Staying Agile in the Face of Uncertainty

May 28, 2021

How MHEDA Members Were Able Quickly Adapt to Unforeseen Circumstances

By Steve Guglielmo

The COVID-19 pandemic turned the entire world upside down. No aspect of our lives was left untouched. People lost loved ones, children were forced to learn remotely, and all of us lost precious time spent with friends and family. Overnight, businesses were faced with new rules and regulations that they were not expecting. Cut off from in-person visits with customers and, in many cases, even from their own employees. The companies that were able to adapt to these circumstances quickly were the ones who survived and, eventually, even began to thrive during this pandemic. MHEDA members, as in most situations, were able to adapt to this new reality by staying agile and flexible. The solutions they put in place helped them weather the storm and many will remain in place even once the pandemic is over.

We asked MHEDA members about ways that they were able to stay agile in the face of the pandemic. We also asked them to discuss the importance of being agile. Respondents unanimously agreed that “Agility is critical to success.” We thank those members who shared their insights with us.

McGee Storage & Handling

Janelle Anderson, CEO of McGee Storage & Handling, knew at the outset of COVID-19 that the company needed to educate itself on what it was facing. “As owners, we teamed up with our business partners – experts in their fields (HR, Finance, Accounting and Legal) to quickly educate ourselves on evolving regulations, new PPE standards and SBA funding to best equip ourselves for the balance of 2020,” she says. “We leveraged the time given us by the initial slowdown to revamp some roles and responsibilities and update antiquated processes to operate more efficiently. Operational expenses were reduced naturally, and intentionally, to meet our goal to retain 100% of our staff. By Q3, we set out to make new investments in infrastructure, online presence and even added an employee. Results for 2020 were much higher than originally expected and the forecast for 2021 is bright.” The company will continue to monitor economic indicators and impending legislation to put together a plan to enhance its solution portfolio. Concludes Anderson, “Fear will keep you frozen in your tracks. It is our responsibility to lead our company forward and demonstrate our ability to make decisions that allow us to sustain and thrive for long-term.”

Wolter Group LLC

“Macro trends in our industry including changes to motive power, telematics, automation and robotics require distributors to evolve. The pandemic and economy require timely and effective changes, sometimes in very short periods of time,” says Wolter Group LLC President Jerry Weidmann. “Agility to keep your business aligned with conditions on the ground is increasingly critical.” As COVID struck, Wolter’s portfolio of companies developed comprehensive policies including the establishment of work from home policies and formed a management response team to effectively communicate policies and strategy through its entire organization in a timely manner. Communication has proven to be critical throughout the industry and even once COVID has passed, Wolter Group will continue a flexible work from home strategy as well as continue frequent communication through its management team to the entire organization.

Alliance Material Handling

The embrace of agility is not new for Alliance Material Handling. Says Chairman and CEO Tom Albero, “By the nature of our business segments, there are so many normal variables (political, economic, raw material pricing, tariffs, lead times, technician availability, etc.) that we have to pay attention to. We’ve had to deal with most of these items in the last two years and when you add a global pandemic into the mix, it could have been devastating.” However, by embracing abnormal variables like customer shutdowns, remote work, securing the building and making it safer by adding purifiers and policies around employee safety, including securing vaccine registrations, Alliance has been able to succeed during this time. “These variables, at times, pushed us to our limits but I am super proud of our team and the way we responded to this crisis,” Albero says. “Going forward, we will gather all of the accomplishments we achieved during this crisis and further develop our business interruption plan to be better prepared for whatever comes our way next.”

