Guest: Dwight Klappich of Gartner on robotic goods-to-person systems; How do business plan to spend their money this year? And new earnings reports show some reasons for optimism.

In this episode, guest Dwight Klappich, research vice president at Gartner, discusses the growing interest in robotic goods-to-person systems. Robots are hot right now. What makes them the cool technology to have for distribution operations, and in what ways are they being deployed? Klappich shares the latest research Gartner has done into these fascinating and quickly-evolving technologies. Many companies held on to their cash during the pandemic, and now there is more incentive to move forward on projects that have been kept on hold for the past year. New research predicts how companies will spend their money during the remainder of this year.And earnings reports came out this past week for the fourth quarter of 2020. Two organizations in particular give us reason to hope that there are better days ahead for the supply chain industry and the overall economy. The United States Postal Service and XPO both showed profits in that quarter, but the challenges for getting back to normal are still enormous.Articles and resources mentioned in this episode:GartnerUSPS posts rare quarterly profit after holiday parcel surgeXPO says strong fourth-quarter results show company has turned a cornerOutlook calls for gradual improvement in business spending9th Annual State of Retail Supply Chain ReportDC VELOCITY's Covid-19 coverageVisit DCVelocity.com for the latest news. Send feedback about this podcast to [email protected] sponsored by ApteanOther linksAbout DC VELOCITYSubscribe to DC VELOCITYSign up for our FREE newslettersAdvertise with DC VELOCITYTop 10 Supply Chain Management Podcasts