P E O PLE • PLA CES • PR OD UCTS • POTENTIAL
What’s the move?
Industry snippets and quick news about people and products on the move...
ZF brings Eco transmission to life
T
ransmission experts ZF
Friedrichshafen introduced the
media and ZF’s customers to its
fancy Eco Life transmission during the
company’s Eco Life Customer Day held at
Zwartkops Raceway in February.
When the bus is driving on plane track
sections, TopoDyn Life automatically
selects the most economical shift
characteristic. When the terrain becomes
steeper, the software seamlessly adapts the
selection of shift points to the appropriate
gradient.
Eco Life is a six-speed automatic
transmission designed for use in modern
city buses. ZF says that Eco Life reduces
operational costs thanks to an increase
in service life. The transmission also
boasts increased torque capacity of 2
000 Nm and incorporates an integrated
primary retarder said to improve braking
performance.
A bus filled with attendees, and fitted with
the Eco Life transmission, was later driven
around the circuit while ZF representatives
explained, with the help of real-time
➲ According to ZF, the transmission can reduce
graphics, what the transmission was doing
fuel consumption by as much as five per cent
to lower fuel consumption and create
and is ideal for new engines with improved
smoother shifts. It’s not every day that you
emissions standards
find yourself in the back of a bus on a race
Eco Life also uses ZF’s topography-dependent TopoDyn Life
track at full tilt...But what we could gather from the demonstration, is
shift control system to save fuel, especially on roads with varied
that gear changes go by almost unnoticed, which is testament to the
topography. Shift points are calculated in consideration of
transmission’s smoothness of operation.
topography, current load and acceleration values, and variable
drive resistance parameters, such as carriageway surface and bend
Check out the pictures from the launch event and watch a
angle.
demonstration video on www.abrbuzz.co.za
Plan to be flexible
A
s 2014 settles down, entrepreneurs around
the world are furiously setting up charts,
taking voice notes, and scribbling ideas on
the backs of napkins.
Staff: Getting your staff to line up behind your
strategy is the key to achieving the objectives of your
plan. When you communicate the plan to your staff,
make sure that your message is crystal clear and that
staff are able to understand the reasoning behind any
changes that they may need to make in the way that
they go about their work.
Once the plan has been drawn up, they will sit back
to admire their handiwork, thinking, “This is how
➲ Allon Raiz is the CEO
we’ll succeed this year!” Unfortunately for most of
of Raizcorp
these entrepreneurs, this time spent on planning will
Clients: While your clients will not need to know the
be essentially fruitless – their plans will be implemented haphazardly
ins and outs of the implementation of your plan, it is important to
and won’t lead to the intended results. Why is this so? Planning is
evaluate how your plan will impact on the way you interact with
undeniably crucial for business success: as the saying goes, if you
clients. Once this impact is clear, communicate with your clients
fail to plan, you plan to fail. However, there is an often-overlooked
to inform them how you are planning to improve your service to
intermediate step between the planning process and implementing
them and the benefits that your plan will bring to them.
the plan: communication. In order for your plans for the year to be
Yourself: At no point should you sit back and let yourself believe
implemented successfully according to your vision of growth, you will
that your strategy will be implemented as planned with no
need to communicate the plan and its implications to the following
stumbling blocks. Continually seek feedback on the plan and
five stakeholder categories:
monitor the progress of its implementation.
Partners and investors: Communication about your plan to your
Having too rigid a plan is almost as dangerous as having no plan
partners and investors should focus on the high-level strategic issues
at all. Two-way communication with the various stakeholders
lying ahead and address any big decisions that will need to be made.
described above is a powerful tool that will allow you to adapt
Managers: Your management team will doubtless be able to provide
and adjust your plan to the real-world factors that inevitably
you with strong insights into operational aspects of your business
impinge on your business strategy. Set your goals, lay out your
that will impact on the feasibility of your plan that you may have
plan, and let open communicati on bring you the advantages that
overlooked.
come with strategic flexibility.
| logistics in action
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april 2014