 From left, Trilogiq USA director of operations Luman Temby, sales engineer Jason Bullard and national sales director Tim Floyd with John Hayes, Seegrid vice president of US sales and marketing |
Lean manufacturing systems integrator Trilogiq USA Corp is addressing a customer's materials handling requirements, but the firm does not always rely on forklifts for the answer.
"Trilogiq USA's primary solution developments for materials handling are geared towards facilities and applications that are either forklift-free or using minimal forklift transport inside the facility," says Luman Temby, Trilogiq USA director of operations.
With most of their roots in the automotive industry, "our customers are most frequently using tuggers for materials delivery and increasingly implementing automatic guided carts (AGCs), automated guided vehicles (AGVs) and industrial robots", he notes.
Temby says "touchless transfer" is the most-requested new method for applications using AGCs, AGVs or robots as the delivery methods.
A typical transfer involves moving containers from a tuggable cart to line-side presentation without manual effort. Also, the transfer concept applies to kit trays and pick-friendly containers to support operator ease of use and inventory reduction.
Temby says Trilogiq USA seeks partners "that offer the best product in their category and connect with our culture". Trilogiq USA partners with the Smart Cart AGC producer Daifuku Co Ltd unit Jervis B Webb Co in Farmington Hills, Michigan; industrial robotic AGVs developer Seegrid Corp of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; and industrial materials handling equipment maker Topper Inc of Sturtevant, Wisconsin.
"Working with those companies has built our trust in their capabilities and service while illustrating how we can provide the best full-service solution to our customers," Temby observes. "Continuous improvement is the central theme to our solution-based approach. Our customers apply this not only to their current situation but as learning to create their desired future state."
Formed in 2010, Trilogiq USA began the partnership process after recognising customer needs "outside of our core modular materials handling products", Temby says. "As we developed this focus, customers went from asking for a recommendation to asking us for implementation support." That led to the relationships with Daifuku Webb, Seegrid and Topper.
Recently, Seegrid recognised Trilogiq USA with the robotic industrial truck maker's first-ever partner achievement award. The Seegrid-Trilogiq USA partnership was established in January. "Trilogiq's commitment and execution to selling Seegrid flexible AGV robotic industrial trucks is why they are receiving this award," says John Hayes, Seegrid vice president for US sales and marketing.
Seegrid and Trilogiq USA say they have shown that payback can occur in less than a year and that implementation can take days versus weeks or possibly months for a standard AGC or AGV system.
Trilogiq USA employs 70 staff in functions such as sales engineer, office administration, material assembly, operations, solution design, purchasing and logistics. The Livonia site occupies 45,000 sqft. (4,181 sqm).
On 10 October, Trilogiq USA hosts its second annual solution expo with demonstrations of AGCs, designing solutions with SketchUp, computer numerical controlled machines and an operational Seegrid robot.
Publicly traded parent firm Trilogiq SA is based in Cergy-Pontoise, France, northwest of Paris.
Research-focused S&P Capital IQ says Trilogiq SA had profit of EUR6.12 million (USD7.84 million) on sales of EUR70.78 million (USD90.71 million) for the fiscal year ended 31 March.
Trilogiq SA was established in 1992 and has subsidiaries in Germany, Australia, Brazil, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and Belgium.
In addition to Michigan in the US, Trilogiq SA has another North American operation in Queretaro, QE, Mexico with which Trilogiq USA collaborates.