Kannegiesser: Focus on ‘Integrated Solutions’
Kannegiesser President and CEO Martin Kannegiesser and his daughter Tina take a timeout during a busy day in the company's booth at the Clean Show.
Martin Kannegiesser arrived at this year’s Clean Show in Las Vegas with a new outlook for his company, having acquired overhead rail systems provider E-Tech Inc., based in Minneapolis only a few weeks earlier in April.
In an impromptu interview in the company’s booth, Martin Kannegiesser president and CEO of the company, predicted that the acquisition would help the manufacturer, especially in the U.S. market. “We like the team, they are very complimentary to each other,” Kannegiesser said of the Kannegiesser USA division previously led by Phil Hart and Joe Schult, who previously led E-Tech. Both are staying with the newly formed company, KannegiesserETECH. The process of integration into one company is moving forward, Kannegiesser said. “I think that there will be no problems. The reactions we’ve been getting from customers is very good.”
Kannegiesser’s optimism stems from the view that the merger makes it easier for his company to provide commercial laundries today with a full complement of machinery in soil to packout, including rail systems from ETECH, a well-known provider in the U.S. market. “Today, our customers want a complete solution,” he said.
We later our toured the booth with Tony Schult and Ben Jones of KannegiesserETECH and saw some examples of what “Mr. K” as he’s known in industry circles, was talking about.
eVue Anywhere: This software program tracks the movement of goods via overhead rail systems. It includes access to monorail controls, metrics and labor productivity. Management or maintenance staff can log into the system and access the information via smartphone, tablet or pc, “anywhere in the world.”
eVue PM: This software system is for preventive maintenance of KannegiesserETECH equipment. The system automatically keeps track of the equipment, such as lifts on a rail system. Then operators can program it to issue e-mail or text alerts to staff, notifying them that preventive maintenance checks or replacement of parts is needed. “We know the cycle for the rail system,” Schult said. “We can lock in the pm at 400 lifts.” The system is keyed to track goods once an operator scans a QR code placed on each piece of equipment. This saves operators having to do the laborious work of entering parts and pieces of equipment into an online log. The system stocks 13,000 spare parts as well.
Regional Sales Manager Ben Jones also gave a quick review of recent innovations at Kannegiesser, including:
The Speedline folder: The new model folder includes ergonomic and logistic improvements designed to improve feeding and stacking of dry work folded articles, thus increasing staff productivity by as much as 30% over earlier models.
The Vectura Stack Management System: Part of a comprehensive stacking system by both article and customers, this highly automated system collects the stacks from the finishing machines and moves them to a central point in the dispatch area. A synchronized flow of material and information is required for this system, which leads to improved productivity and high process stability in the dispatch area.