UNEX Manufacturing, Inc., the trusted industry leader in providing innovative order picking solutions, announces that VP of Operations, Howard McIlvaine, has been named a 2017 Provider Pro to Know by Supply & Demand Chain Executive magazine. As VP of Operations, McIlvaine is responsible for the day-to-day management of the operations of the organization. He was chosen for this prestigious award because he works tirelessly to bring quality and value to customers in the wine & spirits distribution, food & beverage, retail and manufacturing industries.
“Howard works tirelessly to ensure our products are of the highest quality and value for customers who need to keep their assembly lines moving without interruption or their retail shelves stocked,” said Brian C. Neuwirth, VP of Sales and Marketing at UNEX Manufacturing. “He also believes in giving back to the community and has worked with several organizations which serve children, adolescents, young adults and adults on the autism spectrum and with behavioral and related disabilities. He has hired several people to work alongside UNEX staff teaching them life skills, good work ethics and particular job proficiencies.”
Because of Howard’s work with Spectrum360, UNEX was awarded a New Jersey Business & Industry Association (NJBIA) Award for Excellence. NJBIA’s Awards for Excellence (AFE) program honors achievements in four categories: Business Success, Community Service, Environmental Quality and Outstanding Employer.
UNEX addresses the manufacturing, retail and order fulfillment industries. For the manufacturing industry, our customers face challenges with keeping pace with customer demands – customers of today want to order make-to-order custom items created just for them. They also want their product orders as quickly as possible. No one waits 4-6 weeks anymore. It needs to be days, not weeks. To keep pace with customer demands, manufacturing operations require flexible, space-saving, durable and efficient lineside order picking solutions. UNEX provides products that keep assembly lines moving without interruption, errors or injuries. With UNEX solutions, manufacturing operation will achieve the best mix of carton flow, lane and aisle configurations, workstations, return lanes and pick trays, all designed to keep processes and profits flowing.
In distribution and retail, SKU proliferation, limited space, sluggish pick rates, and workplace injuries are some of the many challenges confronting distribution centers. UNEX products have helped distributors reduce travel time on the pick line by up to 80% and increase pick productivity by more than 40%. We have helped multiple distribution centers triple and even quadruple the number of SKUs stored in the same footprint.
Howard also believes that UNEX customers are facing challenges integrating new technologies with old technologies. As business changes and increases they need to do things differently, so they look at new technologies to replace equipment. But if they do this mid-stream how does that work with equipment up and down stream of it? UNEX specializes in simple solutions, but they have learned that the company needs to be able to integrate with the newer technologies around us and help customers accomplish this.
Howard believes his customers are facing other challenges, but they are things that UNEX doesn’t play a big part in, like the cost of fuel going back up. But even with things like this UNEX still tries to help customers by packing and shipping their products as efficiently as possible.
Community service awards and recognitions by several material handling industry publications and associations position UNEX as a leader in the manufacturing, retail, wine/spirits, automotive and food/beverage markets.
As VP of Operations, Howard McIlvaine is responsible for the day-to-day management of the operations of the organization. Prior to becoming VP of Operations at UNEX, Howard worked as the Engineering Manager. He started with UNEX as a manufacturing engineer. Howard graduated from Rutgers University with a BS in Mechanical Engineering.
