Market trends and business perspectives
The Mercedes-Benz plant at Wörth has shipped its 750,000th truck assembly kit.
Called the CKD Centre, for “Completely Knocked Down”, the Wörth facility in Germany sent the 750,000th truck kit to South Africa.
The item was packed in a 40-foot sea container for its journey overseas. It will be shipped to Rotterdam before it embarks to Port Elizabeth, in South Africa, its destination country. [Read more…] about Mercedes-Benz plant ships 750,000th truck assembly kit
by Anna
Magna, BAIC Group and the Zhenjiang government celebrated the signing of a framework agreement governing their electric vehicle manufacturing joint venture in Zhenjiang, China, which marks another milestone of their continued cooperation.
The transaction, which is pending regulatory approval and other closing conditions, is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2019.
The joint venture, which is to be controlled by an affiliate of the BAIC Group, is Magna’s first investment in a complete vehicle manufacturing facility outside Europe.
[Read more…] about Magna signs first complete vehicle manufacturing joint venture in China
Total Lubrifiants has strengthened its presence in the industrial lubricants market with the acquisition of a number of business units from Houghton International.
Total has acquired the aluminum hot rolling oil, steel cold rolling oil and tinplate rolling oil activities in the North American and European Economic Area markets from Houghton.
The transaction includes the associated technical support services in both regions. [Read more…] about Total strengthens presence in industrial lubricants with new acquisitions
Verizon has debuted its fifth 5G-enabled device with the launch of the Inseego MiFi M1000.
When connected to Verizon’s 5G Ultra Wideband network, the device, exclusively available to Verizon customers, provides the large bandwidth and fast download speeds required for applications like 4K/8K video streaming, virtual reality and augmented reality (VR/AR), mobile workforce, industrial IoT and more.
Verizon also launched 5G Ultra Wideband mobility service in St Paul, Minnesota, joining Denver, Chicago, Minneapolis and Providence as the fifth of more than 30 Verizon 5G mobility cities Verizon plans to launch in 2019. [Read more…] about Verizon launches mobile 5G nationwide and ultra-wideband 5G in Minneapolis
by Anna
North American distributors of Universal Robots are now opening Authorized Training Centers (ATCs), offering classes spanning basic to advanced programming of UR cobots. The first four ATCs have been launched, with another nine to follow by end of 2019.
Universal Robots says it is committed to making collaborative robots (cobots) in the workplace accessible to all. The company is now building on the popular online modules offered through the UR Academy by enabling its sales channel to open ATCs.
Through hands-on classes hosted by UR trained teachers, the ATCs will broaden users’ understanding of the UR cobots’ range of use cases, while providing opportunities for hands-on practice in real-life applications.
[Read more…] about Universal Robots opens authorised training centres in North America
by Anna
The fully-electric Mercedes-Benz eActros will now take to the roads for the food logistics specialist Nagel-Group in Hamburg.
The vehicle will round off the Mercedes-Benz Trucks eActros “Innovation Fleet” for testing the heavy-duty electric truck.
The first eActros has been taking part in customer testing since September 2018 and the eActros in use by Nagel-Group is the tenth vehicle in the fleet.
[Read more…] about Nagel tests Mercedes-Benz eActros electric truck in Hamburg
Eclipse Automation, of Cambridge, Canada, is in the process of acquiring Transmoduls, located in Veszprém, Hungary.
Eclipse says Transmoduls is at the forefront of manufacturing turnkey, feature-rich automation solutions for the automotive, electronics, food and medical markets.
With facilities in Canada and the United States, Eclipse delivers proven custom automation solutions combining design, engineering, manufacturing, integration and aftercare for advanced production, lean manufacturing and modern distribution. [Read more…] about Eclipse Automation acquires Transmoduls to expand into Europe
by Anna
Retail click-and-collect company Cleveron’s lockers and parcel robots have been deployed by Decathlon in Hungary.
According to Decathlon Hungary’s Online Marketing Director Gergely Román, the total number of parcels ordered via their online store has grown by 40 per cent in one year.
Decathlon uses Cleveron 402 and two Cleveron 301’s to hand out online orders. Customers who have placed an online order come to the store, insert their order code at the parcel robot and retrieve their parcel.
by Anna
Thousands of injuries related to manually driven forklifts are reported to US health and safety authority OSHA each year, and a fatal accident involving a manual forklift occurred approximately once per week in the US in 2018.
Many companies are adopting Seegrid vision-guided vehicles (VGVs) as a safe, efficient form of transport in their facilities.
There is no comparison between human industrial vehicle drivers and their Seegrid autonomous driving counterparts – the company claims that injury and fatality statistics prove that its technology is safer.
[Read more…] about Autonomous forklifts ‘raise the bar on safety’, says Seegrid
by Liv
From forecasts to spam filters, artificial intelligence has long been used to help companies across industries. Within recent years, it’s begun to play a key role in a major business area: customer service.
Though it’s widely seen as a human-led sector, this form of tech could simplify a number of B2C tasks, likely boosting overall client experience as a result. In turn, this may very well improve brand reputation as well as profit turnover.
Let’s explore the main ways in which AI stands to enhance customer service within a business. [Read more…] about How AI Could Boost Business Customer Service
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