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Stronger together
22 October 2024
Suppliers in the UK’s intralogistics automation market benefit from a collective voice through membership of AMHSA, says Dave Berridge, secretary for the trade association.
THE VOICE of the automated intralogistics sector, the Automated Material Handling Systems Association (AMHSA) now has 65 members. AMHSA represents them in liaison with a number of national and international bodies, in order to influence both government policy and industry standards. These influential organisations include government departments such as the Department for Business and Trade (DBT), the relevant technical committees of the British Standards Institution (BSI) and the British Materials Handling Federation (BMHF). Together, the members of the BMHF form the British National Committee of the Federation Européenne de la Manutention (FEM, the trade association for European manufacturers of materials handling, lifting and storage equipment).
Compliance and competitiveness
Like many trade associations, AMHSA also gets involved in the drafting of recognised technical standards, such as CEN (Comité Européen de Normalisation, or European Committee for Standardisation) and ISO (International Organisation for Standardisation). You may, by now, be reeling from the sheer number of TLAs – that is, three-letter abbreviations! – but working with all these bodies is vitally important. AMHSA represents members’ interests and feeds back information to help them remain both compliant and competitive in UK business and international trade. The adoption of common standards has obvious benefits for both suppliers and clients, by providing a level playing field to enable meaningful comparisons of quality and cost. Although the law can regulate some elements – health & safety standards, for example – it cannot cover all aspects of business in the way that trade association activity can.
Let me give a couple of examples to illustrate the point. AMHSA was active in advising the government as it prepared legislation to continue recognition of current EU requirements – including CE marking – alongside UKCA (UK Conformity Assessed) marking post-Brexit. More recently, we have encouraged our members to participate in a survey conducted by the Department for Business and Trade about how manufacturers manage regulatory compliance and what the associated costs are. The answers submitted by business leaders will be used to build the case for a discussion on the possibility of mutual recognition of conformity assessment by the UK and EU.
Another example is the influence being exerted by the UK Equipment & Machinery Industry Forum, which AMHSA is a member of. Established and led by the Construction Equipment Association, the forum provides a platform for UK trade associations that have an interest in machinery and related equipment to work collaboratively and lobby relevant bodies, such as the Health and Safety Executive. A matter recently discussed by the forum was the EU’s Data Act, which came into force in January 2024. This seeks to establish harmonised rules to ensure fairness in the allocation of value generated from data across various parties, while safeguarding the interests of those who invest in data-generation technologies. The Data Act was deemed necessary due to the growing prevalence of the Internet of Things (IoT) and the regulation means that connected products will have to be designed and manufactured in a way that empowers users (businesses or consumers) to easily and securely access, use and share the generated data. Of course, this has wide-reaching implications for the automated intralogistics market.
FEM launches AIV group
A brand-new initiative from the FEM this year is the launch of a working group for autonomous intralogistics vehicles (AIVs). This is an exciting opportunity for manufacturers of automated guided vehicles (AGVs) and autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) to engage in technical cooperation and information exchange. The AIV group will be running a statistical survey to capture market trends in Europe regarding navigation technology, handling equipment, loads transported, applications and industries. This is an important development for AMHSA members and, naturally, we are encouraging them to participate. Based in Brussels, the FEM consists of 16 members – 12 EU states, along with Norway, Switzerland, Turkey and the UK – and accounts for more than half of the world’s total production of handling, lifting and storage equipment.
Benefits of automation
AMHSA continues to promote the many benefits of intralogistics automation across diverse sectors. Automation is able to solve some of the most challenging issues in intralogistics today: how to tackle labour scarcity, how to deal cost-effectively with e-commerce orders and how to build resilience in the supply chain. With a lower reliance on labour, the capacity to handle peak volumes and a focus on avoiding single points of failure, automation is proving an attractive option for an increasing number of warehouse operators.
Exhibitions in 2025
As well as hosting its own events, AMHSA will be active at a number of UK exhibitions in 2025. These include IWLEX on 3-4 June at NAEC Stoneleigh; the Tomorrow’s Warehouse events in Coventry (15 May) and Manchester (30 September); and IMHX at the NEC on 9-11 September.
Join AMHSA
Membership of AMHSA secures a number of valuable benefits. We provide a rich programme of training workshops – ranging from technical topics to legal matters and business development – as well as networking events and opportunities to share best practice. Publicity is another advantage, as AMHSA members benefit from a profile page on our website and promotion via our social media channels.
AMHSA represents members’ interests and feeds back information to help them remain both compliant and competitive in UK business and international trade.