As we introduce our Bastian Solutions to interested parties, we start out with some of the products we typically provide to customers as part of our solution package. These include conveyor, robots, rack, controls, and installation among others.

As we did deeper into our company introduction, we also tell people we are an independent integrator of hybrid material handling solutions, which typically warrants additional explanation.

So what does being an independent material handling integrator mean? Let me explain.

1. We can recommend the best fit. This basically means we are not obligated to recommend a specific product for our customers' solutions. We have the ability to look at a unique project and recommend the right products for each situation independently. We are able to propose the best products for your system based on price, quality, availability, specifications, and fit.

2. We are like the large car dealers. Most large cities across the U.S. have one or two dominant auto dealers that have a huge auto complex with a dealership for most of the top manufacturers: Chevy, Ford, Toyota, BMW, VW, Nissan, etc. You can go there and deal with one company to meet your needs; but unlike some of these dealers, Bastian’s applications experts can provide any brand to meet your needs. We do not need to push one brand over the other since we have them all. We also have a specials shop to provide custom solutions.

3. We help your decision based on our experience. We can help you decide what fits your needs based on delivery timing, price, quality, and how it is being used. If one of our suppliers has not been hitting their ship dates, we can steer our customers to suppliers with more reliable ship dates. We can also shop among different suppliers to get our end users the best value. If suppliers have not been easy to work with in the past, we can guide the project to avoid these issues as well.

4. We can be the go between when issues occur. Since most systems are not manufactured in the city where they are installed, as the system integrator, we can handle any on site issues that might pop up. We know who is the right contact at the factory to get issues resolved quickly, or we can fix it ourselves in the field.

So what does this all mean? For our customers, we will always recommend the best products to meet your specific requirements, and we will use our experience to recommend the best fit for you. For our suppliers, we will recommend your products based on ease of doing business, quality, value, timely delivery, and overall fit for our customers’ projects.

Author: Brent Davis