“We’ve seen steady growth since Crown first opened a branch there in 1984,” says Jim Ellis, Crown senior vice president. Duluth is about 25 mi. (40 km) north-east of Atlanta.

The new centre can provide expanded offerings for service technicians and forklift operators as well as additional capacity for customer service. Classrooms have the latest audio and visual equipment to enhance learning for operators, trainers and training leaders.

“There are no immediate changes in personnel,” says Mike Virga, Crown’s south-east general manager. “We expect to educate more than 300 Crown employees, customer technicians and independent Crown dealer technicians at the Atlanta facility each year,” Virga says. “Training sessions are conducted approximately 46 weeks per year and provide technicians with near-constant access to the latest tools and equipment to further develop their skills.”

Crown opened its first branch in the Atlanta market in 1984, and the operations have won four of Crown’s Summit Awards and two Ascent Awards. The Duluth branch began operations on 12 March.

The supplier of materials handling equipment replacement parts and accessories is adding 213,018 sqft. (19,613 sqm) in which it anticipates being fully operational by December, says Els Thermote, TVH chief executive officer.
Among Olathe’s “pioneering companies” in Copeland’s words, TVH business unit Systems Material Handling Co (SMH) opened a 226,694 sqft. (20,856 sqm) facility in January 2006 — even before the interchange was completed — and added another 97,619 sqft. (8,981 sqm) that was occupied in September 2007.

Currently, TVH in Olathe employs 436 staff out of a total of 725 in North America. “This is the success we planned for, and these are the results we expected,” Copeland reports.

In Olathe, TVH occupies about 30 acres and has another six acres available for future expansion, Thermote says. TVH owns 127 acres in the city with more than 90 acres for non-TVH developments.

“TVH has always had a good working relationship with the City of Olathe,” Thermote says. “Planning and discussions with the city began in the fall of 2011, and all necessary permits were issued in late February 2012.”

TVH offers products from widely recognized manufacturers for materials handling and industrial equipment vehicles such as forklifts, aerial work platforms, sweepers, floor scrubbers, and personnel and burden carriers. In addition to its Kansas headquarters, TVH has North and South American locations in Mira Loma, California; Grayslake, Illinois; Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; and Duncan, South Carolina in the US; Port Coquitlam, British Columbia, and Mississauga, Ontario in Canada; Cuautitlán Izcalli in Mexico; and Vinhedo in Brazil.

For clarity, the supplier changed its corporate name in the Americas to TVH Parts Co effective 1 January 2012 from its former identity as SMH. TVH acquired SMH in 2003.

TVH Parts is a subsidiary of family-operated TVH-Group Thermote & Vanhalst of Waregem, Belgium. The parent firm was founded in 1969, has 31 subsidiaries and, under its global TotalSource brand, supplies in excess of 20,000 customers in more than 162 countries.

According to David McNeill, product manager of warehouse products forYale, “The biggest focus is on how to make an operator as productive in the last hour as he or she is in the first.”

Fingertip controls, adjustable contoured armrests, mast-mounted cameras to improve visibility, telescopic adjustable steering columns with programmable tilt memory—each advance reduces operator fatigue while increasing productivity. But a full shift in a forklift remains a challenging prospect, and the lower back remains a perennial culprit in reports of lift truck operator discomfort.

Ergonomics is a subset of safety, says McNeill. Because all forklift operators are taught to carry loads in reverse when possible for optimal visibility, this means that as much as 50% of the time spent on the forklift could be spent in a twisted position, he says. Manufacturers are developing seats that swivel or are mounted at a slight angle, which will complement handles to ease the strain of looking backwards.

Bowles adds that many more lift truck models are coming equipped with electric power steering, which greatly reduces operator fatigue, particularly in high-throughput areas. The expansion of automated technology on forklifts even allows a truck to navigate between chosen pallet positions at the push of a button, without any further operator input.

From cup holders to cruise control, more and more comforts of the family car are making their way to the warehouse floor. And, McNeill says things will only get better for the forklift operator.
“We’re all working toward the same goal, but there really is no end,” he says. “Operator comfort can always be improved

“Nonetheless, NMHG anticipates a slight increase in unit booking and shipment levels in 2012 compared with 2011, primarily as a result of new product introductions and marketing programs,” the company outlook says in a year-end financial report. “Backlog and parts volumes are also expected to remain relatively steady in 2012.”

Nacco financial highlights indicate NMHG had profit of USD82.6 million on 2011 sales of USD2.54 billion, reflecting a significant increase from 2010’s profit of USD32.4 million on sales of USD1.80 billion. NMHG forklift shipments increased 30.5% to 79,700 units in 2011 from the previous year’s 60,000 units. 

