CeMAT 2014 once again claimed it’s position as the world’s leading intralogistics fair, and Toyota Material Handling Europe took a new high-profile position in pavilion 32, leading the event with new products in all major categories, innovations in power and fuel efficiency, whilst demonstrating new standards in service support and claiming more industry awards.
 
“Feedback from our customers is the most important measurement for us,” explained Matthias Fischer, President and CEO of Toyota Material Handling Europe, “and we are delighted by the response we received at CeMAT this year. Moving to pavilion 32 meant that we had a very high profile and we had a lot to talk about.”

The Toyota booth was officially opened by Matthias Fischer, Kazue Sasaki, President of Toyota Material Handling Group, Hans van Leeuwen, EVP, Marketing and Sales, and Norman Memminger, Managing Director of Toyota Material Handling Deutschland.

“Of course new technologies like those presented in our automation zone attracted a lot of interest,” reflected Fischer, “but we also had a large number of new models across all ranges, which also created a lot of interest.”

Matthias Fischer is referring to a fully integrated automation area, which demonstrated the latest RFID-based truck navigation solutions from Toyota, and automated reach truck and stacker technologies interacting with the company’s advanced BT Radioshuttle high-density storage concept. Regular presentations throughout CeMAT clearly explained the benefits of this type of technology.

Another area of the booth was dedicated to presenting a live demonstration of the latest Toyota Tonero machines, which include new models with hydrostatic transmission, developed in Europe exclusively for the European market.

Toyota also presented the new BT Levio P-series, which continues the company’s reputation for leading the platform powered pallet truck market, this time with machines that are the strongest, fastest and most compact in their class. Other new warehouse trucks included a new entry-model reach truck – the BT Reflex B-series – for basic applications.

Matthias Fischer also reflected on some of the latest technologies on show: “We presented our latest developments in power innovations, with lithium-ion batteries on warehouse trucks, the use of hydrogen fuel cells on electric counterbalance models, and our next generation of Toyota industrial engines, which will deliver more power but with much lower emissions and around 30% less fuel consumption.”

Another area that attracted a lot of interest was the presentation of the Toyota Service Concept: “We have been extremely pro-active in developing our service offer over recent years, because it is so important to our customers. CeMAT has been the perfect opportunity to explain the thinking behind our unique concept, which has been built on similar values to the Toyota Production System.”

A successful week for Toyota was further enhanced when the company received two IFOY (International Forklift of the Year) awards – more than any other company. They were awarded for the Toyota Traigo 80 electric counterbalance range, due to high productivity and energy efficiency and also for the Toyota I_Site fleet management system.

Matthias Fischer concluded: “It is clear that TMHE would like to become first in customer satisfaction. We believe that we can bring many good developments for our customers, and that brings customer satisfaction.”