AHS, LLC

AHS actually transitioned to 100% remote work, according to SVP, Customer Solutions Jim Shaw. “We strengthened our partner relationship program and found new ways to engage with our customers. One adaption that paid huge dividends for us was setting up a virtual showcase of our innovations demo lab. We were able to bring customers to AHS virtually when physical visits were not an option.” AHS created a theme for its organization to be “one” team, settle in and deliver superior customer experiences. Says Shaw, “Our industry is adapting to the world at an incredible pace. As a system integrator, you have choices to be on the cutting edge of change or you can be a fast follower. We feel if you choose neither you see the industry pass you by. AHS will continue to be agile and we will continue to adapt to our industry and provide our customer Innovative Solutions, Create Lasting Partnerships and Deliver Superior Customer Experiences.”

Valley Industrial Trucks

“Companies that were agile enough to implement and, more importantly, embrace new sales and communication tactics were a step ahead in 2020 and likely will be for the foreseeable future,” says President/Owner Jim Hammond. Valley Industrial Trucks continues to look for opportunities to improve its processes and adapt new technologies. The company, like many other successful MHEDA members, quickly pivoted to and excelled in using virtual sales processes and a remote work environment. “That’s something many of us had never been challenged with before,” says Hammond. “It provided a real-time example of the importance of agility. Our ability to replicate that agility when faced with any future transformative opportunity or crisis will be a key takeaway for our industry.”

Bode Equipment Company

Bode Equipment Company was fortunate enough to be a step ahead of the remote work environment. “In 2019, we installed a cloud-based ERP system and Microsoft 365,” President Scott Fawcett says. “At the time, our goal was to eliminate multiple older systems and roll everything into these two packages. Our ROI was strictly focused upon the elimination of older software updates, efficiencies, licenses. When the pandemic emerged, we were forced to work remotely on a day’s notice. On March 16, 2020, our personnel took tablets, docking stations, monitors, chairs and whatever else was needed to set up an office at home. We performed a stress test the next day to find that we were fully operational in a foreign setting that lasted for months. Our field personnel worked off electronic work orders and communicated through TEAMs. Our company learned new meeting skills, communication skills and delivery methods to keep on schedule. Everyone learned something new. We all became agile and adapted to the new methods of business.”

MH Engineered Solutions

“We have recognized that being agile is a competitive advantage,” says President Scott Hennie. “The COVID-inspired e-commerce boom in projects required us to be able to respond quickly to get clients up and running to support their fulfillment business. We had to discard paradigms on how we developed solutions, proposals and executed projects and find ways to streamline the processes. We will continue to find ways to streamline our internal processes. We will work with our supplier partners to develop tools that will support a quicker cycle to develop solutions and project budgets. We will facilitate the procurement process for our clients to eliminate waste and speed up the decision-making matrix for our clients.” Hennie concludes that, “The instant gratification culture will continue to drive the selection process for end-users. We must develop our internal systems to support that culture without compromising solution integrity and maintaining a healthy bottom line.”

Gregory Poole Lift Systems

Gregory Poole Lift Systems credits its “Critical Success Factors” with its ability to stay agile even during unprecedented times. Those Critical Success Factors are used to benchmark everything the company does and support its Mission, Vision and Strategic Goals. “Being agile and able to move quickly was something we had and continue to plan for,” the company noted. “Our Critical Success Factors ensured we ran our business with purpose. It was those same factors that help guide the right decisions that aligned with our Mission, Values and Strategic Goals. To remain agile in 2021, we need to continue the collaborative theme of developing solutions as a group. We will continue our weekly Pandemic Team meetings and make the required adjustments that allow us to address changes (good or bad) and cascade that information down thru the organization.”

Riekes Equipment

In 2020, Riekes Equipment turned to Coach Herman Boone from Remember the Titans for a bit of inspiration. Boone coached his players to be “Agile, Mobile, Hostile!” Says President Duncan Murphy, “We surveyed, we reviewed phone calls, we trained for skills, we infused our culture into our team at every chance we could. Our staff was examined for performance and adherence to our values, with changes made to strengthen our team. Every company that survived and even succeeded the past year was mobile. We all did many of the same things when customer doors were closed to us while still demanding support that required our essential Service Teams to be there. Our Riekes Strategic Plan for 2021 is short but filled with steps focusing on customers. We had a new computer system installed three years ago. We are now taking the training wheels off to broaden its use as we work to become Better – Faster – Cheaper. Paper is disappearing, which requiring old fogies like me to become more electronic. Frankly, it feels and looks good. Fundamentally, the best indicator of Agility is the transformation of our business practices and array of products and services we provide.”

