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Using the combined strength of Crane Manufacturers Association of America Inc., the Hoist Manufacturers Institute and the Monorail Manufacturers Association, the Overhead Alliance helps promote three organizations at once.
A hoist can help safely lift heavy items like this steel beam.
Just as cranes, monorails and hoists complement the work in a manufacturing or warehouse setting, the Crane Manufacturers Association of America Inc., the Hoist Manufacturers Institute, and the Monorail Manufacturers Association find that lifting and moving in the same direction makes sense.
Together, the three have realigned the Overhead Alliance, combining their marketing arms into one collaborative team under the Overhead Alliance banner. While the Overhead Alliance is not new, the new collaboration will fold each of the three organizations’ marketing efforts under the Alliance, which will represent the three associations on individual programs, such as the release of new specs and on other collaborative efforts.
A crane and hoist make a natural pairing in the warehouse, so bringing the two together in the Overhead Alliance made sense.
“We can help promote all three groups from the standpoint of their individual goals, but we can also promote all of overhead lifting as a group,” said Laura Antenucci, marketing manager, U.S. & Canada, with MHI member Demag Cranes and Components and co-leader of the alliance.
Dustin Krauth, national sales manager with MHI member TC/American Crane Company, co-leads the group, which includes the vice presidents of each of the three associations and other members.
Each of the organizations has its own unique history and mission. CMAA traces its roots back to 1927, founded as the Electric Overhead Crane Institute. MMA was founded in 1933 and its members produce most of the patented and enclosed track underhung cranes and monorail systems. HMI members produce a variety of hoisting equipment. CMAA particularly works on specifications and MMA actively works on standards committees and supports the development and certification of safety standards by the ANSI consensus methods. All three organizations work to ensure safe operation of their products.
Working collaboratively benefits all organizations, Antenucci said. “Someone may know about one of these groups but may not know that the other two exist. We hope to create awareness on what all three groups are doing and how they are helping everybody move forward in overhead lifting.”
“We want them to be able to make a confident decision about their purchases and to know that there is a focus on workplace safety. Those issues are important to them.”
The biggest effort will be on promoting the places where hoists, cranes and monorails intersect and expanding the knowledge about the products, their benefits and safe operations. “When marketing was taken individually, they focused on one road. But a crane always needs a hoist,” Antenucci said.
Krauth sees opportunities to educate other MHI members, “who may not be taking advantage” of the expertise within these groups. He’d like to see more use of resources developed, so currently, a lot of emphasis is being placed on developing content for the website, overheadlifting.org. The first step has been building content for a blog and publishing a newsletter, as well as providing informational videos.
“That’s our KPI moving forward, monitoring traffic to our resources and keeping an eye on resource levels to the industry,” he said.
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