Challenge: A global 3PL recently began providing fulfillment services for large, heavy components of cellphone tower parts. Due to size, material handlers often had to wait for forklift drivers to move components to static computer and printer desks in order to process orders. Workers also had to walk back and forth from staging areas to desks to enter data and print labels. Employee overtime grew in order to handle backlog, and workers reported stress and fatigue.

Procurement teams needs to create a vision for how they are going to deal with digital transformation.

Investor interest in building and acquiring warehouses in the age of Amazon.com Inc. is overheating, and there might be more distribution centers created than there will be tenants to fill them, billionaire Sam Zell said.

For Prologis Inc., the world's largest warehouse owner, the biggest challenge to growth has been acquiring land in the markets most important to its e-commerce tenants. The solution: Buy a rival.

When Bert Hooper brings on new workers at TechStyle Fashion Group’s 450,000 square-foot warehouse in Perris, California, he tells them, “If you know how to use a smartphone and you know how to use an app, you can do about any operation that we have in our facility.”

If anything is in constant flux, it is manufacturing and supply chain. MODEX 2018 is the best venue to showcase the services, products and solutions needed to meet the challenges these two vital areas face.

Using technology to improve productivity is a time-tested path in all aspects of manufacturing, including warehouses.

A combination of factors will come together in 2018 that will result in strong investor appetite for logistics real estate, according to CBRE.