John Walker

World class culture drives TVH’s world class operation

In the late-fifties I accepted my first position in the material handling industry. I became East Coast Regional Manager for a company called: LIFT PARTS MANUFACTURING COMPANY. Six months later I became Vice President of Sales with worldwide responsibility for dealer development. I left LPM in the mid-sixties with parts sales of $32 million coming from primarily the US dealers and the government. It was not meant for me to experience LPM’s and the industry’s worldwide growth. A company called TVH became a dealer for LPM in 1979.  Their commitment to become a leader as a supplier of quality replacement parts and accessories for the material handling and industrial equipment industry literally drove their market for replacement parts worldwide.

In 1969, Paul Thermote and Paul Vanhalst began servicing and selling agricultural machinery, construction machinery and forklift trucks. Today TVH is one of, if not the most, respected names in the material handling industry, worldwide. The company is composed of three segments: 1) they are a lift truck and industrial equipment dealer for several major manufacturers for the country of Belgium, 2) top five rental dealer for the country of Belgium, and 3) TVH is committed to being the leading worldwide supplier and distributor of quality replacement parts and accessories for the material handling and industrial equipment industries.

In their commitment to the industry, TVH began their search for interested parties in the replacement parts business to acquire and bring into the TVH family of companies in North America. They approached their own major supplier, LPM, early in their search. When this interest failed to materialize, they went to another large parts replacement company in the material handling industry, Systems Material Handling (SMH). This eventually proved a match and the merger was finalized in 2003. Shortly thereafter the combined companies, TVH and SMH were able to bring the combined companies of LPM and Intrupa to the table and the package was put together under the TVH flag in 2006. Today, TVH is recognized as one of the most respected names in the material handling industry. In a relative short period of 40 years the company has grown from two founders to now almost 4,000 employees, with sales exceeding a billion dollars and with offices or distribution facilities on every continent.

The trip to TVH from the Brussels Airport to Waregem, Belgium takes approximately one hour. As you come upon it the driver cries out: “On your left is the beginning of the TVH Operation!” I was not prepared for what I saw. As far as my eyes could see there were huge warehouse buildings with the letters TVH on the corner of each building.  I was soon to learn that “under roof” there was over 1,000,000 square feet of warehouse and office space. The space at TVH, Olathe, KS by comparison is _600,000 square feet, and globally the distribution space is over 2,000,000 square feet.

Els Thermote, CEO for the Americas, and her team created the company’s Mission Statement. It reads: “We are committed to be the worldwide leading supplier of quality replacement parts and accessories for the material handling and industrial industry. We are committed to have highly enthusiastic customer relationships, provide a true one-stop-shopping experience, and always strive for operational excellence through never-ending measured improvements and innovative business practices. We are committed to foster a challenging and rewarding environment for our employees and associates which encourages teamwork, growth & development, as well as creativity and initiative.”

So is this just another mission statement filled with trendy words and promises, like so many I have read over the years? Certainly not! In my opinion and I have read hundreds of mission statements or statements of purpose. At TVH this mission statement is a living document, a culture, a way of life for almost 4,000 associates and team members!  As a summary: “The passion, the people, the  parts!”

During my five days at TVH I had the opportunity to meet many of their managers and associates from all over the world. It was the week before the CeMAT Fair in Hannover, Germany and the bulk of overseas managers were on-site in preparation to participating in the Fair. As a side note TVH had a very impressive booth at this Fair with 104 of their people on-site to talk with customers and prospective customers.

This coupled with my department and plant tours gave me the opportunity to truly appreciate how everything written in the mission statement is bearing fruit. I experienced what I will refer to as the associates’ attitude which is reflected in the team work of personnel from the shop floor, to the sales, ordering and shipping departments; whether or not the person talking was from Brisbane, Australia, Olathe, Kansas or Mississauga, Canada. The enthusiastic feeling was just below the surface with everyone I talked with, the enthusiasm of working for TVH.

Over the years I have worked with suppliers of replacement parts as an employee and then as a consultant to many within the industry. I have heard phrases such as will-fitters, might-fitters, and even counter-fitters. At TVH nothing could be further from the truth. TVH has in stock, ready for shipment more than 600,000 parts with a database containing over 21 million parts numbers. The computer-controlled stock management is handled by professionally trained people. TVH’s information service department consists of more than 66 professional technicians with many years of experience in all makes of U.S., Asian and European brands.

