ORBIS To Showcase Customized Battery Packaging At The Battery Show
Company to showcase comprehensive range of reusable packaging tailored to the specific needs of the battery and EV sectors at The Battery Show North America
OCONOMOWOC, Wis. — Sept. 6, 2023 — ORBIS® Corporation, an international leader in reusable packaging, will present its comprehensive range of reusable packaging tailored to the specific needs of the battery and EV sectors at The Battery Show North America. With the rapid growth of the electric vehicle industry and increased demand for advanced battery technologies, ORBIS remains at the forefront, consistently developing innovative solutions that enable supply chain optimization, cost reduction and environmental impact reduction.This event for the advanced battery manufacturing industry will take place Sept. 12-14 at the Suburban Collection Showplace. ORBIS team members will be available at Booth 345 to engage with attendees and provide insights into how their reliable, reusable packaging solutions can enhance production efficiency, improve sustainability and protect valuable products throughout the supply chain.
The mass adoption of electric vehicles has brought on new challenges for OEMs and their respective supply chains. Lithium-ion batteries have found themselves at the forefront of these challenges due to their high value, complex regulations and severe risk they pose during a thermal runaway event. Battery manufacturers and shippers are under more enforcement scrutiny than ever before, making it imperative to utilize packaging and transport methods that are not only compliant with regulations, but will also ensure the battery and its surrounding environment is well-protected during transport. Navigating these regulations can be a painstaking process, which is why it’s critical to work with a packaging partner that is certified and has extensive knowledge of packaging protocols for dangerous goods.
“As the electric vehicle revolution charges forward, ORBIS is ready to address the intricate challenges faced by OEMs and their supply chains,” said Kacie Freeberg, senior director of industrial supply chain at ORBIS Corporation. “At The Battery Show North America, we’re excited to showcase how our reusable packaging solutions can not only simplify compliance but also enhance sustainability and operational efficiency throughout the EV supply chain. ORBIS is committed to providing reliable solutions that empower our clients to navigate this dynamic industry with confidence.”
With sustainability and automation top of mind for today’s supply chain managers, ORBIS continues to showcase a variety of sustainable packaging solutions and programs for the industrial supply chain, including:
Custom EV battery packaging
As the automotive industry evolves to produce more electric vehicles, ORBIS is on the forefront designing protective packaging to keep parts moving efficiently in the supply chain. With this, ORBIS can partner with battery providers to create custom-tailored solutions that exceed federal regulations and perform all the necessary performance testing to be a one-stop shop for large-format battery providers.
Electrostatic discharge (ESD) protective solutions
ORBIS helps customers protect sensitive electronic parts from static discharge. ESD-safe material will transfer the charge through the container, keeping your products safe during transportation. The two primary materials used are conductive and static dissipative material. The electrical properties of this material are permanent and unaffected by washing. ESD-safe material is available in all ORBIS StakPak® hand-held folding containers. Standard sizes are available in both AIAG and metric footprints and are compatible with ESD-safe lids.
ORBIShield® dunnage
ORBIShield is a line of custom dunnage from ORBIS that protects parts during transit, assembly and storage. Using a variety of foam, rigid and fabric materials, ORBIShield dunnage is custom-designed to protect unique vehicle parts. Examples include divider sets, hanging bags, foam packs and inserts that can be installed into standard totes, bins and racks. Beyond protecting products at every stage of the supply chain, dunnage also helps to improve pack density. The long-term implementation of ORBIShield dunnage will improve inventory control by maintaining consistent quantities in each container and optimize line-side efficiency by facilitating removal of handling parts.
StakPak® hand-held containers
StakPak hand-held containers have helped OEMs and tier suppliers reduce costs, drive sustainability and optimize the automotive supply chain for three decades. Compatible with a wide variety of pallets and top caps, these containers are designed for just-in-time applications where the same containers are used for shipping, storage and work-in-process. Smooth, straight interior walls offer maximum cube utilization and easily interface with custom protective dunnage to reduce part damage. The StakPak Plus™ tote adds various collar sizes to increase a container’s height to accommodate unique-shaped parts commonly found in the industrial and automotive supply chains. These containers take all the best attributes of the traditional StakPak container, including reusability and cost savings, and combine them with customized heights to increase container capacity.
Custom metal racks
ORBIS metal solutions are designed to be extremely durable, while also protecting high-cost sensitive parts throughout the automotive supply chain. They can be configured to any required size, shape, capacity or style to accommodate the unique needs of different OEMs. Integrating metal racks and protective dunnage offers higher efficiency and helps workers optimize what they bring to the line. Combine metal racks with thermoformed packaging for a complete solution. ORBIS has the capabilities to custom design and fabricate a wide range of reusable thermoformed packaging, including molded dunnage, complex metal racks, ESD trays, divider sets and more.
Specifically, 48% of respondents identified rising tariffs and trade barriers as their top concern, followed by supply chain disruptions at 45% and geopolitical instability at 41%. Moreover, tariffs and trade barriers ranked as the priority issue regardless of company size, as respondents at companies with less than 250 employees, 251-500, 501-1,000, 1,001-50,000 and 50,000+ employees all cited it as the most significant issue they are currently facing.
“Evolving tariffs and trade policies are one of a number of complex issues requiring organizations to build more resilience into their supply chains through compliance, technology and strategic planning,” Jackson Wood, Director, Industry Strategy at Descartes, said in a release. “With the potential for the incoming U.S. administration to impose new and additional tariffs on a wide variety of goods and countries of origin, U.S. importers may need to significantly re-engineer their sourcing strategies to mitigate potentially higher costs.”
