Manojit Ac harya, Managing Director

Ma nojit Acharya

Don’t you think the pandemic has reminded us how critical supply chain and logistics are at the foundational level? Absolutely!

Not only this, what this pan demic further brought into the limelight is how digital and phys ical assets have to work together and coexist. Specifically talking about the logistics industry, there is always going to be a coexis tence of both, and how well that is managed would ultimately de fine success for both service and customer organisations.

You are a thought leader in materials handling. What was the single biggest perceptible need you have found in the mindset of the customers amid these volatile times? Talking about operation-level aspects, in the last few months, what has come out quite notice ably is the importance of service levels. How well an organisation is geared up to service its custom ers was the biggest determinant to come across.

Our long and short-term rental solutions play a major role

It’s not only about having the best of equipment but going the extra mile in terms of serving your customer and keeping their equipment in the best of operat ing conditions.

Can you describe your company’s own business continuity plans and how have you helped your clients in times like these? A crisis of this scale has forced companies to reimagine business models, not just for short-term survival, but for long-term resilience. Reliable estimates cannot currently be made about the business development over the remainder of the year, but offerings like Jungheinrich’s rental solutions can help organisations respond to the challenges of a 24x7 marketplace as well as face economic uncertainty and rising customer expectations.

Manoj it Ac hary a, Managing Director , Jungheinr ich Lift

Truc k India informs Upamanyu Borah, how the idea of using a flexible hire service goes a long way to effectively manage market volatility and complement traditional contracts, while also giving an overview of the sector.

At Jungheinrich, our operations were always running. Even when the lock down started, we had a special approval from the government for serving essen tial services sector for which our warehouses were open, serving the aftermarket requirements with continuous spare parts supply across regions. On the oth er hand, supply of our rental trucks also kept running to support business cover ing essential operations with short and long-term rental solutions.

Initially, our business continuity plan was completely dependent on our essential service customers as our objec tive was to keep their businesses running. Our service engineers used to be in constant touch with our customers, and our customers responded very well by providing necessary approvals for our team as well as providing logistics (pick up and drop) support.

Post-lockdown, we have started fullfledged offerings to customers. Our sales and after-sales teams are working and keeping the agreed deadlines with customers.

Do you have a crisis toolkit? Crisis processes, resources and technologies are in place and understood? At Jungheinrich, we took note of this situation very seriously. All necessary measures were put in place very early. A central crisis team has been formed globally working in close coordination with the board of directors. A local crisis team has been set-up in all our sales units and plants to develop and initiate all necessary steps, including preventive measures. In addition, regular informa tion is provided on necessary hygiene measures, customer communication, standard operating procedures (SOPs) on operating offices/warehouses, etc.

As part of the crisis team in India, we looked at each parameter, the entire pro cesses and their functioning. We have guidelines and checklist for everything like SOPs for safety measures, visiting customers, maintaining and sanitising our equipments and so on. We have pro vided masks and sanitisers to all our employees. We frequently connect with employees to keep a check on their health status as well as their families.

For instance, in the case of our head office, we already had the permission to operate with around 10 per cent staff. Our checklist regarding the immediate priorities before and after opening the office was ready almost about a month before. Additionally, we had been sani tising and fumigating the office and warehouses premises.

At present, we can say that we have everything in place and well commu nicated to every employee of the organisation.

Today, when people are talking of industry 4.0 and IoT, what is the impact of technology invasion on storage and materials handling considering the Indian market? Jungheinrich has not only been talking about industry 4.0 but also prepared for it. With a comprehensive portfolio of material handling equipment, logistics systems and services, we are able to offer customer tailored solutions for the chal lenges posed by Industry 4.0.

The concept of 4.0 is widely used in Europe, as market there is much more advanced and matured. In India, the market is unique and has requirements of all equipment, from basic handling machines to high-end automated ma chines. The revolution is happening at a fast pace but intra-logistics has still a long way to go. Automation and its re lated influence, although being felt, have to catch up.

Therefore, we tend to look at both the ends of the spectrum. At the higher end, there are customers who are hope ful about automation and their requirements have to be met, while on the other end, there are businesses who are satis fied with simple basic solutions.

At Jungheinrich, our operations were always running. Even when the lockdown started, we had a special approval from the government for serving essential services sector for which our warehouses were open, serving the aftermarket requirements with continuous spare parts supply across regions.

Junghneinrich Rental solution can help warehouse managers in managing productivity and demand planning without high demand on CAPEX investment.

Apart from pioneering solutions in the sector, is there a way you have tried to roll up the biggest chal lenges warehouse/DC managers face considering this new environment? One of the biggest challenges the operations and warehouse managers are facing today is managing demand fluctuations. Lot of efforts are needed for capacity plan ning, manage throughput and ensure productivity within limited cash flow.

Junghneinrich Rental solution can help warehouse managers in managing productivity and demand planning without high demand on CAPEX in vestment. Our long-term rental delivers productivity by optimising truck per formance; these are maintained by us directly. Short-term rental caters to high demand for few months, e.g. we top up existing fleet with trucks for seasonal demands.

Going forward, we anticipate that short terms rental will become more popular in the coming years.

Are there opportunities for costefficient maintenance during this period? Downtime can be expensive. That is why we recommend our customers to carry out regular maintenance of our truck fleet. Especially, during this time when trucks were in non-operative con ditions and our service engineers cannot visit them, it is important for the customers to take the necessary steps and precautions to ensure their trucks run smoothly.

We rolled-out a complete guide and conducted virtual trainings for our cus tomers on how to maintain our trucks post-lockdown, covering precautions and measures to ensure life of trucks and batteries.

We offer different preventive main tenance options to the customer as per their needs like annual maintenance contract, full service contract where we work closely with customers to plan the maintenance of trucks, repairs, training to operators, etc. This helps our custom ers to focus and efficiently carry out their core business operations.

How can stakeholders inform and exchange insights with each other looking at such a global pandemic disaster? We are actively associated and participating in events organised by associations and industrial bodies through virtual meets, webinars or knowledge and information sharing platforms. The sessions are excellent and have been able to address many of the aug menting concerns.

Additionally, there has to be a lot of exchange of information between the leadership and organisational level. Right from financial matters to manag ing human resources, every aspect needs to be evaluated and discussed in detail.

Also, while we keep trying to think of new ways to adapt to the current en vironment, we should also look at and understand how other companies are handling and overcoming the crisis.