ProMat 2009: New life for existing assets

I’m hearing a lot here at ProMat about people looking for ways to make better use of existing assets rather than starting from scratch with new equipment. That applies to the OEM exhibitors too. Many are improving their existing lines and reintroducing them to the market.

Lou Micheletto, national warehouse products manager for Yale Materials Handling, says the company is improving performance of primary components including reach, mast and motors. Longer life means lower cost of ownership, he told me.
John Piccolo, big truck sales manager, gave me another example of how existing products are finding new life. He said the big-capacity trucks in his line, typically used in lumber yards and cement companies, are now finding new applications in big warehouse operations because many innovations that have found a home in the smaller warehouse trucks are being designed into the big trucks. He added that there’s a move to commonized components across product lines. That makes inventorying spare parts less costly and improves the reliability and availability of these trucks.

Steve Medwin, advanced research manager for the Raymond Corp., talked to me about advances in lift truck ergonomics. Not the kind of ergonomics commonly associated with physical comfort, but information ergonomics . That means offering a “dashboard” that presents information to managers so it’s actionable.

And now, some observations from John Hill, vice president of Transystems—and a valued member of Modern’s editorial advisory board:

During the ribbon cutting ceremony, I never saw more people massed at the entrance, waiting to get into the show. My suspicion is that many of them were here on specific missions than attendees were four or six years ago when they came to see what was new. I ran into several companies I did not know in the WMS/WCS business. I knew KNAPP had done some system work, but they’re now offering their Kisoft WMS, which was new to me. Another company, Sologlobe, has a WMS called Solochain, which was not on our list of WMS suppliers.

I saw a number of very large Fortune 100 companies out in teams, not only to see what’s new but to talk about specifics related to projects. These were consumer products oriented products. It was heartening to see that the projects some companies might stall on or defer, those big companies I mentioned were here at the show on a mission to accomplish. A lot of it had to do with facility reengineering, plus a little bit of technology and some rationalization. They are interested in tools that might help them rationalize existing assets.

One other thing, I walked by the Dematic booth and saw the Rapistan rebranding. That’s something that never should have had to happen. If I were to attach a headline to that story it would be “Rapistan is back…It never really left.” Any of us who have been around the industry for any length of time have always recognized the savvy associated with that brand. Their senior management eventually recognized the power of that brand.

They have a multi shuttle alternative to a miniload. It’s a nifty machine that appears to have the capacity of a miniload in the same footprint, or alternatively, three times the speed of a miniload handling the same volume. That’s innovative.

Our company, Transystems is putting emphasis on giving back to the communities we serve. So we put together a series of “Tips for Tough Times.” Each of our lines of business came up with three or four tips, for each day of the show: Improving Warehouse Performance, Optimizing your supply chain network, Forecasting for Operational Excellence, and Making the Right Warehouse Design Decisions.”