Andel on Handling: Keep cool in your lobby
In this issue, we have our annual Top 20 Lift truck suppliers and Polaris, a manufacturing case history involving products that are wicked cool and would make the literature table in your lobby look pretty cool as well.
By Tom Andel, Editor in Chief -- Modern Materials Handling, 8/1/2008
This issue is a great example of synergy, a word that's Greek to me—and to everyone else for that matter. “Synergos” means “working together,” and refers to what happens when two or more discrete influences act together to create something greater than what was predicted.
Who could have predicted last year at this time when we were making up this year's editorial calendar that we'd have such great cover contenders for our August issue? On one hand, we have our annual Top 20 Lift truck suppliers, which is one of Modern's best-read features. On the other, we have Polaris, a manufacturing case history involving products that are wicked cool and would make the literature table in your lobby look pretty cool as well.
By now, you know which one we chose.
Even with a Midnight Cherry Victory Vision Tour Premium motorcycle hogging our cover (and director of operations Ed Heffernan along for the ride), lift trucks played an important role in getting it there. And there's synergy behind that synergy.
It's the synergy between a lift truck dealer and its customer. In Polaris's case it was Bennett Material Handling of Minnesota that helped this manufacturer increase productivity and eliminate plant down time. The two collaborated on introducing electric tuggers to minimize lift truck traffic between processes. They even implemented a fast-charging system to eliminate extra batteries and the need for battery changing. This opened up production space in the Spirit Lake assembly plant, while in the Osceola manufacturing plant, very-narrow-aisle lift trucks enabled denser in-process storage.
Most materials handling synergy stories go untold. They're just a fact of life. Working with dealers in this industry is second nature to most of our readers. According to a lift truck usage study we just completed, almost 80% of the readers we surveyed go through dealers to acquire lift trucks. Almost half of them intend to add significantly to their fleets (an average of seven vehicles) in the next two years. Interestingly, 45% of our respondents are using these vehicles in manufacturing operations.
So, if there's one message I can leave with you, it's this: The rumors of manufacturing's death have been greatly exaggerated. Okay, here's another message: Materials handling professionals play an important role in keeping manufacturing alive and healthy. One more: Synergy is cool.
Now put this issue on the table in your lobby—as soon as you're done imagining yourself in cover-boy Ed Heffernan's place, of course.
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