Here at EP Equipment innovation is at the heart of every move we make. From product development to after sales services, taking risks and making innovative decisions is what sets us apart from our competition and makes us the market leader in lithium-ion technology. With the aim to design the right truck for every application, when we find a partner offering a product to further increase the usability of our trucks, we set out to build a relationship to change the game again. This is where EP and RAVAS become partners in innovation.
RAVAS was founded in the Netherlands and operates globally as the market leader of integrated weighing and measuring technology in hand pallet trucks, electric warehouse trucks, stackers, and forklift trucks. For logistics operations, distribution centers and warehouses in all industries to optimize their supply chains.
VP Sales and Marketing Bennit Schmieder told our team “Having known RAVAS for many years, their knowledge on mobile weighing system is unreached by any other company. We are very happy to have been partners with RAVAS for several years now and to have develop trucks, designed for the specific requirements of their weighing systems. The partnership has since evolved, and we are excited about their growth strategy as we continue to work and grow together”
Allan Veenstra, International Sales Manager from RAVAS, gave EP’s Katie Oakley some of his time to discuss RAVAS, the partnership with EP, the benefits mobile weighing brings to the material handling industry and their current and future innovations.
The Evolution of RAVAS
RAVAS was started in 1965 by Raphael van Seumeren in the Netherlands and during its early development the business mainly focused on truck parts and accessories such as special seating, built in loaders and cranes. As this developed, they found contacts for onboard weighing on lorries which was the start of the company’s work in the mobile weighing industry. This led to the creation of mobile scales for cranes that then developed into similar systems for lift trucks. Over time RAVAS realised that the largest and most beneficial market could be found in pallet truck scale development, and this led to RAVAS creating the first ever weighing pallet truck in 1986. All though it has developed hugely over the years, to this day it remains our most successful product and we use our expertise to create systems for all material handling equipment. Now RAVAS sells on a global scale with an additional US based factory and offices across Europe and our partners can import our products and take care of end users across the world.
Why does the industry need mobile weighing?
Most companies have become used to static weighing, the process of picking up goods and taking them to a specific location in the
warehouse for weighing and to record the weight. RAVAS has changed this process completely. There is now no need for a large weighing table to take up valuable space in a warehouse. There is also now no need to waste time running backwards and forward to a designated area to weigh goods. Industries from retail to shipping and logistics can benefit from mobile weighing and in many ways, RAVAS invented mobile weighing for the material handling industry. With this innovation, endless advantages and new developments have been had. Of course, you have to stay still for a few seconds to receive the data but there is now no need to transport goods to a different location.
What are the benefits of mobile weighing?
In addition to time saving throughout the whole process, mobile weighing can have huge safety benefits. At RAVAS we can offer weighing systems for all types of machines with different and unique safety systems to accommodate varied trucks. An example of this is in our forklift weighing systems fitted directly to the forks of the truck. It is dangerous in any industry to overload a forklift as it can cause tipping, but it can be an easy mistake if you do not know the weight of the goods you are lifting. RAVAS safety systems prevent this by buzzing to alert the
operator when he is about to lift goods too heavy for his truck.
With our electric pallet truck systems on the EP product the operators get additional safety and time saving benefits from the EP truck itself. With a lithium-ion battery the businesses are benefiting from faster and opportunity charging, no maintenance, light weight operation and higher efficiency batteries than lead acid.
How did the partnership of EP and RAVAS begin?
EP and RAVAS first came together at CEMAT in 2018 where we both had booths. The RAVAS team were looking for a strong partner with a well-designed product and quality aftersales to supply our electric pallet trucks at the time and this is how the partnership began. EP also has many strong industry relationships and connections that work well to support the expansion of RAVAS as we plan a growth strategy together.
Why does our partnership work so well?
Right now, at RAVAS, we work with the EPL153(1) and our team and end users love the truck. When it is in combination with the technology from RAVAS it is clear that together we have crafted an even stronger and more unique material handling solution for operators around the world.
RAVAS and EP have similar goals and our growth strategies are aligned to accommodate increased production volumes, sales, and further innovative product developments. At RAVAS we have a very clear vision for the next 5 years and we see this same passion and drive reflected in EP Equipment. Working with dynamic partners is key for future success and the partner we know we can trust is EP.
Why is RAVAS’ position so strong in the market?
When you are the first to develop a product you start ahead of the rest and this means we have had time to perfect our systems and introduce more and more different features and measures to enable different units of weight to be recorded.
At RAVAS we offer mobile weighing for any machine with our i-Forks and newly developed carriage plate systems that can deliver the weight of goods via Bluetooth. They also have the option to connect directly to your ERP system to record and store data via WIFI.
RAVAS turns data into currency because the more data a business has the more insight they have to the flow of their processes and the more efficiently they can work and the more money they can make and save.
However, at RAVAS, we know if we want to stay leading the market we must continue to develop and innovate at the rate we have been so far. We are continuing to grow our company and team to accommodate for our growth and support our customers and where RAVAS really stand above the rest is with our aftersales service. This allows us to work with a range of businesses and dealers and support them with our technology.
This is like the system in place at EP where after sales service is a huge priority. Just like EP Care used by our team here to service the EP truck itself, RAVAS offers our own app “My RAVAS” to improve the operator experience and allow them to take stock counts, live weights and save and share data across the company.
Can you tell me about RAVAS Dual Scale?
We have now developed Dual Scale that works with our system “Pick by Weight”. This system works with each fork having an individual scale that communicates with the pick by weight system. This system is where you can record the weight of the products you are moving in your warehouse individually so that when the operator is picking a specific number of the product the RAVAS system will alert them if they have picked the correct amount with a green light, or the incorrect amount with a warning light. With this feature in addition to a dual scale the operator can complete 2 orders simultaneously with increased time saving and reduced risk of error.
What is the next innovation for RAVAS?
As I previously said RAVAS has eliminated the need to waste time taking goods to a separate location for weighing. Instead, we save the customer and the operator time by allowing this process to be complete in a matter of seconds at their exact location.
But, like EP, as a company that is always innovating, RAVAS is now developing a ‘weigh in motion’ system with one of our partners.
This pilot allows operators using a RAVAS truck, with a specially stabilised weighing system, to simply pass through a location in the facility and receive all the relevant data without any lost time through stopping. This location is equipped with cameras that help to calculate the dimensions of the goods and record it directly to the companies ERP system.
An example of this is already up and running in a DSV facility. As more and more companies need to know information about their goods RAVAS can provide time saving solutions to help them retrieve this data.