For the last few years, conversations with Carolina Handling customers have covered issues such as narrowing aisles for better space utilization and adding automation solutions to reduce error rates and improve throughput. But it wasn’t until COVID-19 exposed vulnerabilities in the supply chain that many of them began to truly listen.
In the past, responses during discussions about automation solutions largely was that it was an unbudgeted expense. The reality is that it’s in the budget, but it’s allocated as labor or a lease payment or another line item.
Today, customers that previously felt no urgency to implement automation and integrated solutions are continuing to realize that now is the time to invest.
Consistent with our experience, a recent industry survey showed that 76 percent of respondents said automation has been the focus of their capital investment discussions over the last three years, and 54 percent said they are investing right now in automation solutions.
Ever accelerating consumer migration to online and on-demand buying, bulging warehouses, labor shortages and wage expansions all have fueled the serious discussions we now are having with customers about how they can best manage throughput and preserve pricing.
Manufacturers and distributors are being more proactive in the face of an unpredictable marketplace, and they are looking for partners, not product sellers, to help them make informed decisions.
To address changing customer needs and evolving mindsets, Carolina Handling continues its evolution from a forklift dealer into an intralogistics solutions partner. Today, we not only offer innovative lift truck solutions and service, but also consulting, design, engineering and automation expertise, all in one place.
By asking the right questions and listening actively and objectively to the answers, we can make the right recommendations to drive efficiency and profitability. By serving as a material handling partner, we are creating customer confidence that leads to a consultancy relationship rather than a sales-driven one.
Being solutions-centric rather than product-centric, we believe, is the best way to help our customers. We know that one size does not fit all when it comes to automation, so being vendor agnostic helps us identify the best equipment for addressing individual customer needs and challenges.
A big part of our partnership approach is providing after-the-sale support. In addition to expert service on the forklift side, many Carolina Handling service technicians have become certified in the maintenance and repair of various conveyor systems and Modula vertical lift modules.
With two-thirds of our workforce comprised of service technicians, we have ongoing opportunities to deliver the level of customer service that leads to trusted partnerships. We provide associates with the training, continuing education and equipment necessary to do the job, then give them the autonomy to take care of the customer.
A recent situation at a customer site in Georgia shows just how important service on the automation side can be.
Around 3 p.m. one day last month, an object thought to be a tote jammed between the inside rail and central structural column of a spiral turn in one of the customer’s pick modules, causing about 10 feet of slats to be thrown off the track. The drive chain lost tension, tripping the tension sensor and shutting down the lift. The sagging chain and rollback caused about five more feet of slats to pop off the chain below the lower idle pulley.
Carolina Handling service technicians were on site within an hour conducting a site assessment. By the start of the six o'clock hour, repairs began. By 1 a.m., the spiral turn was returned to operational status.
Carolina Handling's ability to respond to conveyor repair issues, rather than having to rely on the manufacturer, saved the customer days, maybe weeks of downtime, according to Carolina Handling Engineering Manager Dale Gensler.
As a trusted partner, we’re fortunate that we’re able to observe worldclass operations wherever we go, with a front-row seat to operational trends and successes in manufacturing and distribution.
Being a partner rather than a seller of products means that we stay informed about marketplace challenges and are better able to develop best practices to overcome them. We’ve learned valuable lessons from COVID and other recent supply chain disruptions, with our success now based on partnerships versus products.
Learn more about automation solutions from Carolina Handling.