Fairchild Equipment

“Agility was critical for us in 2020,” says President Van Clarkson. “We take both our employees’ and our customers’ health and safety very seriously, so staying true to our core values of Family Values, Safety Always, Customers for Life and Employer of Choice, we went from 100% of employees working in the office down to just 25%. We also implemented flexible work hours and were able to handle COVID-related quarantines without much disruption to our business.” The company will continue that flexible work environment as well as a combination of face-to-face and virtual meetings and cross-training even after the pandemic subsides. Says Clarkson, “In today’s constantly changing world, agility is important because businesses need to be responsive to customers’ needs, and that means being able to quickly adapt as their needs, and the business environment change.”

Atlantic Forklift Services

“The Atlantic Forklift Services team quickly adapted in March 2020 to ensure the health and safety of our employees and customers,” says Director of Administrative Services Lauren Jarman. “Within a matter of a few days, nearly all of our administrative and sales staff were working remotely. Folks were all working together to think creatively and strategically about how to operate an essential business, but still follow guidelines like social distancing, handwashing, wearing masks, etc. Our team did an amazing job adapting and working diligently to keep our operations running without a hitch, even when we were all dealing with various struggles and challenges outside of work. We were very fortunate and experienced double-digit growth in 2020 and have started 2021 off very strong as well. And it’s all because of how well our team continues to evolve and adapt in this crisis and a rapidly changing world that we live in. We have proven that we can be very successful when we work together and take a fair and consistent approach to every situation that we’re put in.”

RMH Systems

RMH Systems knew that to maintain growth and presence in the market, it had to come up with innovative solutions. “With a new robotics division in-house and several unique projects in our warehouse, we had the perfect window of opportunity to display the capabilities of robotic automation in action,” says Marketing Manager Jenni Hill. But with the pandemic not allowing for travel, the company decided to have a “Not-So-Open House Event” to showcase its solutions. “This allowed us to showcase how RMH Systems can partner with a company to design something for their unique application with the dynamic and customizable robots available for industrial applications.” The event took place over the course of several days and was carefully planned and executed to value safety above all else. “Ultimately, our agility and resourcefulness paid off, resulting in a safe event that also better addressed customer-centric solutions for more than 20 different companies across the Midwest.”

WireCrafters

As a company that manufacturers partitions, WireCrafters was perhaps better suited to adapt to social distancing than other companies. “We produced a polycarbonate partition for the industrial workplace and had a new product available to our dealers to sell within one week,” says President Milt Tandy. The company utilized technology to allow many of its employees to work remotely and modified its space to transform its conference rooms into workstations in order to safely social distance the employees who still needed to come to the office. “We have found that several positions can continue to work from home as our company grows,” Tandy says. “As we add new employees, it can eliminate the space needed for additional office cubicles.”

Alba Manufacturing

Alba Manufacturing was open for all of 2020 by strictly adhering to social distancing guidelines, even redesigning the layout of its facility. “We were able to get components on time for our conveyors by being proactive and finding additional supply partners if our current suppliers were not able to meet our requirements. By taking these steps we were able to meet our client’s delivery needs and also establish relationships with new clients as their current suppliers were unable to meet their lead time needs,” says Vice President of Sales Kyle McMahan. Alba continues to find ways to improve efficiency in 2021 and forecasts a great year!

