Konecranes | Editor’s note
In my editorial in Way Up 1–2011, I pointed out that the global economic headwinds had finally weakened and that a tailwind was approaching. Well, the expected tailwind has turned out to be more of a dead calm, as everybody waits with great anticipation to see what will happen with the European market. So in an unstable global market what should we push for, growth or profit? Why not both?
The emerging markets provide an opportunity for growth and profit. Tapping into that growth and profit successfully is another thing. The emerging markets are not all about low cost, low quality and low technology. They represent a wide variety of customer needs and wants. Another effective means for achieving growth and profit is the development of new technology. But new technologies need to add value and improve the performance and productivity of customer operations. Technology for the sake of technology is non-productive. Combining these two–emerging markets and new technology–with an element of entrepreneurship will work wonders, so you can have your cake and eat it too!
In this issue of Way Up we introduce the TRUCONNECT® product family in Smart cranes and we take a look at a foundry in China. Another section brings stories about the state of the art RailQ crane runway measurement services in the US and Australia. We continue with a story of how a system providing accurate container positioning information has helped improve productivity in a container terminal. In this issue we also learn about the importance of ergonomics and product testing.
Happy reading!
Mikael Wegmüller
Editor-in-Chief