have just watched a video on youtube were Gorden Riske and Eike Bohm talk about how they see innovation shaping KION by 2020 , you might seem to get the impression that KION will look at adding more complicated hardware to gather info on the customer and their operation's to their equipment then to charge extra for this service.

But is this were the real innovation that a customer requires comes from. It is Ok have a fully automated facility but what will happen if this was to brake down would this close the full facility if there is no manual over ride allowing manual trucks in to do the order picking.

Also we have seen that customers don't really like the complicated trucks used in europe in north america one reason KION and junghienrich don't really do well in this market as against Toyota and Crown.

From what our research tells us customers want a machine that will not cost the earth to purchase , will not cost the earth to fix, is simple to maintain but effective at doing the job and can be fixed in a mater of hours not days if a fault arises.


So who is right are KION right in saying that the customer would like a more complicated machine that can gather information that will be more complicated to fix and you must have a certain company in to fix these at a higher cost


or do customers want a simple but effective truck that gets the job done that is able to be fixed by a competent person form any company at a lower cost

How will this effect companies like the Chinese companies coming to the market will they now look at adding more complicated data gathering equipment to their machines or will they go back to basics with less electrical equipment and more manual equipment and how will this effect the market KION and Junghienrich do very well in Europe but not in other markets, will Europe now look to follow North America for a simple but effective truck at a lower cost or will North america see the benefits of having a more complicated truck as a way to lower total running cost of their material handling equipment