In this episode, I was joined by Fernando Goncalves of The Raymond Corporation. Fernando is the Director of Research and Development Services at Raymond and is at the forefront of innovations for the company. Raymond has been on the show multiple times showcasing their many innovations in the material handling world. For this episode, Fernando and I dig into how innovations are happening within Raymond and what innovations are to come.

Key Takeaways

• Fernando’s role at Raymond is to head up their research and development arm which is critical to keep the material handling industry moving forward. His group is looking for next-generation technology that will help to support the next wave of material handling needs and create better flow. With Raymond and their optimize, connect and automate motto they are really going through a thoughtful process of how and what to innovate. Fernando emphasizes that when they innovate they rely on the voice of the customer to really tell them what the need in the market is.
• Of course, I had to ask him what type of technology is exciting to him right now and he is excited to be working with sensors that are still early on in development. These types of sensors are going to have the ability to really change the way the material handling equipment will navigate and react. In addition to this being what excites him right now, he also said that his favorite innovation in his time at Raymond has been the virtual reality training platform. What was exciting to him about the virtual reality training was that it was so out of the box for the industry which I agree with. I remember seeing it and thinking how incredible it was but it is really an interesting story to hear from Fernando about how it came about.
• When it comes to what is next in innovations from Raymond, Fernando cannot totally say but he does give the sense that it will be around operator assistance. The operator assistance technology is growing throughout the industry and it is a great innovation to make all of our operations and employees safer. Not only will this help new operators when they are training to feel more comfortable and prevent them from making mistakes but it will also help veteran operators from becoming complacent. It is not only a preventative measure but also a reminder for operators from a training perspective. This type of technology is incredibly exciting to me.
• Raymond is also hiring and to join the team tells them you heard Fernando on the podcast! Check out their available jobs here.

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