ULMA Forklift Trucks takes part in the European T-REX project
Coordinated by the Tekniker Foundation, this project consortium is composed of companies, prestigious technology centres and universities from European countries including Germany, Finland and Italy; Spain is represented by Cie Legazpi, Esenergia Vortex and ULMA Carretillas Elevadoras.
In sectors like machinery, transportation and robotics (which all participate in the project) it is clear that the take-up of new business models has been limited. Equipment manufacturers or vendors frequently only act as parts or spare parts suppliers without considering the many other, far broader opportunities, such as in services and establishing lasting trust-basted relationships between suppliers and clients.
This is why the motivation for this project was to highlight the new business opportunities offered by innovative solutions in both products and services. The aim was to provide clients with high added value solutions bringing mutual benefits to both manufacturers and clients and to go beyond just cutting costs to also extend the useful life of the product. At the same time, these solutions bring clear evident environmental advantages.
The new business models this project aims to develop are service-centred and aim to extend the useful life of the products by applying techniques based on prediction, re-design and re-use which support decisions on online systems that monitor the technical status of critical parts of the selected product.
“For ULMA Forklift Trucks, the project is in perfect step with our rental business model and the need to have our fleet manager to provide relevant information to improve our Technical Assistance Service and for rental clients” said Asier Agirregomezkorta, Product Director.
ULMA hopes to use this initiative to find solutions that adapt better to the current context and requirements, whereby product and service optimisation plays a major role in customer relations.
