What are the future trends and latest developments in the material handling sector?
By looking at the demand of achieving the maximum throughput, it’s inevitable to have a modern process of materials handling for which Cascade Corp USA has already developed the attachments to suit with the Automatic Guided Vehicle (AGV) where machines are running for 24x7 operations without human interference. Also by looking at the environmental conditions on energy conservation, we have launched forklift attachments that are working on the principle of "Electric Energy” where one can reduce the wear & tear as well loss of energy.

Why is modern material handling equipment (MHE) so critical for increasing efficiency and reducing downtime?
As explained above, there is need to match the supply & demand ratio in terms of machine throughput vs time to move the products to the end destination where each and every operational function is well time defined hence there are opportunities to errors & delays when its driven by manual version & to overcome this, there is need to have modern material handling equipment those are designed with increasing efficiency & reducing the down time.

Kindly inform us about the types of Machinery/equipment your organisation uses.
We have installed special equipment for in-house purpose where we are finding lot of Savings in the process of material handling activities

With respect to automated material handling equipment solutions, how advantageous is it in enhancing productivity especially in warehousing and logistics?
AGV - This phrase itself can be elaborate as - Automatic Guided Vehicle where modern warehousing & logistics companies are getting benefits in terms of minimal labour / manual interventions & maximum throughput,. it has higher efficiency, can increase the storage cubic capacity with high rise storage where man has limitations in terms of safety (EHS) norms.

Could you detail about innovative technologies that have come up recently?
Electrix forklift attachments, AGV mounted attachments, lithium - ion battery for low cost of maintenance & long service life per charge, safety equipment such as blue light , camera system to monitor the pallet movement at high rise stacking lever, reverse driving features, etc..

What kind of recovery do you see in the MHE segment in the coming days?
Historically MHE Industry has been growing in double digits (YTY) but it has affected a lot during recent situations of Pandemic however Post Lockdown phase the MHE Market is establishing in well manner where the targeted growth is about 20-25% in top segments where customers are showing more interest to invest in high end or newly launched products those are designed with High efficiency & low energy consumption

What message do you have for the readers as well as the industry?
As a member of one of the global leading companies, we are finding the Indian industry of material handling equipment manufacturing has not grown as compared to the other Asian, European & American markets where the number of machines produced per year is far less than the market size or the opportunities available in the market. For sake of comparison with the China market, the Indian market is ranging between 4-5% of their (China) annual capacity whereas the overall market size or demand in India is the same or more in some sectors.

It shows that there is no push or demand to invest in material handling equipment at the various industries level where the end products are not designed to handle the Mechanical equipment but it’s still done with the help of human intervention.

In order to meet the supply & demand ratio, there is a need to have modern material handling equipment whereby everyone will get its own benefits as well. We can compete with other parts of the world with innovations & cost effective solutions.