Category Archives: Manufacturing in South East Asia

Chinese Business Etiquette, Manufacturing in China, Manufacturing in South East Asia

Customer Service in a Globalized World

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In the modern economy, almost every business has to operate on a global level. Whether you are buying or selling materials, finished products, or services, you need to be aware of the issues present in a global market.

Don’t Get Lost in Translation

For industries and businesses where dealing with people from other countries is the norm, it’s important to have multilingual support. This demonstrates that you are committed to international business, and can create happier customers through superior customer service. Having multilingual employees, or encouraging the learning of other languages, can pay off at home and abroad.

Measure Up

Not every country follows the same rules for units of measurements, and many countries follow different sizing schemes. Sometimes it can be as simple as converting metric to imperial units. Some systems can be a bit more difficult to deal with – for instance, clothing and shoe sizing differs from one country to the next, and there is often no rhyme or reason as to converting from one system to another. If your products will be exported or used by customers who are familiar with a different system, make sure there’s an easy to follow conversion chart.

Helping Your Workers and Customers

Stay up to date on global news matters – Demonstrating that you are keeping an eye out for things that may affect travel or business conduct and alerting your customers and employees immediately allows for alternate plans to be made. Also stay abreast of compliance changes and regulations. Many countries have strict policies regarding business practices, human resources, and import and export regulations. Make sure you know about changes that may impact your customers.

A poor experience can deter a customer from doing further business with you, or from operating in different countries at all. Knowing all of this can improve experiences, and lead to smoother business interactions across borders. Here at Liftomatic Material Handling, we are committed to providing the best experience possible for our drum handling customers, whether you are a business based on the other side of town, or on the other side of the world.

Manufacturing in South East Asia

Paving the Roadways of Southeast Asia – One Liftomatic Drum-Handler at a Time

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South East Asia Manufacturing

Is Vietnam one of the next big manufacturing centers?

A lot of international analysts and investment firms are already citing outlying Southeast Asian nations such as Vietnam and Indonesia as the next big manufacturing bonanza. For example, FoxConn, chief manufacturer of electronic components for all things Apple Inc., has recently sunk $10B in capital to develop new factories throughout the IndonesianIslands. The labor costs in Hanoi, Penang, Java, Sumatra, and Borneo are cheaper than other places like China, Taiwan, or South Korea, and big business is taking due notice. Sounds like a perfect opportunity, right? Well, in one sense yes, theoretically, if the matching infrastructure was in place.

These areas typically suffers from a dearth of roadways that are good enough for year-round, heavy-duty truck transport – an essential part of any successful global manufacturing hub. But that’s quickly changing. Recently, we at Liftomatic renewed a relationship with a multi-national oil company that had been contracted to help further build highway infrastructure. The road material used to build these highways is super-heated bitumen.  Having successfully completed a project several years ago in the Philippines, Liftomatic was tasked with revisiting the company’s proprietary technology for handling steel disposable bitumen drums.

Bitumen drums have the thickness of a soda can so they can be literally “cut open” at the job site for re-melting and application of the bitumen. Normally this wouldn’t be (much of) a problem, but the heat of the bitumen causes problems for certain components on the Liftomatic attachments and the drum thickness requires exacting clamping characteristics for the equipment to ensure safety and efficiency standards that Liftomatic is known for.

New markets require new thought processes.  Working with our international colleagues and staff, we are confident that the results will be an ever-improving successful and durable drum handling technology that does the job nice and cleanly, allowing roadways to get built without a corresponding devastation of the natural environment surrounding the roadway. Much of Southeast Asia seems primed for industrial development, in no small part thanks to the work of Liftomatic. We pride ourselves on the jobs we’ve helped generate on behalf of multinational companies operating abroad.