The Indian market is at the threshold of growth
Q. What’s your niche in Storage and Warehouse Solutions?
We are a JV between Maini Materials Movement, India and Ferretto Group, Italy. Together we have close to a 100 yrs of experience in Material Storage & Handling Solutions. We specialize in comprehensive and custom solutions that cater to most industry segments. From Retail to Automobile and from Energy to Pharma, we have a solution for everything.
Q. Today when space is shrinking and available for a premium, how do you help customers make optimum use of space?
The world is becoming a smaller place very rapidly. As horizontal space gets more expensive, the smartest thing to do is to explore vertical space. Solutions like AS/RS, Vertical Carousels and VLMs potentially reduce space consumption up to 95% and boost efficiency by increasing picking speeds, picking accuracy and in turn resulting in shorter fulfillment cycles.
Q. What’s your current range of manufacture and what’s exciting among the customized solutions you provide?
We have a manufacturing plant in Bangalore. A large variety of Racking, Shelving in single tier, multi-tier, Multipurpose boltless shelving products and Mezzanine structures are manufactured in this plant. Our solutions are designed to cater to a wide variety of applications in different industry segments.
Q. Does the customer buy the concept of Automation readily or still there is inertia without getting sold on the benefits?
It all depends entirely on the business requirement of the client. The Indian market is at the threshold of exponential growth. It is in the discovery and exploration stage. Customers are asking all the right questions about Automation today like ROI, increase in operational efficiency, sustainability, throughput, Total Cost of Ownership, adaptability to future changes, etc. GST will be a driving force for companies moving towards efficient state-of-the-art Warehouses where size and scale can be built based on market proximity / access instead of tax laws.
Q. In Greenfield projects, is Storage considered in the planning stage
We are seeing a significant change in trend now. Storage planning is increasingly being thought about in the planning stage. Consultants are being appointed to ensure Storage is well planned / optimized with latest solutions.
Q. Today when people are talking of industry 4.0 and IIoT, what is the impact of technology invasion on storage and materials handling?
The impact is positive from a business standpoint. We are looking at an integration of corporate decision making and on-floor operations by implementing Smart Solutions. The biggest advantage is the availability of KPI driven data which can be analyzed at every single step. I would say this is an exciting phase for various industry segments which will enhance performance by design.