One of the world’s leading manufacturers of gearmotors and frequency inverters is partnering with Toyota Material Handling Australia (TMHA) to improve the operational efficiencies of its Australian business.
SEW-EURODRIVE has a warehouse footprint across Australia to service a wide variety of clients and currently uses a fleet of over 30 Toyota forklifts, walkie stackers, and pallet movers to assist with its operations.
SEW-EURODRIVE national procurement manager Fred Pizzicara has been with the company for nearly three decades and has more than 20 years of experience with TMHA products.
Starting with Toyota walkie stackers, SEW-EURODRIVE has been slowly transitioning from multiple material handling providers to exclusively TMHA, with a goal of standardising its fleet to a single provider in the next 1-2 years.
Mr Pizzicara said that SEW-EURODRIVE stood to gain from a standardised material handling fleet, with benefits to operational efficiency and servicing, coupled with Toyota’s I_Site telematics fleet management system.
“That’s the endgame, to have a fleet that is serviced by Toyota and, where required, have the I_Site program.
With a fleet that spans across Australia’s major cities, having I_Site available to track equipment usage and accidents has been particularly helpful for Mr Pizzicara.
TMHA has a long history with fleet management systems, allowing customers to track and manage the usage of their machines.
“From a very long time ago, at least 15 to 18 years, Toyota always had a system that you could jump on and see what’s happening with the units and their hours,” Mr Pizzicara said.
“I think their visibility was always ahead of everyone else, so there’s more to it, especially with the I_Site program we’ve got our compliance team that has access to it, and I have access to it.
“If one of the operators has an accident, it goes into limp mode and someone has to contact us so we can check it first to make sure it’s not severe, and if it’s something simple, we just enter our code and just move it on.”
Choosing Toyota forklifts is down to multiple different advantages for SEW-EURODRIVE, from durability to compatibility and servicing.
“I think their after service, aftercare is better – they’ve got some programs that come with the machines which are not offered by other companies,” Mr Pizzicara said.
“I find Toyota forklifts a bit more robust and can handle a little bit more. And because we deal with European skids in a lot of our assembly facilities, the Toyota unit is a lot more user-friendly for what we do.”
SEW-EURODRIVE has experience with reach and counterbalance forklifts, walkie stackers, pallet movers, favouring Toyota’s battery electric units for indoor use and LPG power for the larger units working mostly outdoors.
Mr Pizzicara and his team have formed a strong relationship with TMHA major account manager Leigh Odermatt, who has worked with SEW-EURODRIVE for years on their transition to Toyota equipment.
Mr Pizzicara said Odermatt has been a significant help in both arranging new orders and answering questions and also putting together a national service agreement for SEW-EURODRIVE, which will see all equipment serviced under the same account.
“We’ve always had a really good relationship – I throw a lot of things at him and he’s always onto it,” Mr Pizzicara said.
“He’s actually the one who’s helping with the national service agreement, which is not easy because there are plants all across Australia.
“We’re about to sign off on the national service agreement for all the current units that we have around Australia, so everything is under the one service agreement..”
The breadth of TMHA’s service network and the knowledge of its experienced technicians is a key reason for any business, big or small to choose Toyota forklifts, with prompt service and strong product knowledge.
“The servicing has been really, really good,” said Mr Pizzicara. “We have regular guys who come, and they know the place, which is great, and hopefully in other states that will continue to grow, and everyone has a relationship in that area.
“I’m extremely happy. For me, it’s more about the happiness of the staff using it.
“We’ve standardised here in Melbourne on a few models, but in other plants, I asked if Toyota could send out some rentals so they could get a feel for them, and so far I’ve had no bad feedback, so everyone has loved what they’ve played around with.
“I think having less downtime is what all businesses try to achieve, and having reliable machinery that can do the job is important. I think Toyota and SEW are a great partnership and hopefully it keeps growing as we grow.”
