Maini assuring quality through its economical products

November 17, 2014 3:26 pm

“We need to ensure that we continue to offer solutions that are superior in quality, competitive in price while having lowest possible environmental footprint,” says S A Mohan, CEO, Maini Materials Movement Pvt. Ltd.
 Maini Materials Movement (MMM) was incorporated in 1984. It offers a comprehensive range of material handling equipment for floor transportation, loading, unloading, stacking, towing and hauling. The range consists of pallet trucks, platform trucks, dock-levelers, lift tables, scissor lifts, stackers, fork-lifts, tow trucks and industrial tuggers. S A Mohan shares his views about current status of industry and also explains what Maini has to offer to meet the ever-changing needs of market.
Current scenario in IndiaThe Indian warehousing and material handling sector is one of the most promising sectors of India’s new economy. Though nascent and not as technologically advanced as its western counterparts, the sector is creating a huge buzz globally by virtue of its sheer potential for growth. The cascading effect of current economic scenario on warehousing and material handling equipment (MHE) industry is promising. Cost competitiveness, increasing demand, easy financing schemes, new product offerings, infrastructure development, ‘Make in India’ programme that will enable a regulatory environment are the key growth factors for the Indian warehousing and MHE industry.
Modern and automated warehouses is an upcoming phenomenon in India along with state-of-the-art MHE and companies from this industry are innovating and making stronger alliances with western counterparts to offer the best products to the market.
Maini journeyMaini has completed over 30 years in its journey of design, manufacture and marketing of MHE and electric buggies. The company believes it has designed and manufactured of several equipment much ahead of its time and seeded the industry with mechanised products which improved productivity and efficiency of user industry segment.
Currently Maini is one of the leaders in the market and is adding many new products to its offerings. Its strategic alliance with NACCO Material Handling Group, USA to manufacture Yale-Maini co-branded forklifts and reach trucks in India is a significant step forward. Armes Maini, its JV with Armes Spa, Italy is one of the leading manufacturers of industrial racks and a one stop solution for a large spectrum of storage needs. It has also offered several customised storage solutions across multiple industries. This has been another enabler to build large format modern warehouses in today’s times where real estate is becoming scarce and expensive. Embassy Maini, a JV with Embassy Group is a thoughtful step to establish logistics parks and build ready-to-use warehouses.
“We need to ensure that we continue to offer solutions that are superior in quality, competitive in price while having lowest possible environmental footprint,” says Mr Mohan.
The market size for in-plant MHE in India is around ` 1,500 crore at present which is quite small in comparison to the size of India’s economy. However, market size is expected to grow over the next few years with strong GDP growth for India. The boost would be driven by more automation and mechanisation in material handling across industries.
Why Maini?“We hold a leadership position in the In-Plant Material Handling Equipment market. We are one of the few companies in India who design and develop our technology and testing systems,” informs Mr Mohan. “Our in-plant MHE for stacking, floor transportation, towing and hauling come with AC drive technology and hence offer superior performance, effortless operations with thoughtful features.”
Its forklift range comes with next generation technology from Yale, making them ergonomically advanced and productive truck range in the market, today. The manufacture of Yale products in India is benefitting our customers significantly, as European designed products are available at competitive price points. With the introduction of Yale-Maini co-branded 3-wheel forklift truck and Yale-Maini reach trucks, the markets started experiencing new technologies which provide reliability, safety and significantly enhanced efficiencies. Maini’s racking and shelving solutions offer a basket of technologically advanced features.“With these set of advantages that we offer to the customers, we are one of the most preferred brands and therefore a strong choice for warehousing and material handling solutions,” assures Mr Mohan and describes the company’s achievements in the field till date as follows:• Introduced the concept of ‘total solutions’• Introduced a complete range of MHE in India. Prior to that, there were only the hand pallets and the fork trucks as primary MHE• Pioneered the design and manufacture of dock levellers, battery operated MHE, buggies/ battery operated vehicles in India for people transportation in gated campuses• Maini Group is one of the first companies to introduce electric vehicles worldwide, and continues to excel in the electric cars segment. Incidentally Reva is still considered to be the world’s lowest priced electric car.
Key offeringsMaini has its range of material handling and storage solutions for manufacturing sector which comprises of:  • In-Plant MHE comprising of electric, semi-electric and manual variants of stackers and pallet trucks, electric tow trucks, dock levellers and lift tables and a basket of customised solutions• Advanced MHE comprising of electric and diesel variants of forklifts and electric reach trucks, order pickers and flame proof equipment• Buggies/ battery operated vehicles for people and utility movement• Storage solutions comprising of pallet racking, multi-purpose shelving, decking solutions, vertical storage and retrieval systems, automated storage and retrieval systems, etc.
In addition, Maini CCC (complete customer care) is a one-of-a-kind program in India. A team of well trained employees supervised by a chief coordinator are assigned to the customers’ premises during the contract period. The on-site team ensures that preventive maintenance activities are carried out as per agreed schedule.
Manufacturing capabilitiesMaini has its manufacturing technology deployment in a 45, 000 Sq. Ft. of built-up area, with a potential to build another 70, 000 Sq. Ft. Its manufacturing system is flexible, as majority of its solutions being are customised. The company focuses on manufacturing customised products of quality standards at relatively short lead time. Further, its R&D facility has several pro-engineer stations (3D) including facilities for design, static and dynamic analysis and prototyping.
“We are committed to a policy of total quality in all aspects of our operations,” says Mr Mohan. “We manufacture our products to deliver performance excellence through defect prevention and continuous improvement programmes to meet and exceed customer requirements.”
The company is accredited with ISO 9001-2008 by TUV Nord for its integrated quality management system. The company believes that achievement of an international quality standard is not a single event but an on-going commitment, which remains a continual obligation.