in the marketplace today? 


“Another challenge that is also a trend in our industry is the digitization of the supply chain and how do we help our workers do a better job through digital versus doing everything manually?”

2 Comments

  1. Stephen+Webster

    In Ontario Canada labour costs are going to rise as the cost of housing is going up. One factory that has over 200 workers is working with a large nursing home to build a 41

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Clarissa Hawes

Clarissa has covered all aspects of the trucking industry for 16 years. She is an award-winning journalist known for her investigative and business reporting. Before joining FreightWaves, she wrote for Land Line Magazine and Trucks.com. If you have a news tip or story idea, send her an email to chawes@freightwaves.com or @cage_writer on X, formerly Twitter.