Manlift Group is a Dubai-headquartered sales and rental company, which since 2006, has steadily grown into the leading supplier of aerial work platforms (AWP) — operating from five depots across the Middle East and Asia representing major manufacturers from the US and Europe including JLG, Genie and Teupen.
Deploying the youngest regional fleet of more than 2,200 ISO-certified aerial work platforms — from self-propelled boom lifts with working heights up to 58m, battery and bi-energy powered access platforms, to spiders and low level access platforms — the reach of the Manlift Group extends across a range of industries, capturing business in the construction, facilities management, logistics, oil and gas, public transport and events sectors within the scope of its rental operations.
Currently, the Manlift Group is active on a number of fronts, and nowhere is this more evident than in its approach towards working safety and professionalism. The company has certified training centres in the UAE, Qatar and India, accredited by IPAF (International Powered Access Federation), and the first bilingual instructor (English and Hindi) in Qatar. Manlift has sponsored the IPAF Middle East Convention, which seeks to cultivate safe work at height, for the last two years, and Manlift’s regional safety, training and compliance manager chairs IPAF in the region.
Manlift also works closely with Dubai’s Ministry of Labour and occupational health and safety team to promote and educate their team on the safe use of AWPs within the UAE.
Manlift way
In the pursuit of delivering the best customer experience, Manlift has also introduced lean management aimed at maximising customer value while minimising waste.
One way in which Manlift has achieved this has been with the introduction of Kaizen principles into the business in four successive waves of implementation aimed at mapping out and improving its processes across all of its country-level operations and depots from 2014 through to 2016. The impact of these efforts has been transformational — culturally, operationally and commercially — to Manlift’s global operations.
David King, group director for the Middle East, Asia & Africa, notes: “Because of the Manlift Way we are an even stronger rental partner for our customers.” Kaizen principles have helped the rental company improve upon its levels of machine availability and safety, on-time machine delivery and pick up, high machine uptime and invoice accuracy, and King adds: “As part of this ‘Manlift Way’ we constantly monitor and improve key performance indicators across all of our depots in order to continuously improve the quality of service we deliver to our customer.”
In total, more than 70 Kaizen events have been held with the team members — focused on reducing waste and improving efficiency — driving the UAE into the position of being Manlift’s best performing country in 2015.
Keeping track
Manlift is also leading the implementation of GPS-based track and trace systems, deployed in conjunction with RFID systems, to prevent unauthorised access to its rental machines. King, notes: “We provide not only familiarisation to the authorised person on how to use our equipment safely, but also a dedicated access card for their exclusive use. As a result, our customers can control and monitor who can use our equipment on hire with them, and today, more than 67% of our fleet have track-and trace systems integrated. Six months ago, Manlift also rolled out an RFID card system on a major governmental project, where the contractor was trying to stop unauthorised access from happening. Manlift implemented its RFID system across 80 machines from all different ranges, within a week, and according to King, the customer was “extremely satisfied and surprised” by the technology available.
Always performance
Among its other market leading initiatives, Manlift recently brought in four of the world’s largest access platforms — JLG’s 58m–reach 1850SJP Ultra Series telescopic boom lifts — for work on projects including the Viceroy Palm Jumeirah and the Midfield Terminal Building at Abu Dhabi Airport.
Always listening to the customer requirements and ultimately offering a real working-at-height solution, Manlift can convert 26m and 28m diesel booms into electric booms for use in the quick and safe inspection and maintenance of aircraft without the noise and pollution of a diesel engine. Understanding the financial impact of delays, Manlift has also developed a battery change system to allow electric lifts to be operated 24/7.
In Qatar, where Manlift has been established since 2009 and today has a fleet of over 400 AWPs, there is a strong and committed plan to grow the fleet in preparation for the 2022 FIFA World Cup and associated projects. It is already working on these projects, but that is just the tip of the iceberg.
Key to the success of Manlift is its young fleet and purchase of only brand new AWPs, complete with the latest safety technology from the manufacturers, and this reflects the safety ethos throughout the company.
King says: “Our ability to deploy brand new AWPs quickly into the market, has seen us establish the youngest fleet in Qatar, and this will not change in the coming years, to further strengthen our position in the market”.
In India, a growth market, Manlift is a market leader and been commended by the institute of Economic Studies (IES), a non-profit, research-oriented organisation that works to promote industry awareness.
Manlift business, safety and efficiencies are going only one way, and that is up.
