This solution supports customer for tracking the utilization of their MHE, live status of the truck, maintenance schedule of the truck and reporting of accidents on time says Manojit Acharya, Managing Director, Jungheinrich Lift Truck India Pvt Ltd.
In the current scenario, what is your take on the market for MHE?
The market volume for MHE had grown substantially especially after the roll-out of GST in 2017. After some slowdown in 2019, and with current situation of Covid-19 and the subsequent nation-wide lock down, the market has plunged into a further slowdown. Our expectation is that in 2020, the total material handling market is expected to be at the similar level of 2015 or 2016.
However, post the pandemic situation, we expect to see a rise in palletization to reduce the dependence on manual labour. This would definitely mean a growth in the market volumes starting from 2021.

What is the growth potential you see in the warehousing industry?
The present crisis has given rise to a lot of uncertainties and businesses are facing unprecedented challenges. However, amidst the very weak demand currently, we are witnessing some good market growth in the e-commerce and organized retail sectors due to the growth in consumptions in essential items and increasing demands for safe and secured contact less transactions. The businesses are becoming more logistics driven and Logistics is fast emerging as a strategic function.

Warehousing industry is poised for high growth in the mid-term in Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities mainly on account of high potential in food and beverage, pharmaceuticals, e-commerce and retail industries. There will be more warehousing clusters spread across India in the coming days to support the growth plan of various companies. The demand of palletized loads and technology driven high rack warehousing shall replace the conventional block stacking. The stimulus by government of India shall also give rise in cold storage to support the food processing industry.

What are some of the market driven solutions you are offering to your clients and customers?
Jungheinrich is a leader in intralogistics solutions. As per current market scenario, we are ready to offer customer with our Li-Ion technology solutions, which will help customer to utilize Material Handling Equipment to their full extent for 3-shift operations and increase their throughput. Jungheinrich also offers fleet management system for large warehouses where customer has large fleet at one place. This solution supports customer for tracking the utilization of their MHE, live status of the truck, maintenance schedule of the truck and reporting of accidents on time.

Jungheinrich offers Very Narrow Aisle truck with Warehouse Navigation and Logistic Interface which can be integrated with Warehouse Management System of the customer which in turn will help in inventory management of the Warehouse and increase the efficiency of pallet movement. Automated Guided Vehicle can be offered for standard operation within production area or in stacking and de-stacking of pallet in the racking.

How are you managing the manufacturing, after sales and availability of spare parts in the post lockdown scenario?
We have a team of 63 well-trained service engineers located at different parts of the country. We engage our customers throughout the life cycle of the product by offering them a wide range of services and products such as annual maintenance contracts, full service contracts and other tailor made solutions as per customer’s requirement.

Through individually designed maintenance intervals and state-of-the-art analysis software, our customer service engineers ensure the long-term optimum availability and safety of your forklift trucks while at the same time reducing the risk of downtime and repair costs. We also have a comprehensive training facility located at Bhiwandi for training the customer operators about correct usage and safe operational practices. Post lockdown, all our service engineers are in the field supporting the customers and there is no delay in attending to the customer complaints and services.

We have three spare parts warehouses in India. The main warehouse is in Bhiwandi near Mumbai and other two warehouses are in Bengaluru catering to customers in South India and Gurugram providing services to North India. Though we have quite a diverse product mix in India, we carry inventory for all fast moving parts and critical parts in India. Our global parts centres have been working without any interruption and our supply chain is intact. We also have a tie up with international logistic providers to support our customers for any emergency requirements.

All our warehouses are fully functional with regular spare parts dispatches taking place. We have a tie-ups major transport and courier companies in India, ensuring the spare parts lead time is minimum.

How do you see the business potential for rental in the coming days?
We anticipate that rentals will become more popular in the coming times, as capital investment is seeing a downturn and customers will shift towards use and pay format. Renting MHEs will give customers peace of mind since they will save cost on infrastructure on truck maintenance, committing long term on capital and employing temporary manpower to operate. Rental business offers flexibility to customers to decide equipment, which they will require for long term and can plan equipment to meet their peak requirement. We feel now and post Covid-19 situation, such business approach will prevail. In the longer run, customers choosing to rent equipment will be free from pressure of having to sell-off machines in uncertain market situation.