NMHG designs, engineers, makes, sells and services forklift trucks and aftermarket parts under the Hyster and Yale brand names, primarily through independent retail dealerships.

NMHG owns seven facilities in the Americas, including five in the US and one each in Mexico and Brasil. NMHG’s European presence includes owned buildings in Northern Ireland and the Netherlands and three leased facilities in England, Scotland and Italy. For the Asia Pacific region, NMHG and joint venture partner Shanghai Hyster Forklift Ltd occupy a Shanghai, China facility that Shanghai Hyster owns. NMHG leases other space in Australia and India.

The survey revealed that amid the challenging times of the past three years, a slight majority (51 percent) of respondents increased the size of their fleet while fewer than 10 percent reduced their fleet during this period. When looking to the future, 47 percent expect fleet size to grow during the next three years while 50 percent anticipate their fleet will stay the same size. Less than five percent expect their fleets to get smaller.

Sustainability and energy efficiency emerged as important topics when making forklift decisions. Specifically, 83 percent of respondents indicated that environmental sustainability is important when making lift truck purchasing decisions, and 95 percent indicated that energy efficiency is important when making decisions.

“Our customers are interested in new and innovative ways to minimize waste, manage energy and maximize productivity,” said Matt Logan, director of global marketing, Crown Equipment. “These three principles are embedded in our product development, engineering and design, manufacturing, and operational processes so that we can deliver the sustainability and efficiency the market is demanding.”

Respondents also showed a strong interest in emerging technologies such as fuel cells and fleet management. More than one-third (35 percent) believe that fuel cells will be important to material handling in the next five years while 37 percent are using some form of fleet management software; although 65 percent of those who use some form of fleet management software are using spreadsheets as a management tool.

“Spreadsheets can be very useful in managing and analyzing fleet costs, but they can’t provide the real-time visibility required to optimize productivity,” said Jim Gaskell, director of global Insite products, Crown Equipment. “We believe fleet management systems used on truck-mounted devices that provide real-time visibility into truck and operator location, energy usage, impacts and other variables represents one of the best opportunities material handling managers have to increase productivity. We expect to see increased adoption of these systems in coming years.”

Komatsu Group says while it has confirmed the safety of all of its employees, some of its staff are unsure about the safety of their family members and relatives.  Komatsu says it will take “some time” for the resumption of normal levels of operation for its sales, service and other operations in the Tohoku region that were damaged by the tsunami.

Six of Komatsu’s Japanese plants are affected. Production has stopped at Komatsu’s Oyama, Ibaraki and Koriyaya plants and some production lines have been shut at the Awazu and Osaka plants. Komatsu Utility Co Ltd in Oyama City, which produces forklifts, has resumed production.

The group says it is making progress in repairing its plants in the affected areas and supporting its suppliers which have been adversely affected by the disaster. However, Komatsu anticipates some difficulty in parts procurement for the coming weeks.

Nissan Forklift spokesman Yuasa Katsutoshi Says that all of the Yokohama-headquartered company’s employees and their families are safe, but some of its dealerships in the northern part of Japan were severely damaged. The facilities of suppliers located in the disaster area are also damaged.

Nissan Forklift stopped production at its Takada factory at the end of last week and Katsutoshi says there is “no concrete plan” to resume production at the facility. The Takada plant mainly services Nissan’s Asian and Australian customers. 

They further  explain that the factory was not damaged but production could not continue because of the damage suffered by it suppliers, the limited supply of electricity to Takada and its suppliers, and the logistic problems caused by the damage to many main roads.

Gunco and Milcon are Netherlands-based rental and service companies specialising in forklifts, telehandlers, aerial work platforms and scaffolding. HDW distributes Genie lifting equipment in Benelux and Eastern Europe, Tuepen and Unic Cranes in the Netherlands, and last December took on the Netherlands dealership for Italy’s Isoli.

TVH Services, part of the Waregem-headquartered TVH Group, Which is the main compnany of Systems Material Handling is a parts and service specialist for industrial forklifts, and sells forklifts. It has operations worldwide.

Effective worldwide, the guarantee invites lift truck dealers to compare wheels and tires in the test application of their choice. If Thombert’s don’t last longer than the competitor’s, users receive their money back.  

“This is the longest-standing product guarantee in the industry,” says Reggie Collette, Sales Marketing Manager. “We know that when customers buy Thombert wheels and tires, they’ll experience the lowest cost per hour of use.”