The new funding brings Amazon's total investment in Anthropic to $8 billion, while maintaining the e-commerce giant’s position as a minority investor, according to Anthropic. The partnership was launched in 2023, when Amazon invested its first $4 billion round in the firm.
Anthropic’s “Claude” family of AI assistant models is available on AWS’s Amazon Bedrock, which is a cloud-based managed service that lets companies build specialized generative AI applications by choosing from an array of foundation models (FMs) developed by AI providers like AI21 Labs, Anthropic, Cohere, Meta, Mistral AI, Stability AI, and Amazon itself.
According to Amazon, tens of thousands of customers, from startups to enterprises and government institutions, are currently running their generative AI workloads using Anthropic’s models in the AWS cloud. Those GenAI tools are powering tasks such as customer service chatbots, coding assistants, translation applications, drug discovery, engineering design, and complex business processes.
"The response from AWS customers who are developing generative AI applications powered by Anthropic in Amazon Bedrock has been remarkable," Matt Garman, AWS CEO, said in a release. "By continuing to deploy Anthropic models in Amazon Bedrock and collaborating with Anthropic on the development of our custom Trainium chips, we’ll keep pushing the boundaries of what customers can achieve with generative AI technologies. We’ve been impressed by Anthropic’s pace of innovation and commitment to responsible development of generative AI, and look forward to deepening our collaboration."
Specifically, the new global average robot density has reached a record 162 units per 10,000 employees in 2023, which is more than double the mark of 74 units measured seven years ago.
Broken into geographical regions, the European Union has a robot density of 219 units per 10,000 employees, an increase of 5.2%, with Germany, Sweden, Denmark and Slovenia in the global top ten. Next, North America’s robot density is 197 units per 10,000 employees – up 4.2%. And Asia has a robot density of 182 units per 10,000 persons employed in manufacturing - an increase of 7.6%. The economies of Korea, Singapore, mainland China and Japan are among the top ten most automated countries.
Broken into individual countries, the U.S. ranked in 10th place in 2023, with a robot density of 295 units. Higher up on the list, the top five are:
The Republic of Korea, with 1,012 robot units, showing a 5% increase on average each year since 2018 thanks to its strong electronics and automotive industries.
Singapore had 770 robot units, in part because it is a small country with a very low number of employees in the manufacturing industry, so it can reach a high robot density with a relatively small operational stock.
China took third place in 2023, surpassing Germany and Japan with a mark of 470 robot units as the nation has managed to double its robot density within four years.
Germany ranks fourth with 429 robot units for a 5% CAGR since 2018.
Japan is in fifth place with 419 robot units, showing growth of 7% on average each year from 2018 to 2023.
Progress in generative AI (GenAI) is poised to impact business procurement processes through advancements in three areas—agentic reasoning, multimodality, and AI agents—according to Gartner Inc.
Those functions will redefine how procurement operates and significantly impact the agendas of chief procurement officers (CPOs). And 72% of procurement leaders are already prioritizing the integration of GenAI into their strategies, thus highlighting the recognition of its potential to drive significant improvements in efficiency and effectiveness, Gartner found in a survey conducted in July, 2024, with 258 global respondents.
Gartner defined the new functions as follows:
Agentic reasoning in GenAI allows for advanced decision-making processes that mimic human-like cognition. This capability will enable procurement functions to leverage GenAI to analyze complex scenarios and make informed decisions with greater accuracy and speed.
Multimodality refers to the ability of GenAI to process and integrate multiple forms of data, such as text, images, and audio. This will make GenAI more intuitively consumable to users and enhance procurement's ability to gather and analyze diverse information sources, leading to more comprehensive insights and better-informed strategies.
AI agents are autonomous systems that can perform tasks and make decisions on behalf of human operators. In procurement, these agents will automate procurement tasks and activities, freeing up human resources to focus on strategic initiatives, complex problem-solving and edge cases.
As CPOs look to maximize the value of GenAI in procurement, the study recommended three starting points: double down on data governance, develop and incorporate privacy standards into contracts, and increase procurement thresholds.
“These advancements will usher procurement into an era where the distance between ideas, insights, and actions will shorten rapidly,” Ryan Polk, senior director analyst in Gartner’s Supply Chain practice, said in a release. "Procurement leaders who build their foundation now through a focus on data quality, privacy and risk management have the potential to reap new levels of productivity and strategic value from the technology."
Businesses are cautiously optimistic as peak holiday shipping season draws near, with many anticipating year-over-year sales increases as they continue to battle challenging supply chain conditions.
That’s according to the DHL 2024 Peak Season Shipping Survey, released today by express shipping service provider DHL Express U.S. The company surveyed small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to gauge their holiday business outlook compared to last year and found that a mix of optimism and “strategic caution” prevail ahead of this year’s peak.
Nearly half (48%) of the SMEs surveyed said they expect higher holiday sales compared to 2023, while 44% said they expect sales to remain on par with last year, and just 8% said they foresee a decline. Respondents said the main challenges to hitting those goals are supply chain problems (35%), inflation and fluctuating consumer demand (34%), staffing (16%), and inventory challenges (14%).
But respondents said they have strategies in place to tackle those issues. Many said they began preparing for holiday season earlier this year—with 45% saying they started planning in Q2 or earlier, up from 39% last year. Other strategies include expanding into international markets (35%) and leveraging holiday discounts (32%).
Sixty percent of respondents said they will prioritize personalized customer service as a way to enhance customer interactions and loyalty this year. Still others said they will invest in enhanced web and mobile experiences (23%) and eco-friendly practices (13%) to draw customers this holiday season.