Silvertap, a Free Flow Wines brand and industry leader in wines on tap, is working with Mobile BIS, providers of mobile technology services, to develop RFID technology-based mobile software that tracks and validates every step of the wine keg’s product lifecycle. From the warehouse to bars and restaurants around the world and back, every keg of wine in Silvertap’s pipeline is tracked.

Weber Distribution, a third party logistics and supply chain management provider, announced that it has signed a multi-year contract with The Vitamin Shoppe, a specialty retailer and direct marketer of nutritional products, to warehouse and distribute many of their top volume items throughout the Western United States.

Full-service commercial real estate and construction firm Campanelli Companies reported a newly-signed contract to build 30,976 square feet of distribution and office space at Westover Airport West on Lonczak Drive in Chicopee, Mass. Campanelli’s staff will provide turnkey services for the build-to-suit facility.

Aspen Logistics, Inc., a 3PL, will send two representatives to help build a playground in Atlanta, Georgia, as part of an annual charity event. The Home Depot Foundation, along with its partners, suppliers and the nonprofit Kaboom organization, as well as the YMCA, put together this year’s event.

I had to comment on one of the news items we posted to our site this week. It’s the one titled Finished Goods Inventories Fall, Order Fill Rates Rise. It summarizes a report from Tompkins Associates noting that although more than half of the leading manufacturing and retail companies they surveyed reduced inventory levels in 2009, their customer service records with regard to order fill rates either stayed the same or improved. This is counter to conventional wisdom, which would have predicted that there would be widespread shortages and stockouts. In fact, according to this study, order fill rates actually improved.

As Material Handling Management makes the transition to Material Handling and Logistics with our September issue, you’ll read more transportation-oriented news in our magazine and on our site. Of course, because material handling is still our core interest, we will emphasize stories that incorporate both. I have a good one for you.

These articles were those most viewed in last week's newsletter.

U.S. Marshals bust rodent-infested warehouse
U.S. Marshals, acting under a court order sought by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, seized packaged food products from a rodent-infested warehouse in Athens, Ga. A variety of products, including crackers, cookies and potato chips, were intended for sale to jails and prisons throughout the southeastern United States.

AGVs follow paths undreamed of by inventor
In the 1950s, forklifts were nifty material handling machines. An automatic guided vehicle? To most, it was as much science fiction as Godzilla. But to one person, AGVs were a gleam in his eye. He turned that gleam into reality in 1954 when he invented the world’s first one.

Garbage In, Garbage Out, Garbage RFID
Cleveland (home city of MATERIAL HANDLING & LOGISTICS) may have lost out on the LeBron James sweepstakes (he went to Miami), and it may have lost the NA trade show (which ended up getting rebranded as Modex and is headed to Atlanta), but one thing they can’t take away from Cleveland is garbage. When it comes to keeping track of its garbage, Cleveland is world class.