Jungheinrich urges investment in automated handling kit

Steve Richmond (pictured), a director at Jungheinrich UK says industry statistics highlight that the market for automated materials handling projects – which include products such as stacker cranes, picking systems, mini loads etc – has remained static at best. "The forklift truck market has performed very positively in the past three years and sales of very narrow aisle trucks have been buoyant too. Small to medium sized projects have also held up well. But the automated projects arena has been slow to recover." "But I believe that companies have now reached the point where they can no longer put-off investing in their systems and processes. The lack of investment in recent years means that, in many cases productivity and efficiency is not being maximized and, for many firms, operational costs remain higher than they need to be. "In short , failing to invest in updated intralogistics systems is at odds with accepted business drivers."