Driving intralogistics to new heights Jungheinrich

Jungheinrich is a global leader in the provision of intralogistics products and services. Philip Yorke takes a closer look at a company that continues to expand its global footprint, develop ground-breaking solutions, and set the quality standards for the industry.

DRIVING INTRALOGISTICS TO NEW HEIGHTS

The Jungheinrich Group was founded in 1953 during the ‘Golden era’ of German resurgence as the world’s leading engineering powerhouse. Today it ranks among the world’s largest and most respected intralogistics services providers. The company’s portfolio is extensive and includes a comprehensive range of forklift trucks, logistics systems and related services. The group is a one-stop shop for intralogistics solutions, is headquartered in Hamburg and represented worldwide through its own direct sales subsidiaries in 36 countries, as well as through its partner companies in a further 70.

Jungheinrich employs almost 15,000 people worldwide, with sales exceeding €2.75 billion in 2015. The group’s shares are traded on the MDAX stock exchange. New regional facility

Jungheinrich recently opened a new regional facility in Shanghai, designed to speed up its spare parts availability in the strategic Asian growth market. The extensive new Shanghai spare parts warehouse houses over 8000 original Jungheinrich spare parts. Customers in China are to be the main recipients initially, however the state-of-theart warehouse will be serving customers in the APAC region in 2017, including Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia and Australia. Warehouse storage space is planned to be expanded from its current 1500 square metres to over 2000 square metres by the year 2018.

“In Europe Jungheinrich has the best parts availability in the industry, offering its customers outstanding services in connec-

tion with its own expansive after-sales service,” explained Tim Strasser, Shanghai project manager for Jungheinrich. “By opening the APAC regional warehouse we have significantly reduced the time-to-market, and this successful European model can now be transferred to the Asian strategic growth market.” The goal he said was to guarantee the supply of spare parts to the APAC region, both in terms of parts sourced in Europe and the spare parts sourced in China.

Globally, Jungheinrich has a spare parts availability rate of 98 per cent. The new regional warehouse in Shanghai facilitates faster spare parts availability in the Asia Pacific region and, as a result, faster after-sales service overall. Innovation showcased at CeMAT

At the world’s leading trade fair for intralogistics and supply chain management, CeMAT 2016, Jungheinrich showcased its visionary trends as well as numerous innovations, developments and product advances in the material handling equipment, warehousing and material-flow engineering sectors.

The world’s shortest universal stacker, the EMD 115i with Liion technology, was unveiled at CeMat this year. These compact vehicles use the company’s in-house developed lithium-ion batteries, which can be recharged in just 30 minutes to last a complete shift. This newly released series of vehicles are fitted with this latest visionary technology. Then new high-lift truck is designed for use in

stores and warehouses and is characterised by an extremely compact design and a very small turning circle, whilst being capable of handling loads of up to 1500 kilograms.

In addition, Jungheinrich showcased its new narrow-isle truck featuring new motor technology and a vibration damping system. Also on display was its new VNA truck and the IFOY Award Winner: the EKX 5. This combi truck lifts loads up to 1600 kilograms and reaches a height of 17.5 metres. With its optional power module ‘Floor Pro’ with vibration damping for improved performance and enhanced safety on uneven floors, it allows operators to drive 30 per cent faster than with existing models. Award-winning innovation

In addition to winning the coveted MX award for ‘Product Innovations’, Jungheinrich was also privileged to receive the top award of ‘Best Logistics Brand 2016’. Dr Lars Brzoska, member of Jungheinrick AG’s board of management (Marketing & Sales) accepted the trophy during a ceremony at the ‘Bertelsmasnn Reprasentanz’ Under der Linden 1 in Berlin. “We want to thank all of those who have voted for Jungheinrich. This award is going to motivate me and everybody in the company to keep moving on our successful path as the leading provider of intralogistics solutions and the innovation leader of our industry,” said Dr Brzoska.

It was Jungheinrich’s plant in Landsberg, Germany that was honoured recently for its innovativeness, when it received the MX Award for product innovation. Dr Mare Ehrmann, top manager at the Jungheinrich Landsberg plant, said: “This award is a confirmation of our excellent development work and of the innovative environment at Jungheinrich.”

In recognition of excellence

At the Jungheinrich Production Supplier Award 2015 ceremony, held near Moosbgurg, Bavaria, the company sponsored a forum on the future aspects and objectives of its cooperation within the scope of the first Production Supplier Award held in April 2016. This involved workshops and talks about Jungheinrich’s strategy, current developments and projects. The highlight was the supplier award ceremony.

A company spokesman said, “As a strong company, we need strong suppliers. Especially quality and reliability are significant parameters for the evaluation of our partner’s performance. The prize was awarded in different categories derived from our main product groups and we congratulate the following winners of the Jungheinrich Production Supplier Award 2015.”

For Electronics and Synthetics – Dataschalt (Group Award) Norderstedter Werkstatten; ror Steel Construction – Junior Kuhlkorper, Johann Schleibinger; for Hydraulics and E-drives – ABM-Greifenberger, Voss Fluid; and for Standard Parts – Blickle Rader und Rollen.

Winners in previous years include: Möllering Gummi- und Kunststofftechnik GmbH (Norderstedt) – winner of the prestigious Group Award; Wilhelm Böllhoff GmbH & Co. KG (Bielefeld) – winner of ‘Outstanding quality and excellent performance award’; SIM Gdynia Holding (Chwaszczyno, Polen) – winner of ‘Outstanding quality and excellent performance award’; and KORDEL Antriebstechnik GmbH (Dülmen) – winner of ‘Outstanding quality and excellent performance award’.

Positive developments

The Jungheinrich Group posted its best results ever in 2015, however these are likely to be eclipsed by the company’s performance in 2016 if the recent positive trend continues. From January 2016 to September orders were up 15 per cent in value and 14 per cent in terms of units, with net sales up by more than 11 per cent.

Growth continued to accelerate in the third quarter, which is attributed to increasing demand for material handling equipment in Europe. Dr Volker Hues, CFO of Jungheinrich AG, said: “Jungheinrich’s successful business trend and growth course are continuing on track. We outperformed the market and the competition yet again.”

Another positive development for the Jungheinrich Group has been the construction of its new corporate headquarters in Hamburg.

The modern five-storey building has a total floor space of more than 18,000 square metres and has been built to the exacting standards of the DGNB Silver Certificate, issued by the German Sustainable Building Council – thus satisfying the most stringent environmental and sustainability requirements. The prestige premises have also been designed to allow for further future expansion. n For more details of Jungheinrich’s innovative intralogistics products and services visit: www.jungheinrich.com