Times may be tough, but R&D must go on

Like most companies in the material handling industry, TGW Ermanco expects that 2009 will be a tough year. One saving grace, said the company's president, Leon C. Kirschner, is that TGW Ermanco, a provider of material handling products for manufacturing and distribution, has a healthy order backlog. He said that for projects coming in the door, he is seeing a shift toward software and systems installations aimed at improving operations at existing facilities rather than for adding capacity. (In that regard, Dale Hoberman, director of supply chain solutions for TGW-Ermanco, offered a seminar at ProMat on "Maximizing Efficiency in Distribution Center Operations.") Georg Kirchmayr, president of TGW Logistics Group, parent company of TGW Ermanco, said the market is much the same in Europe. But both Kirschner and Kirchmayr said the company will continue to invest in research and development.