Autoquip

“Having agile operating models and scenarios already in place helped us execute and manage the impact of the pandemic to our business more effectively,” says Marketing Manager Julie Rice. “At the start of COVID-19 pandemic, we knew that we had to be smart and nimble about the decisions we made, how we operated moving forward, and how we continued to provide support to our customers when travel is restricted. We reassessed our opportunities in this new normal, focusing on the needs of new customers and shifting our product mix to meet those needs. In addition. we prepared for a remote workforce to keep our employees safe and continue meeting the needs of our business.” Critical steps towards agility included: Reorganizing its shipping and logistics; A change in manufacturing processes and new work cells to facilitate the change in its product mix; Increasing its “virtual service” capability; and much more. Those same steps will continue into 2021 and will be adapted to the needs and demands of customers to ensure continued success.

Site-Seeker, Inc.

When COVID-19 struck, Site-Seeker made a full-court press to embrace education. “We recognized that COVID brought a lot of mystery and confusion to sales and marketing departments. Beyond reading research and continually staying up-to-date with the newest trends, we wrote our own articles and conducted weekly webinars for partners and online community members,” says Marketing Manager Melinda Aiken. “We realized that, for most companies, budgets were flipped upside down once government shutdowns began. More specifically, travel and trade show dollars were freed up and needed reallocation into areas that would reap the greatest reward for continued sales. We found that diversified advertising programs, local optimization, eCommerce, lead intelligence, and content marketing were the winning tactics in the COVID race.” Aiken notes that it is important to stay open-minded and embrace change. “Not everything will be successful,” she says. “But if you don’t try, you won’t know. Try something new, it may be just what your company needs to navigate the waters.”

The Raymond Corporation

“Our Raymond Lean Management System, built on the principles of the Toyota Production System, greatly enhanced our ability to be as nimble as we could for our customers and associates alike,” says VP of Customer Solutions and Support Dave Norton. “Ensuring constant communication from leadership to keep employees informed was crucial. We held daily executive meetings to stay informed on the pandemic and protect our employees and customers by making impactful company decisions daily.” Raymond employees also embodied that agile philosophy, moving to and from various lines on demand to support the company’s production goals. “Our customers experienced a significant increase in demand for critical items, especially essential businesses and e-commerce driven businesses. We knew it was important to continue our operations as an Essential Business while adhering to evolving CDC guidance with our employees’ health and well-being in mind. Raymond Solutions and Support Center, Abel Womack, became the ‘Go To’ company for the hard-to-find items, such as masks, gloves, and sanitizer. Their Parts and Service departments adapted quickly, and provided these items to our customers, as well as sanitizing their equipment for use,” Norton says. As Raymond Solutions and Support Center, Abel Womack, President Mike Pentinge said, “This pandemic was an eyeopener for many and proved that we need to have an organizational culture that is willing to continuously improve to address and adapt to what comes our way.”

EnerSys

“Taking the past year into consideration, it is of utmost importance to adapt in new ways to effectively reach and connect with customers and prospects,” says EnerSys Senior Director of Motive Power Marketing, Americas Harold Vanasse. “Without the ability to have face-to-face interaction, today’s circumstances require the implementation of innovative tools to reach and connect with people.” To deal with this reality, the EnerSys NexSys battery sales team held more than 160 virtual meetings to reach over 2,500 customers and prospects since the advent of the pandemic. The overwhelming customer outreach initiative was facilitated via a brand-new HTML sales tool titled “The NexSys Experience.” The presentation offers a glimpse into the technological advances of the NexSys product portfolio – NexSys PURE Thin Plate Pure Lead (TPPL) and NexSys iON Lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries. Says Vanasse, “While we’ve developed innovative tools – and have implemented them in order to remain connected with our customers and prospects – it is equally important that we instill confidence that we can deliver on the solutions that we present. Recently, EnerSys entered into an agreement and acquired the NorthStar Battery Company. Through this acquisition, the available floor space at an existing NorthStar facility has accommodated our new high-speed, Thin Plate Pure Lead (TPPL) production line, preserving over $100 million of existing TPPL production capacity. This new production line provides the means to deliver the products and solutions we’ve virtually presented and promised.”