Tom Andel

Are projects being rushed?
June 3, 2008

Although I’m still feeling a little jet-lagged after returning from my trip to Germany to attend CeMat, I had enough energy to file a news report on our site. I also had a leftover tidbit to share.

While walking through one of the exhibits featuring a miniload AS/RS, one of the exhibitor’s officers noted some differences he perceives between U.S. and European approaches to big systems projects. For example, he said that in the U.S., for miniload storage systems, his company uses cold rolled steel instead of hot rolled, and they pre-fabricate the components instead of doing it at the jobsite. He notes that in the U.S., systems tend to be built to spec at the construction site. European companies take a more modular approach to materials handling system integration, he said.

“We design out of the catalog and we have a limited number of components,” he told me. “The holes are customized but the profiles are standard. In general that means we can beat project timelines by 10-15%.”

One system buyer I ran into who is based in Germany told me a recent project he did was given a shorter timeline than he would have liked. He would have preferred to take more time to make sure things were done right.

Which approach is right? Is there such a thing as a “U.S. vs European approach?” I welcome your input. This may be good fodder for a future article.

Posted by Tom Andel on June 3, 2008 | Comments (0)