AMERICAS | REGION REPORT


S David Round’s low headroom hoist and tractor drive are both in stainless steel


clients at this time. This can be attributed to the shutdowns of many of the steel mills around the world and the lack of employees able to work. Many of our suppliers are offering substantial hiring bonuses to entice individuals to come and work for them, but are still coming up short in the personnel department.” The pandemic actually created a


potential market for Sky Hook products – and Sky Hook was itself an example of how those products allow manufacturing to continue. “Sky Hook was minimally impacted by the pandemic when it came to social distancing as our products actually allow individuals to work independently,” says White. “We had Sky Hooks already in place in our welding, machining, and painting/powder coating operations and our employees simply continued to use them ‘business as usual’ during the pandemic.” And for him, a change of administration in Washington is something he has seen many times before; each one leaves, he says, the essential heart of the lifting business unchanged: “Through our over 50 years of business, we have seen multiple presidential administrations lay out plans to decrease taxes, increase infrastructure, support small business and drive the economy. Some have been successful, others haven’t so much, but one thing has, is, and will always remain the same: heavy things need lifting! Our business has never been driven by politics, but by end users looking for an easier and safer way to accomplish lifting tasks throughout their facility. “I wouldn’t say that demand has particularly increased or decreased


40 | August 2021 | www.hoistmagazine.com


in terms of type or capacity of lifting equipment; it has really just maintained itself across the board. Our most popular lifting solution is our Sky Hook lifting device on a mobile cart base with an articulating arm. It offers an overall reach of 36” (1m) and a load capacity of 250 lbs (45kg), which provide adequate lifting capacity to meet the most of our customer’s needs. The Sky Hook is a niche product geared towards lifting injury prevention. We find that most injuries occur under this 250 lb mark as these are where the awkward manual lifts or multiple user lifts take place. Typically, over these, individuals are looking for a lifting solution to perform the task.” And his customers tend to occupy the ground, of capacity and flexibility, between where manual lifting remains an option but a man-powered lifting device still gives advantages: “Our customers actually prefer the aided manual approach to lifting that our Sky Hook offers. This way, the user can move as quickly as they’d like, or as slow and as calculated as they would like. It’s the best of both worlds. The manual approach offers them confidence in operation, and eliminates the worry of holding down a button for too long and accidentally jarring sensitive and expensive components.” Bret Lussow is director of business


development of Handling Systems International (HSI) based in Chicago. He has a similar story to tell. “Business is strong and demand is high,” he says. “Projects that were on hold from last year have materialized and are now in need. The issue now is that most suppliers are busy, which is leading to


longer than normal lead-times, which have been hampered by port delays as well, especially on the US West Coast for imports from Asia. And high fuel costs and huge increases in steel prices mean consumers are looking to reduce costs.” Manufacturing, he says, was not


really a problem during lockdown. “Most US manufacturers were considered ‘essential”’ and never really shut down. They just got creative with staffing. For most manufacturers, office and support staff are also back to working at the office again.” But prices are a big, big issue, and so is labour: “Since the election we have seen unprecedented increases in raw materials,” he says. “Steel prices have nearly doubled and just about all other commodities have increased as well. Fortunately demand for products is high, but most manufacturers have had to raise prices fairly significantly to combat these material increases. We have big issues with getting workers to fill the jobs. The current administration still has Covid assistance in place for displaced workers. The problem as I and many see it is this assistance is keeping qualified workers from applying for good paying jobs. “All our products are in demand right


now. That is especially so for our NikoRail enclosed track cranes. Demand is high also for our NikoRail workstation crane.” Here HSI has tackled its own customer lead times with determination and success. “We launched this product two years ago but are really starting to see the impact in sales with our improved manufacturing techniques reducing lead-time and our state-of-the-art quote tool , the “Quotinator”, which means the


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