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MODEX is the supply chain and material handling industry’s largest North American trade show, held biannually in Atlanta. For companies like Century Conveyor Systems, it’s more than a showcase — it’s a real-time read on where the market is, what buyers are prioritizing, and what challenges are still unsolved on warehouse and distribution floors across the country.
In 2026, the show attracted thousands of attendees across four days at the Georgia World Congress Center. Century Conveyor occupied Booth C14787 in Hall C with a full team of six — engineers, service leads, and sales professionals — ready for focused, technical conversations.
The Team on the Floor
Century brought a cross-functional team to Atlanta that covered every stage of the customer relationship:
- Bill Ostermeyer, General Manager — 35+ years of material handling experience, guiding customers from concept through execution
- Shawn Haslach, Engineering Manager — overseeing system design for scalable, practical automation
- John Silva, Senior Sales Engineer — bridging technical depth with real-world operational problem solving
- Jim Santore, Senior Sales Engineer — 40+ years building customer relationships and matching operations with the right automation approach
- Rick Maldonado, New Business Development Manager — identifying where automation creates meaningful ROI for prospective customers
- Nick Tarquino, Service Manager — focused on uptime, long-term support, and keeping systems running well past installation
Having this range of expertise on the floor meant visitors could have the right conversation — whether they were troubleshooting an existing system, exploring a first automation project, or asking about the capabilities of Century’s parent company, LaFayette Engineering.
The Conversations That Defined the Week
Day one was productive. Day two was packed. Day three was the kind of closer that leaves you with a full pipeline and a list of follow-ups.
The most common question at Booth C14787 wasn’t about a specific product or price — it was about capability. With Attabotics now part of the LaFayette Engineering family alongside Century Conveyor and MESH Automation, visitors wanted to understand the full picture: what does one relationship actually get you?
The answer is a complete automation ecosystem — conveyor and sortation from Century, controls and warehouse execution software from LaFayette Engineering, and high-density goods-to-person technology from Attabotics. One family of companies. One point of contact. The full lifecycle.
Products and Platforms That Drew Attention
Several product lines generated consistent interest throughout the show:
- 24V conveyor and MDR (Motor Driven Roller) systems — the core of Century’s portfolio, sharper and more refined than ever
- High-speed sortation — always a draw for distribution center operators managing high SKU counts and time-sensitive throughput
- Print & apply and weighing & dimensioning — inline data capture systems that reduce manual labor and improve accuracy
- The LMS (Logistics Management System) platform — Century’s software layer for operational control and real-time visibility
- MESH Automation’s induction sorter — a high-interest item from the LaFayette family that pairs naturally with Century’s conveyor systems
Why the Timing Matters
One of the most common themes in booth conversations was urgency — specifically, the gap between when a company decides to automate and when a system actually goes live.
Projects like these take 6–9 months from signed purchase order to installation — and that timeline doesn’t include the discovery, engineering, and planning that happens before a contract is signed. For operations planning around Q4 2026 or Q1 2027, the conversation needs to start now.
The capital is there in most operations. The labor market continues to make manual fulfillment difficult to scale. And automation — done right, at the right size for your operation — is more accessible than it’s ever been.
The Show Is Over. The Work Continues.
MODEX 2026 was a great week for Century Conveyor Systems. But the real value of a trade show isn’t the booth traffic — it’s what gets built afterward.
If you were at the show and want to continue a conversation, or if you weren’t able to make it to Atlanta and want to understand what the LaFayette Engineering family can do for your operation, Century’s team is ready.
Contact Century Conveyor Systems:
- Phone: (908) 205-0625
- Email: info@centuryconveyor.com
- Web: centuryconveyor.com
