About

With hundreds of successful material handling and supply chain logistics installations to his credit, Jim Allred is an industry consultant with real world experience. His 35 year track record of designing and building some of the world’s most advanced manufacturing and distribution systems provides a strategic approach to logistics problems. He is a skilled facilitator and is highly effective in developing change management strategies.

Jim Allred began his career as an industrial engineer at Boeing but quickly moved on to head McGee and Hogan Machine works where his real love of logistics grew. He co-founded Kenway Engineering in Salt Lake City, Utah where he lead a team that introduced a revolutionary new method of inventory control by attaching computers to stacker cranes. Soon a leader in automated material handling, Kenway grew to more that $129 million in revenue.

For over 10 years, Allred held various executive positions at Kenway including vice president of marketing, vice president of systems, and senior vice president and general manager. After Kenway’s acquisition by Eaton Corporation, Allred served as senior vice president and general manager of Eaton-Kenway. His transition from a small, independent business to a large corporate environment set the stage for future opportunity.

Allred left Eaton Corporation to assume the position of vice president, factory automation systems at SI Handling in Easton, Pennsylvania. During his tenure At SI he developed large automotive handling systems and pioneered the concept of flexible manufacturing systems (FMS) in a variety of industries. During this time Allred helped to launch two software companies, Autosimulations and Auto-Soft that became leaders in the logistics simulation and real-time material handling control markets, respectively.

His work in flexible automated manufacturing brought Allred to the attention of Schindler-Digitron of Switzerland. He accepted the position of vice president and was charged with developing the strategic plan to establish Schindler-Digitron’s North American headquarters and operations. It was in this capacity that Allred began to design and implement flexible automotive assembly systems. He developed the plan accepted by General Motors for the first U. S. automotive assembly system to utilize automated guided vehicle systems.

In 1985, Allred was approached by Intel to build a factory automation group that could provide the vision, strategy and plan to produce semiconductor chips for mass consumption. Driven by the emerging market for personal computers, Intel was ramping up to meet world demand for integrated circuits. Intel appointed Allred as director of factory automation, the highest level executive ever hired from outside of the company.

In four years at Intel, Allred automated their chip manufacturing processes. This set the stage for Intel’s current world leadership status in chip manufacturing technology, quality and profitability.

He left Intel in 1989 to found ESKAY Corporation (now Daifuku America Corporation) a joint venture with Daifuku, Co. Ltd. of Osaka, Japan. Daifuku is the world’s third largest material handling logistics company with $1.3 billion in revenue. ESAKY Corporation launched Daifuku’s emergence as a significant player in the Factory Automation and Distribution Automation (FADA) market in North America.

Past and Present Board Memberships

• AutoSimulations Corporation, Bountiful, Utah
  
  
• SI Handling Systems, Easton, Pennsylvania
  
  
• Ambra Oil and Gas Company, Salt Lake City, Utah
  
  
• Logisticon, Northern California
  
  
• American Executives for Manufacturing Excellence, Chairman of the Board
  
  
• ESKAY Corporation, Salt Lake City, Utah
  SK Daifuku Corporation, Salt Lake City, Utah
  
  
• Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Decision Sciences and Engineering Systems Industrial Advisory Board
  
  
• Material Handling Education Foundation, Inc. Vice President
  
  
• The Material Handling Industry Board of America of Governors
  
  
• Christ Church of the Ascension, Vestry Board, Paradise Valley, Arizona
  
  

Industry Awards and Activities

Throughout his career, Jim Allred has been a consistent and dedicated participant in a wide variety of industry activities, including:

• Modern Materials Handling magazine Hall of Fame.
  
  
• Reed Apple Award -- The Material Handling Industry of America's highest award for lifelong contribution to Material Handling education.
  
  
• Chairman of the AS/RS product section of MHIA.
  
  
• Material Handling Man of the Year.
  
  
• Chairman, MHI Literature Sub-committee.
  
  
• Founder, Material Handling Systems & Controls Conference (later called Automated Material Handling & Storage Systems Conference.
  
  
• First author, "Considerations for Planning & Installing an AS/RS System."
  
  
• Chairman, MHI Public Relations Committee.
  
  
• Chairman of the Educational Planning Committee.
  
