Global airport logistics solutions Siemens

Nordström said, “Our main focus is on the development of advanced cooling systems for heavy and medium-duty trucks as well as for buses and diesel engines designed for the world’s power-producing utilities. Going forward our strategy is to grow globally with our key customer’s such as Daimler, Volvo and Scania and to consistently increase fuel efficiency by developing advanced engine and oil cooling systems to meet the growing demands for cleaner and leaner engines. Harmonisation in terms of environmental standards is taking place even in the emerging economies such as South America where legislation today is equal to ‘Euro 5’, whilst in China they are already at ‘Euro 4’ stage. In Japan standards’ development is closer to the development of the NA legislation.

Nordström added, “Innovation is a key driver for sales as is our ability to provide an unrivalled service for our customers. This has meant investing in new plants, close to our clients’ facilities in the world’s emerging markets. Today, given a normal market development, we anticipate growth of more than 40 per cent over the next three to four years and this will also give us a market share in the Western World (Europe, North and South America) of over 30 per cent. As a result of the world recession, operators have been unable to replace their ageing vehicles after the usual 5-6 years of service, which has resulted in a surge in demand for new vehicles as the world comes out of the longest recession in history. In addition, the development of the Asian truck markets create a demand for more advanced engine and oil cooling technologies.

“The next step in emission regulations starting in North America and Europe from around 2020 will for the first time include targets on CO2-reductions which means a clear link to overall reduction of fuel consumption. This in its turn means increased demand for advanced heat exchange solutions as customers are seeking solutions for e.g. Waste Heat Recovery (WHR). Apart from application engineering, we are therefore also developing purpose-built systems and are driving forward advanced engineering options to develop radical, new heat-exchanger solutions within e.g. the field of WHR.

On-going expansion programme

In December 2013 TitanX made the strategic decision to expand its global industrial footprint to include China and Mexico and this decision was backed by a strong order book. The new state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities are scheduled to become fully operational by the second quarter of 2015.

China is the world’s largest market and the new factory will provide attractive growth opportunities over the long term for TitanX. In North America the combination of the company’s new factory in Mexico and its existing plant in Jamestown, USA, adds further impetus to its growth potential by enabling TitanX to serve different commercial vehicle OEMs in the most efficient way.

The future for TitanX looks positive with our order books looking very strong indeed. For example, we are ‘home-free’ when it comes to the advance orders for our new plants in China, Brazil and Mexico. Furthermore, we are attracting new business opportunities from the indigenous commercial vehicle manufacturers in these growing global markets. Long-term our efforts within Advanced Engineering also look very promising”. n

For further details of TitanX’s innovative products and services visit: www.titanx.com

GLOBAL AIRPORT

LOGISTICS SOLUTIONS

The global giant Siemens’ Logistics and Airport Solutions Division provides its complete baggage handling, air cargo and mail sorting systems to clients throughout the world. But that is not all: the company also remains present after installation to ensure the smooth running of its clients’ facilities. Victoria Hattersley talks to Jörg Ernst, CEO of Business Unit Logistics and Airport Solutions, to find out more about its state-of-the-art systems and the major projects it has been involved in.

Headquartered in Konstanz, Germany, Logistics and Airport Solutions Division (LAS) is active worldwide with its main locations the USA, Singapore, China and the Middle East. Its current comprehensive offering stems from the introduction of its first tray system for baggage handling in the early 1970s. Today its baggage handling systems and other products can be found in many of the world’s leading airports. Alongside this, it is a leader in the mail business, with about 23,000 mail sorting systems installed worldwide in more than 50 countries.

Logistics and Airports Solutions (comprising both Airport Solutions and Postal and Parcel Services) currently employs more than 3000 people in R&D, production, installation and after-sales services. But it is not just the installation of baggage handling, mail sorting and parcel logistics systems that the company offers today: it is able to assist its clients with the smooth running of their facilities long after its various solutions have been installed.

Complete solutions

Siemens believes in the importance of offering clients a total service from installation to after-sales support – hence its strong global presence. As Mr Ernst says: “In this business it’s important to focus not just on manufacturing but also to be very close to customers. We have set up a global supply chain network for this purpose.”

The ‘complete solution’ offered by Siemens covers every step of the processing chain. This includes: baggage handling technology; air cargo control systems; mail sorting systems; parcel logistics (from truck unloading to identification and sorting); optimised software solutions to oversee the entire logistical infrastructure; and post-installation customer services.

The company’s global IT team is particularly important for enabling its clients to manage their airports and increase productivity. For example, Siamos (Siemens Airport Management and Operations Suite) software is a state-of-the-art, modular IT solution designed to support airport operations. It includes applications for airport performance management, flight planning, resource management, statistics, reporting and billing and flight information display systems. The advanced system is highly customisable so it can be tailor-made to suit the needs of any client.

Mr Ernst explains: “Our offerings comprise project management, design, simulation, engineering, IT and state-of-the-art mechatronics components and systems. Our systems and information technology solutions include software modules, material flow optimisation, supply chain management, e-business, warehouse and cargo management systems.”

Global leaders in mail sorting

LAS has been operating in the mail business for over half a century: following the introduction of postal codes in Germany in 1960, it developed its first letter sorting system in 1962. Another milestone came in 1984 when the US Postal Service made an order for 406 of its OCR (optical character recognition) address letter readers. Today LAS is a world leader in this segment, with its activities covering parcel sorting, reading and coding, the production and installation of sorting machines, and the development of logistics software.

LAS can provide its advanced solutions to its clients wherever they are in the world. For example, in 2010 it won a contract with Nanjing Air Hub to install 10 parcel sorting systems and a central control system. It also installed 12 loops of the Variosort EXB model cross-belt sorter, measuring 4800 metres over two levels. This was completed in 2012.

In the area of mail sorting solutions, LAS has also recently received an order from Swedish Post for a culler facer canceller (CFC) and open mail handling systems to be installed. The former, for those of our readers not familiar with the term, is an automated system that faces mail into the correct position for date stamping or stamp cancelling. When the project is completed, four of these will have been installed to preprocess, sort and sequence standard letters and flats up to C4 format.

The company has also been developing its customer services in this segment on a more general level. For example, its team is currently implementing several system enhancements worldwide involving reading, weighing and X-ray technology. Furthermore, it works on third-party hardware, for example the updating of proprietary control systems with Simatic PLCs.

LAS has developed a number of new postal and parcel sorting solutions, such as the environmentally friendly Variosort parcel sorter it recently installed at the UPS Hub in Cologne/Bonn. This has increased the hub’s output from 110,000 to 190,000 parcels per hour. Another groundbreaking parcel sorting solution is its Variomove system for parcel bulk unloading – winner of a 2011 Postal Technology award. Finally, it has introduced a new flexible flyer sorter in order to meet the demands of the growing market for small parcels and packets.

Innovative baggage systems

As can be seen from the above, R&D has always been a strong focus for LAS, with activities in this area mainly driven by customer demands and feedback. For example, it is constantly working on new solutions to improve the overall performance of its airport baggage handling systems. Many of the new products have been developed and tested at the Siemens Airport Centre in Furth, Germany. The company showcased many of these products at Passenger Terminal Expo which took place on March, 25. - 27 2014.

Mr Ernst gives us some recent examples of this: “We have been running our new tray system for baggage handling which is the heart of an airport. Furthermore, we have developed a new self-check-in bag drop solution which has got great feedback. It’s an all-in had one system that allows passengers do the self-service check-in and bag drop at the same location, as opposed to other systems that involve at least two steps.”

LAS has also developed early bag store systems, such as the one it has installed