Sustainable products

1. Please introduce yourself!

As Product Manager for loader cranes, I accompany our products throughout the entire product life cycle. From the initial concept and the introduction to the discontinuation of the product. One of the main tasks is to assess the market and customer requirements early on and incorporate them in product developments or changes. And it goes without saying that new systems and concepts should fit into a modular series, with few exceptions. The fact that there are usually more ideas than commercially and technically feasible solutions generates a very “interesting tension field” with customers, dealers, sales and development. In which I have been operating for more than 25 years.

2. What is your daily work routine like?

Unfortunately, it leans more toward operational activities than product strategies. Thanks to the high complexity of modern loading cranes, being a product expert automatically makes you the contact person for many departments. Our team is also intensively involved in the development of the new product configurator. A tool that will become the most important component for managing both present and future complexity.

3. What does sustainability mean to you? How far has your area developed in this respect in the past few years?

When it comes to sustainability, most people immediately think of concepts such as bio-oil, chromium VI-free coatings, and water-soluble paints. That is good and correct, because here too we occupy a pioneering role. But for me, sustainability relates above all to the use and the entire life cycle of the crane and not just to the production process. Naturally customers are more convinced by economic and application-based arguments than by purely ecological ones. The art lies in linking the two together. That sounds harder than it really is. Topics such as longevity, low-maintenance Technology and safety are very important sustainability topics from which customers clearly profit.

A good example of how the two aspects of customer value and environmental protection can be successfully combined is our “Best Preis Beweis Eco” project, which deals specifically with these topics. The question is: how do the features available on the loading crane save the customer time and money, and how can that also be expressed in environmental indicators? As an example, let’s consider the light-weight construction for which the PALFINGER crane is esteemed. Less weight = more load capacity = fewer trips = less fuel consumption = lower costs = less CO2. A classic win-win situation for everyone involved, which can even be expressed in figures. Alternative drive concepts or hybrid solutions not only make this calculation truly interesting, but also broaden the range of application of the crane.

4. What is the outlook for the future? Where do we go from here?

Whereas a loading crane of the 90s of the last century (yes, I was there) was still defined by the terms “steel and oil”. Now we are developing intelligent holistic concepts with a high level of comfort and safety functions. AOS and P-Fold or the HPSC stability system are milestones in the development of modern loading crane engineering, which have made the PALFINGER crane both a technology leader and a sustainability champion. Now we are rapidly heading in the “networking and digitalization” direction. And that will bring about the next big step in terms of use optimization. The customer will have access to more and more data. This will lead to significantly better route and operational planning, flexibly plannable maintenance and optimization of his equipment fleet. All topics that contribute in equal measure to sustainability. Good for us, our customers and the environment.