Linde executive board members Hubertus Krossa (director of materials handling) and Bruno Kulick (global operations) visited Australia recently for a branch by branch review of the local operation.

Mr Krossa’s local investigations left him particularly impressed with Linde’s Australian response to the worldwide customer demand for closer business relationships.

Templates developed here for responding to requests for  product information and to supply quotations will now be used by Linde Materials Handling in the UK, the group’s largest single market.

The recent visit  by the Linde executives has boosted efforts by the local Linde Materials Handling operation as it continues a major upgrade of its systems to support sales, rental and service operations.

One of the key reasons for Mr Krossa’s visit was to confirm that Linde Materials Handling in Australia has put in place the systems and the personnel to continue its impressive growth of the past two years. According to local  executives he was more than satisfied with what he discovered.
 
“We’ve always had the strong support of Linde Materials Handling global management, but this latest visit was particularly satisfying,” Linde’s Managing Director, Carl Smith said.

“Our recent efforts have been designed to improve our performance in meeting the specific requirements of Australian customers. We’ve introduced some unique solutions and it was good to have them evaluated independently.

“We’ve already had positive feedback from customers who have noticed our increased commitment to them, particularly our enhanced service and replacement parts resources.”

Mr Smith said the most pleasing outcome of the recent visit by Mr Krossa and Mr Kulick was the greater understanding of the local initiatives which he would carry back to Linde Material Handling corporate headquarters in Germany.

“Broad brush issues such as the general trends in Australia’s forklift market have always been well understood by Linde Group senior management,” he said.

“Now there is also an understanding of the best way in which we can address the day to day support requirements of  Australian forklift owners and potential customers. I am confident that this visit will have positive outcomes not just for Linde in Australia, but also for Linde customers”.

Mr Smith said that the outcome of the visit by the Linde Group executives had given a lift to Linde’s Australian management and staff.

“We have unequivocal support for our efforts,” he said. “Mr Krossa and Mr Kulick expressed surprise at the speed of the turnaround we had made. We are ahead of the benchmarks which we have set for ourselves and Linde’s Australian customers can expect even more improvement in future.”

Recent Linde initiatives in Australia have included an innovative parts replenishment program to giving Linde service technicians a productivity advantage that’s the talk of the industry.

In an industry first for Australia, Linde has successfully implemented a ‘direct-to-van’ parts replenishment process which is delivering major benefits for Linde service customers Australia-wide.

The company largely eliminated any wasted time by organising for a specialist logistics provider to deliver needed parts direct into technicians’ vans at night when they are at home. 

Linde has already made other significant improvements to its Australian service and replacements parts operations, including a major investment in IT systems for parts tracking and inventory control.

It recently completed a thorough audit of its parts inventory and acted on the results by substantially increasing warehouse stocks of high turnover items.

Linde is also in the midst of a major upgrade of its rental equipment fleet, as it stays ahead of growing market preference for the flexibility which the rental option can offer.