TVH’s quality control department creates cost-effective products to specific customer needs and tracks the quality performance of their vendors. TVH uses an extensive system to rate existing suppliers and to source new products from new suppliers. TVH demands and receives a quality product equal to that of the OEM in use, life cycle and dimensions with an excellent warranty on all parts. These are all working departments filled with professionals who care about the quality of TVH parts.

TVH’s demand for proven quality, strong technical support and knowledge, backed by computer-controlled stock management is focused to provide the ultimate customer “one stop-shopping which provides the right part, at the right time, and at the right price . . . guaranteed!”

TVH also can provide customer assistance in 32 languages. The sales teams are made up of “native speakers” from 33 nationalities who give assistance in the customer’s language. The call center handles over 3,000+ calls a day. Here also the sales teams’ enthusiasm and dedication is totally customer-orientated, no problem goes unanswered, no problem remains unsolved and they respond in a timely manner to any customer’s concerns that might arise. TVH uses a state-of-the art telephone system which is CRM linked. To top all of this, TVH works with overnight delivery providers and sends over 14,000 packages per day, throughout the world.

TVH works with customer focused structure in the sales department. This means that they link to each customer with one or two fixed contact representatives. In this way, a customer has a better relationship with the sales person and makes it easier for follow up for different service situations.

My personal observation: TVH has chosen to focus upon a highly competitive, established market, the replacement parts business. They have chosen to do this by offering the customer those tools mentioned above, tools that are state of the art in the world of equipment sales. TVH understands that should they not be able to perform up to their customer’s standards, all the parts in the world on their shelves won’t cut it.

TVH has learned over the years that people (their associates) are the keys to their overall success. I have learned over the years as a consultant to industries how to question people and how to probe into their feelings. As I began probing and questioning I discovered what I first felt upon stepping into the TVH facilities. Everyone from the top to the bottom of the organizational chart really, really enjoys working at TVH. I asked an employee who was guiding me through the order receiving department who he worked for before coming to TVH. He indicated a large construction equipment manufacturer. When I probed further and asked how he liked the change he replied that everything he was told at hiring, the company had lived up to, that he enjoys the company and the work. This was an attitude I experienced with every employee I talked with.

I attended a barbecue with a group of 100+ associates from all over the world. The early evening camaraderie between everyone was very evident. Prior to arrival at the site, each employee was assigned to a team. Scattered throughout the area were six team test stations. I am frank to say that my age made me back off three of the team-tests. At the close of these tests I noticed someone pouring out charcoal over the gravel. It was when the coals were ignited that I noticed a plastic container filled with water at one end of the coals; while at the other end were two plastic containers, one filled with sand and yet another with water. I asked myself: Is someone going to walk the hot coals, a macho show for the group or were the associates going to walk the hot coals. I got my answer as I watched the associates rolling up their pants and slacks above the knees. I watched as 90%+ of the associates gleefully walked the hot coals. For those of you who may think I am concocting a tale, if you know Pat McLaughlin, President of TVH, North America, ask him whether or not he walked the hot coals, then watch the grin on his face that will tell you the story is true. This is certainly not a required test for employment at TVH, but it might well mean that the associates are dedicated to walk over hot coals to satisfy their customers!

For more than 50+ years I have worked with manufacturers, equipment dealers and associations. I learned long ago how to mentally measure manufacturers and dealers and to recognize those world-class dealers and manufactures. Market share never came into the equation. Market share is earned by a dealer or a manufacturer through customer satisfaction which builds customer retention and customer loyalty. Customers will come back time and time again to buy from a supplier that has people who care about the customer. A caring culture focused upon helping the customer will make the provider more profitable than anyone can imagine. It didn’t take me five days to discover that the caring associates at TVH are driving a world class operation and that this effort will continue to grow the company’s parts and accessory market share. “TVH has the passion, the people and the parts!”

John R. Walker is president of Aftermarket Services Consulting Co. Inc. E-mail [email protected] to contact John.

 

Author: John Walker

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