  
• Second vice president of the Material Handling Industry.
  
  
• Co-founded the Automatic Guided Vehicle (AGV) product section of MHI.
  
  
• Vice president, Material Handling Educational Foundation.
  
  
• Board of Governors of the Material Handling Institute of America, Vice President of Communications.
  
  
• Material Handling Education Foundation (MHEF), Vice President.
  
  
• MHEF President's Club - Recognizes consistent, significant donors.
  
  
• Delegate, annual Tri-Lateral Conference, dedicated to promoting worldwide understanding and promotion of material handling technology.
  
  

Publications and Conferences

Jim Allred has written over 200 articles, speeches and conference presentations including:

• "State of the Art Automated Storage/Retrieval Systems," Material Handling Systems and Control Conference.
  
  
• "Computer Simulation: Its Practical Applications and Limits," Automated Material Handling and Storage Conference, Atlanta, GA.
  
  
• "Why are Large Systems Different?," Automated Material Handling and Storage Conference, Atlanta, GA.
  
  
• "How Much Automation," Automated Material Handling and Storage Conference, Atlanta, GA.
  
  
• "Equipment Techniques," Session Moderator, National Material Handling Forum.
  
  
• Program speaker, AGVS World Symposium, Stockholm, Sweden.
  
  
• "The Expanding Role of Industrial Engineers in Factory Automation," IIE Conference, Phoenix, AZ.
  
  
• "Think the Rising Sun is Setting? The Japanese Manufacturing Model Still Works," Industry Week.
  
  
• "Breaking the Time Barrier," Modern Materials Handling.
  
  
• "Breaking the Time Barrier Part Two: Real Time Inventory Control," Modern Materials Handling.
  
  
• "Breaking the Time Barrier, Part Three: Moving Material Through the Factory," Modern Materials Handling.
  
  
• "Breaking the Time Barrier, Part Four: Empowering the Workers," Modern Materials Handling.
  
  
• "Breaking the Time Barrier, Part Five: Influencing External Forces," Modern Materials Handling.
  
  
• "Breaking the Time Barrier, Part Six: Ready, Set, Begin," Modern Materials Handling.
  
  
• "Pushing, Pulling, and Paradigm Shifting: Be a Champion of Change," APICS.
  
  
• "Supply Chain Management: A Requirement for Survival in the Next Decade," Executive Quality Management Summit, AEME, Chicago, IL.
  
  
• "A New Approach to Cost Justification," Modern Materials Handling
  
  
• "Looking Beyond the Obvious for Labor Savings," Modern Materials Handling
  
  
• "A System's Impact on Assets," Modern Materials Handling
  
  
• Don't Forget the Revenue!," Modern Materials Handling
  
  
• "Looking at the Return on Assets," Modern Materials Handling
  
  
• "Investments and the Bottom Line," Modern Materials Handling
  
  
• "AS/RS," in The Warehouse Management Handbook.
  
  
• Supply Chain Logistics for the 21st century ProMat keynote, Chicago, IL.
  
  
• Lean Warehousing and Distribution
  
  

Patents and Inventions

As a pioneer in the material handling industry and supply chain logistics industries, Jim Allred invented the term AS/RS (Automated Storage/Retrieval) and AGVS (Automated Guided Vehicle Systems) which are the standard references in the industry.

In addition, he holds a number of patents, including:

• AS/RS Movement Mechanisms, #3,632,001, 1972.
  
  
• Warehousing Apparatus, #3,708,077, 1973.
  
  
• Automobile Transporting Pallet, # 4,307,985, 1981.
  
  

Teaching Experience

• Instructor in material handling at the Georgia Institute of Technology.
  
  
• Instructor at CIC-MHE Teacher's Institute.
  
  
• Developer and teacher (6 times yearly) of the public seminar, "Dynamic Material Flow: The Seven Secrets of Highly Successful Organizations," designed to educate business with regard to the importance and criticality of automated material handling systems.
  
  
• Contributed paper, "History of Automated Storage and Retrieval" to APICS anniversary conference.
  
  
• Guest lecturer, material handling technology, Brigham Young University.
  
  
• Instructor (with Dr. Dan Shunk), material handling technology, Arizona State University.
  
  
• Guest lecturer, material handling systems, Purdue University.