Andre Marshall met us at the booth for Doosan Industrial Vehicles at Promat 2019 in Chicago. It was his first interview with IndustrialSage, but you wouldn’t know it! We had an awesome chat and learned a ton about what sets Doosan apart.
Doosan actually originated in South Korea, and is a Fortune Global 500 company However, they’re still in the beginnings of making a name for themselves in the states.
The company differentiates themselves from their competition by focusing on each vehicle’s performance, reliability, and longevity. Of course, most forklift creators have similar goals. So, of those three traits, Doosan’s central priority is longevity.
“If you look at forklifts in general, a lot of them look the same; but everybody focuses on one thing or the other. We at Doosan look at the over-all performance of the truck…we’re looking for something that lasts, in terms of durability.”
Extending the lifetime of an industrial vehicle can lead to greater savings for end-users over time. In fact, cost is the most common question that Andre’s booth visitors tended to ask about. However, he always makes sure to factor each vehicle’s estimated longevity into his answers.
“Price is one thing, but that’s the initial purchase…Customers are often times looking at the lifetime cost of the unit.”
When creating an asset that may last for decades to come, Doosan also has to consider ways to adapt their product designs in anticipation of what a state-of-the-art distribution center may look like in ten, twenty, or thirty years.
Their G/45S forklift, for example, was created to accept two different kinds of fuel, in a world where non-renewable resources are anticipated to only grow more expensive and less practical over time. Their brand new GC35 gas-cushion truck was given a complete design overhaul as well. It has better visibility, and a thinner body in order to maintain maneuverability within narrowing aisles. The counterweight of its boxcar is also more condensed in order to maintain that tighter turning radius. Its cooling system is one of the best on the market as well. It allows for better heat dissipation, which is especially crucial in an environment where flammable materials are handled. Breaking, accelerating, and shifting takes less effort by the driver, which reduces exhaustion in the vehicle operators.
The innovations don’t end there, either. We’re definitely glad we got to meet Doosan Industrial Vehicles at Promat, because there’s definitely a lot mroe to see. Doosan’s hard work and impressive creations may be new to those of us stateside, but they won’t stay that way for long. The company is clearly here to stay…as are the industrial vehicles they make.
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