The Soft Pitch

I know everyone’s glued to news the economy and US elections, but here’s a couple pieces of Avnet news that might have slipped under the radar.

We celebrated the Grand Opening of the Avnet Global Solutions Center this week.  I talked about this earlier when the “big move” was made, bringing inventory and equipment together in Chandler, Arizona at a state-of-the art facility.  Much of it is automated, even the fork lifts that automatically move down the racks and positions the warehouse employee exactly where he/she needs to be to pick parts from the shelves to fill an integration order.  They don’t have to steer or adjust height, the fork lift is connected to the order system through a wireless interface sending part location information to the fork lift.  All the operator does is push on the “go” pedal.  With this system, the operator can’t go to the wrong location for a part – the fork lift won’t allow it.  Avnet’s Logistics team estimates about a 30% productivity improvement in picking parts as a result.  Innovation like that helps us to continue to become more efficient and improve accuracy.

Another piece of news is that Avnet CIO Steve Philips was appointed as the head of the board for the Arizona Technology Council. The council promotes the growth and professional development in Arizona’s technology sector, through networking and educational forums. 

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