SPAN Group relieves logistics pressure at "Logistics Under Pressure" convention

The seminar was aimed at creating awareness and understanding about how to face the continuous challenge of bearing the logistic operations' pressure driven by the increased demand for speed, efficiency and cost-cutting.

The two-day seminar hosted industry experts and professionals that shared experiences and knowledge with an attentive audience divided into two groups.

Mr. Tarek Saoud, director at SPAN, opened the program on the first day by delivering an improvised keynote address.

He stressed on the fact that due to the insistence for constant improvement new pressures are added to the daily workload.

He then threw a game challenge aiming to prove how hard it is to work under pressure.

Following Mr. Saoud's address, the sessions were opened in both rooms allocated for the group.

In the first one, a course on warehouse layout and facilities design lead by Mr. Lee Hales, President of Richard Muther & Associates was scheduled over the entire day.

The full day course was an introduction to systematic layout planning.

It involved case exercises for a better understanding of data analysis that should be performed to estimate space and arrange it for efficient operations.

Seven distinct presentations were running in the adjacent room, all designed to bring together opinions and experiences from across seven logistic areas, namely:
- Dock Design: Paolo Nelzi, CEO of Campisa, Italy
- Voice Technology: Gareth Giles, Knopp, Director of business development for Voxware, UK
- Supply Chain Management; Zahi Bitar, Solutions & Business Development Manager for SPAN, U.A.E.
- Warehouse Safety Management: Carsten Villadsen, General Manager of Salusafe, U.A.E.
- Pick to Light: Kiyoshi Tada, President of AIOI Systems, Japan
- Automation: James Kappele, General Manager of Gebhardt, Germany
- Warehouse Simulation: Christian Hopner, CEO of Tarakos, Germany

The presentations enhanced with deep insights and substantiated with case studies covered an entire range of solutions that help managing a complex supply chain.

These ranged from saving through dock prefabricated building systems (Campisa), improving productivity through voice technology (Voxware), eliminating weak links through visibility and pro-active alerting (SPAN SCS), avoiding risks in warehouses through preventive safety (Salusafe), enhancing operations through pick to light (AIOI Systems), developing a return on investment through automation (Gebhardt) and gaining efficiency through viewing facilities in 3D (Tarakos).

Closing the first day, number of attendees gathered around a gala dinner served at the hotel premises during which Mr. Ghassan Daniel (Regional Sales Manager- SPAN) and Mr. Christian Jargstorff (Area Manager - Jungheinrich) jointly announced the partnership between both companies.

Mr. Jargstorff briefly introduced Jungheinrich as a leading provider of material handling equipment. He then stressed on the importance of this step for Jungheinrich and its customers who will benefit from SPAN's flexible and fast solutions.

In order to make the most of the event, participants who attended Mr. Hales presentation on the first day, were directed to the second room on the following day and vice versa.

At the end of the seminar, participants expressed deep satisfaction with the information provided during the sessions and the high organization of the event. They also assured they will be keen to attend such informative events in the future.