The Mheda Journal

One of the biggest sporting events in the world literally kicks off tomorrow. To us in America, it may not seem so, but the FIFA World Cup is believed to be watched by more viewers globally than any other event. So it’s nice to know that our industry will be playing a role, even if it’s a small one. My colleague Dan Vest, editor of MHEDA Edge, came across a news item that I wanted to share with you.

Evidently, several JCB forklifts will be present at six World Cup venues for use both inside and outside, mainly for preparking hospitality suites, concession stands and other visitor facilities in and around the venues. The trucks were also used during the final construction and fit out phases of the construction of Soccer City in Johannesburg, the 94,000-seat stadium that will play host to the first and final games of the tournament. Other venues featuring the forklifts include Royal Bafokeng Stadium at Rustenburg, Free State Stadium, Bloemfontein, Peter Mokaba Stadium, Polokwane, the Durban Stadium and Green Point Stadium at Cape Town.

If nothing else, it’s more good exposure for the industry. I’d love to hear if anyone spots one!

U-S-A! U-S-A!

Before we get too far into the month, I wanted to make note of the fact that June is National Safety Month. I didn’t know that at the time I started planning the Third Quarter issue of The MHEDA Journal, but it works out well because we’re hitting on the safety theme in this issue.

Two members of the MHEDA-NET safety group, David Hermann of Wisconsin Lift Truck (Brookfield, WI) and Rudy Cuevas of Associated Material Handling (Carol Stream, IL),  agreed to write articles for this issue. Safety is a topic that we’ve often focused on in the magazine in passing, but it had been a while since we’d done a focus on it. Thanks to David and Rudy for their help in doing so.

I don’t want to give away too many of the details before their articles are published on July 15, but I will say that Rudy’s article about creating a safety policy is a must-read for anybody looking to develop rules and regulations to promote safety at their distributorship. David’s article talks about an often underrated piece of any successful safety program–the employee. All the rules and regulations in the world can be put in place but won’t make a difference if the employees choose to ignore them. How can that be avoided? Read the upcoming issue of The MHEDA Journal to find out.

Last week I was talking to an industrial battery charger manufacturer who wishes to remain nameless, and we started talking about ways to replace revenue that was lost in the recession. This person told me about a scenario that exists in the battery and charger market that I was unaware of, and he had some pretty strong feelings about what it means for his business and the industry.

 “A couple of years ago, we were approached by a lift truck manufacturer to private-label a charger for them that they could put their name on and sell it through their parts catalog. We talked to our distributors, who said ‘We’d rather fight them out on the street than just have you sell direct.’ Therefore, we declined, but the manufacturer found a French partner, who produced an SCR charger for them with their name on it that they sell as a package with their lift trucks. This was the first time that we had seen one of the major lift truck manufacturers get into the battery charger business.

“At the time, this manufacturer said they were doing it because they need to replace revenue that was lost when new truck sales dropped during the economic downturn. That’s probably true, but I don’t see them stopping now that they’ve developed it and have been moderately successful.”

For distributors, this situation has created a bit of a dilemma. The biggest thing is, it creates a competitive environment, not just between the charger manufacturers like us and the lift truck manufacturers, but also amongst distributors. For a long time, independent battery and charger dealers had the local lift truck dealer as one of their largest customers. Now, if more lift truck dealers are forced to sell what I’m going to call “proprietary” batteries and chargers, that creates some major competitive issues.

At first, it was optional—the distributor could still sell whatever charger they wanted. Then it became mandatory to sell the proprietary charger. Some distributors found ways around it, but in many cases, the charger distributors felt like they were competing with the lift truck dealer. Conversely, the truck dealers were reluctant because they knew they had customers who didn’t want this new charger. They also have long-term relationships with the charger company’s salespeople and distributors. They work very closely, and a lot of them didn’t really want to see that relationship damaged.

If nothing else, it’s caused some changes and uncertainty in the distribution channel. Rumor is that at least one lift truck company has already made a similar request to the battery manufacturers, meaning “proprietary batteries” could be next.

If this does prove to be a viable revenue source for the lift truck manufacturers, it’s only going to become more common. What will this mean for distributors?

I’ve heard for a long time about the impact that proprietary forklift software has on the industry, but this was the first I’d heard of proprietary forklift chargers. I’d like to hear from you. How prevalent is this? What does the future hold?

I was on vacation for a few days last week and spent some time cruising around Southern California. I had been there before but always had a destination and a reason in mind, and never really took any time to explore beyond my immediate destination.

This time, though, I had some free time to relax and soak it all in. Looking back on it, it’s amazing how much material handling I saw, really in every way. Traveling around Long Beach, i saw the port filled with huge barges loaded with hundreds of shipping containers. I saw cranes and hoists being used to unload those ships.

