The Mheda Journal

According to an e-mail a colleague of mine received from Mashable, a blog devoted to social media trends and topics, today is the 40th anniversary of the Internet…sort of. The post reads, in part:

But on October 29, 1969, the first two nodes of ARPANET were interconnected between UCLA’s School of Engineering and Applied Science and SRI International (SRI) in Menlo Park, California. It took 12 years for 213 computers to get linked in the network.

ARPANET eventually evolved into the Internet we know and love today. To a 30-year-old like me, that seems like a long time ago. But, obviously, it’s not. In that short period of time, the Internet has become a can’t-live-without-it ubiquitous aspect of our lives — including the material handling industry. From retooled Web sites that allow customers to find you more easily to complete online stores to newer services like YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook, the Internet has changed the face of business. In less than 40 years. Pretty amazing stuff. Read more here.

In our ongoing efforts to stay abreast of the latest in online networking, The MHEDA Journal now has its very own Facebook fan page. If you’re a Facebook aficionado, we hope you’ll take the time to visit our page and join our fan club. We already have more than 50 fans, and there’s plenty of room for more. Check it out!

Here it is, courtesy of Joe O’Connor at Wynright Corporation, video of the NFL on Fox promos featuring really great footage of material handling equipment in use. The conveyor is what caught my eye initially, but this time through I also noticed the lift truck and dock equipment. Nice job by Fox to get some awareness of the material handing industry out there every Sunday.   (Note: this is from a few weeks ago, but I believe the same type of promo is running each week.)

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O’Connor says, “The conveyor clips Fox has been using to promote its Fox NFL Sunday program features conveyor manufactured by Automotion, Inc., A Wynright Company. Wynright was the designer and integrator of the system.” Thanks for the info, Joe!

Click here for more information on this topic.

While conducting calls for The MHEDA Journal’s annual industry forecast article, I was surprised to hear two distributors tell me that Komatsu may be pulling out of North American material handling manufacturing. This came as a bit of a surprise, since neither person was a Komatsu dealer and I hadn’t heard anything about it previously. I remember reading about their reorganization a few months ago, sure, but nothing about “pulling out” of North America.

I talked to Warren Cornil, CEO of Sunbelt Industrial Trucks (Dallas, TX), a longtime Komatsu dealer who I figured would have pretty good insight on the situation. The information he gave us was backed up by comments made to a colleague of mine by Keith Allmandinger, Komatsu’s senior marketing manager. They illustrated very clearly that the rumors swirling around Komatsu are not true. There are no plans to withdraw from the North American market.

The company did cease manufacturing operations at its Georgia plant with plans to consolidate production with its heavy equipment plant in South Carolina. Temporarily, though, that production is taking place in Japan to save costs during the recession. That has required them to eliminate a couple of forklift models that are not produced in Japan. Those models will be reinstated once the plant does come online again in South Carolina. According to Cornil, there are no plans to permanently move manufacturing to Japan, and, in fact, once the Komatsu fiscal year ends on March 31, production at the South Carolina plant will begin. Cornil says Komatsu is currently underway with pre-production and parts have moved to the South Carolina plant, which would make no sense if the company was planning to abandon production there.

So to be clear, the rumors about Komatsu pulling out of the North American material handling market are, for now at least, not true.

But this is the kind of scuttlebutt that we journalists thrive on. I loved researching it and getting to the heart of the matter. These are the kinds of interesting this we find out while creating a magazine!

They say no news is good news, but I’d rather hear the good news myself! Well, so far, so good!

What I mean by that is, I’ve received some positive feedback on the October issue of The MHEDA Journal. The print version was mailed out to subscribers last week, and the online version went online last week as well. So far I’ve had one contributor of a Sales Success Story ask for additional copies and another distributor compliment our newest feature in the magazine, the MultiMedia Member Profile.

Hopefully, there’s a lot more positive feedback to come from all of you out there. Don’t be shy! I’d like to hear it. (I also accept negative feedback if you’re so inclined…it helps make us better!)

Thanks again to everyone who contributed to the Fourth Quarter issue. If you haven’t had a chance to take a look yet, please do so. There’s a lot of important info in this issue about manufacturer-distributor relations. Check it out!

It’s forecast time again! Each year, The MHEDA Journal surveys MHEDA distributors about where they see business going in the following year. I’ve begun making calls for this year’s version, and so far, things are looking optimistic.

Most people are predicting growth for next year (though, as many point out, there’s nowhere to go but up!). The final results won’t be available until the end of the year, but as the Fourth Quarter gets underway, it’s time to start looking ahead.

I’ve talked to 17 people so far. I’m trying to get to 50, so if you’re a MHEDA Distributor Member and interested in participating, please let me know!

As I mentioned yesterday, the latest issue of The MHEDA Journal Online is available now. This issue highlights a new feature–what we’re calling a MultiMedia Member Profile of Thompson & Johnson Equipment Company.

This new feature combines audio commentary about this East Syracuse, NY-based forklift dealer, straight from the mouth of President/CEO David Schneckenburger, with a slideshow of past and present photographs submitted by the company. This is the first time The MHEDA Journal has utilized this feature, but look for more to come in the future.

I hope you enjoy it!

Finally, that moment we’ve all been waiting for…the new issue of The MHEDA Journal is now available online. As is typical with our Fall issues, the Fourth Quarter 2009 issue is all about Distributor-Manufacturer Relationships.

Even in a down market, MHEDA Members were still able to collaborate for successful sales. We were able to contact 18 distributors about some of their best sales of the year. If you didn’t get a chance to participate, that’s OK. We also run Sales Success Stories throughout the year in The MHEDA Connection newsletter, so feel free to give us a call to try to get a story in.

Another major highlight of this issue is a series called “Hitting The Mark,” where 12 individual manufacturers and distributors describe the steps to take to get your M-D relationships one rung closer to perfection.

There’s a lot more in this issue, so take a few minutes to hop over to www.themhedajournal.org and take a look. Let me know what you think!

According to a recent article on Reuters.com, small businesses are not jumping on the social media bandwagon. The article says that nearly 75% of small businesses do not find sites such as Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn helpful for generating business leads. 

I tend to disagree. More and more people are popping up on these sites everyday, and if not used improperly, can be a gateway to a whole new audience of people. (On a self-serving note, the growing audience of this blog and another MHEDA offering, wikiMHEDA, can be traced almost exactly by their promotion on such social media sites. ) 

On that note, to those of you who are using Twitter, you can follow me! I post updates about what I’m hearing going on out there in the industry several times a week. Click here to see what’s going on and stay informed!

Al from Lakeshore Learning in Carson, CA, writes to inform me that the FOX Sunday NFL promo commercial featuring conveyor was filmed at their distribution center facility in Carson. It is Automotion conveyor. We’re still trying to track down some video.

Thanks for the info, Al, and thanks for reading!

For those who have no idea what I’m talking about, read my September 14 and October 5 blog posts.