I saw forklifts in action, at every size business, from a tattoo parlor in Venice Beach using a truck to unload what looked to be large ink canisters, to the Hollywood Walk of Fame using one to haul some new granite for a new sidewalk star (I think it was Russell Crowe’s), to a shipyard in San Diego.

I saw industrial storage rack in the place where we picked up our rental car, and I saw conveyors both at the airport and at a cruise ship boarding station we rode our bikes past.

Most people don’t know it, but material handling is everywhere! Making that awareness more prevalent is the purpose of MHEDA’s Industry Advocacy committee, and the good news is, they have a lot of material to work with. Even on vacation, I can’t escape it!

One of my colleagues was out today, so I took over the duty of finding news headlines to post on wikiMHEDA (you do know what I’m talking about, right? Every day, we post three industry-related headlines on our wikiMHEDA site. Read today’s!) In searching through the dozens of news stories that feature words like “material handling,” I came across news about a member.

I elected not to post it on the headlines because it’s a few days old at this point, but I did find that it warranted a mention. Cat Lift Trucks is the official lift truck provider for the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. As part of that, Cat hosted an event for the Big Brothers and Big Sisters. And a good time was had by all. Congrats to Cat for backing such a worthy cause.

My question: Can someone tell me what that mascot is supposed to be? Any help out there?

(The photo is from the blog at http://www.ultimatealdine.com.)

In speaking with Audie Burgan, president of J.M. Equipment Company (Modesto, CA) earlier this week, I learned about an interesting method of parts distribution that his company is implementing. As part of their consolidation of two facilities into one, they have decided to take consignment inventory to the next level by setting up a series of “drop boxes” throughout their territory where customers can drop off and pick up parts.

I don’t know about you, but I’d never heard of this before and found it more than a little intriguing. Customers would be given a key to an 8×8x8 construction worksite-like box that would be stocked with certain parts. As needed, customers can leave and retrieve parts. Twice a day, a J.M. parts employee or driver will stop by the location and take care of whatever is waiting in the box.

J.M. has four branches in a territory that covers about 150 miles by 65 miles, so the alternate parts drop boxes would conceivably eliminate a good amount of back-and-forth drive times. As Burgan says, “This will help improve efficiency, lower costs and eliminate hassles for both customers and staff.”

Of course, not every parts and service claim is able to be taken care of in this way, but it does sound like an interesting plan. I don’t know all the details but you can read Audie’s article in the April 2010 issue of The MHEDA Journal to find out more.

As I’ve mentioned before in this space, the upcoming issue of The MHEDA Journal has the theme, “The Rules Have Changed.” The magazine will be full of articles from MHEDA distributor members. One such article is from Ted Springer, the president of Springer Equipment Company in Birmingham, AL.

In it, Springer says, “Diversity is something that people talk a lot about, but when it’s time to ‘put up or shut up,’ often it’s easier to stay the same.” He’s referring to product diversity, and what he means is that business onwers often espouse the values of diversification, but when all the numbers get crunched, you’ll find that it ends up being lip service.

Of course, his article goes on to talk about how his company has put those words into action (no spoiler alert needed…read all about it in April). But I thought this was a pretty provocative statement. It’s true in a lot of companies…initatives to change get started but, before long, people fall back to old habits. Or the person initiating the change gets moved to a new department and stops implementing the changes. Or maybe conflicting directives about how to implement the change come down and confuse people and stall things.

Whatever the case, there are many barriers to change. The companies that are best able to overcome those barriers are the ones that thrive, particularly in a down market where the old ways of doing business aren’t cutting it any more.

What do you think? How can these barriers be overcome?

Remember those days when getting Legos for Christmas was about the most exciting thing in the world? Well, for some elementary school students in Minnesota, legos under the tree this year would be even more of a bonus. You see, these students are participating in the Lego robotics competition, trying to design a robotic forklift made of legos to meet the competition’s parameters.

Read the article in the Stillwater Gazette for an article and video with more deatils.

Christmas is coming, and here’s the hot new video game sensation MHEDA members can feel good about getting their employees. A new application from Etcetera Edutainment called “Forklift Safety Sim” puts players through simulated real-world forklift safety training.

According to the Web site,

“Forklift Safety Sim delivers instruction in OSHA-based forklift safety standards and best practices by putting trainees through the paces with tasks that they would commonly find in a real work environment. This software gives users hands-on experience with inspection, traffic rules, load movement, and more, all in a virtual workplace filled with people, vehicles, and safety hazards that they must master. An exam mode lets trainees apply the lessons they have learned, tracks their performance, and gives them feedback so that they have a chance to learn immediately from the errors and mistakes that they made.”

Click here for the promo video.

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!