A recent academic study in the UK found that consumers do not like too much choice. Shoppers in a supermarket confronted by too many brands of the same product will choose not to by the product at all. Offered no choice but a single brand and they happily made their purchase. Could the same thing happen in the crane industry? Unlikely, perhaps, but some of our leading manufacturers seem to be trying their very best to test the theory.

In the 50t to 60t class of all terrains alone, customer have at least 15 different European models from which to choose, plus a city class crane and Liebherr’s LTC compact crane.

Liebherr is the world market leader in all terrains. It offers 14 models of telescopic boom all terrain cranes, plus two lattice boom models and the LTC model. It has seven different ATs in the 35t to 100t capacity classes, which is surely three more than the market really needs. Purchasers may be able to decide between a two-axle 35 tonner, three-axle 45 and 55 tonners and a four-axle 60 tonners. But most will begin to struggle when faced with a four-axle 90 tonner, a four-axle 100 tonner and a five-axle 100 tonner, especially if they find out that only a couple of months ago the four-axle 100 tonner was actually rated at 90t and today’s 90 tonner as rated at 80t. When Liebherr found out that its new four-axle 80-tonner could actually lift 90t quite happily , it upgraded it to the 90t class and the one-year-old LTM 1090/3 model was bumped up to the 100t class.

Just to add to the confusion, Liebherr is now mixing slashes and dashes in its nomenclature by renaming the LTM 1090/3 as the LTM 1100-4. A slash signifies generation; a dash signifies the number of axles, in the manner of Tadano Faun. Over time, Liebherr is likely to drop slashes altogether and move completely to axle-signifying dashes, which should ultimately add clarity rather than confusion.

Liebherr is certainly not the only manufacturer that can be accused of offering too much choice. Terex Demag has a massive 19 telescopic all terrain and city crane models between 30t and 700t capacity, including four in the 50t/55t class: the German-made Demag AC 50-1 all terrain and Demag AC 55 City, plus the the standard and long boom versions of the AC 55 (AC 55L) from PPM in France, also known as the ATT 600/3 and 600/3L in PPM designation. The PPM cranes have full power booms, as opposed to ones that are pinned.

Tadano Faun has just nine all terrains in its product range, which seems far more rational, although even here, two of these are 60-tonners – with the choice of either a three-axle or a four-axle carrier.

Grove also has a comparatively rational line of 11 all terrain models up to 450t capacity (including the GMK 5130L that is due out later this year), but three of these are in the 50t/55t class. The GMK 3050 has been in production for eight years and more than 900 units have been sold. But Grove decided that some customers might like to be able to choose between a full-power 38m boom and a pinned six-section 43m boom. Given that it has taken more than 100 orders for the new GMK 3055, Grove can claim that it was proved right. Schuch and Knoll in Germany, Terranova, Sutch and King Lifting in the UK, Meade in Ireland, Senn in Switzerland, ALM and SMMI in France, plus customers in Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain, Italy, Finland, Australia, and the USA have all taken delivery of this new model. The new model also has the new Grove control technology, of course – ECOS electronic operating system, in-cab graphic display and EKS5 load monitoring system.

The new 55-tonner has been swiftly followed up with a new 50t model, the GMK 3050-1. It features the carrier of the 3055 (with ZF transmission rather than Alison) and latest control technology, but the (full powered) boom and jib – though of a new design – are the same length as the old model. Offering a choice between a pinned boom and a full powered boom is perhaps justified, given that certain jobs such as steel erection require the faster cycle times that full powered booms offer. Keeping the old 3050 in the production schedule as well, however, seems overly generous to the customer base.

Why all this matters is not just because too much choice causes confusion. It is mainly because it adds cost, which hits both manufacturers and their customers. The more models a manufacturer offers, the fewer of each type it is likely to sell and so the greater the unit cost. From time to time manufacturers have been able to mitigate this by mixing and matching carriers and uppers, but there is not much of that today in anyone’s product line up.

It is clearly crazy. The world all terrain crane market is in the region of 2200 units a year these days, which is simply not the kind of volume to justify such a wide array of product offering. The four German AT manufacturers between them offer 53 different model types, and you can add another 16 more from Spain and Italy. That means that an average of 32 units of each model type are produced each year – hardly a recipe for efficient manufacturing.

There are some who recognise the problem. Cranes Today spoke at length on this subject with Frans Vanwinkel, Manitowoc Crane Group vice president of sales and marketing for Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA). Vanwinkel had just completed his first year in the crane business, having joined from the truck manufacturing sector.

Expressing a personal view, he told us: ‘The message is quite simple. What is happening today is that the end user and the rental companies have too many choices. If there were only seven ranges of tonnage, the cost of maintaining fleets would be much less than it is with the chaos that is existing. The owners can standardise their fleets and manufacturers can standardise production.’

That’s the diagnosis. However the solution is not easy to find. Vanwinkel says that he recognises ‘it’s a dream’ because it is simply not an option to manufacturers to stop competing, to stop responding to the competition, and to stop bringing out new models every year.

‘In order to drive your market share, you have to innovate, whether it has an economic argument or not,’ he says.

Is there a solution? ‘I don’t have it today.’

Others agree with Vanwinkel, but say that it is impossible to reduce model numbers not just because of competition but because of the different needs of different customers and the different regulations of end-user markets. ‘I do agree that it would be better to have fewer models, but it is going to be tough to get there,’ says Terex Cranes president Steve Filipov. ‘I think the market dictates what the manufacturers do. Different markets have different needs. For example, we have a new machine, the AC 140, which is really only for North America, where axle spacings is an issue.’

Liebherr explains that it has three different four-axle cranes simply to meet customer needs: the LTM 1060/2 can travel with the full 12t counterweight; the LTM 1090-4 travels with 6.7t counterweight within the 12t per axle limit but it is much stronger than the LTM 1060/2; and the LTM 1100-4 travels with 2.2t counterweight within 12t per axle, but this crane is the strongest four-axle crane in the market, says Liebherr. The four-axle LTM 1100-4 is an attractively compact machine for many markets but, because of the strict 12t per axle weight regulation, will probably not get on the road in the Benelux countries, for example, without an accompanying vehicle to carry all the extra equipment that it needs to operate effectively. So a five-axle 100 tonner is offered as well.

While customer preference and end-user application are clearly major factors in crane purchasing, and ones that will always ensure good variety in products that competing manufacturers offer, a more rational scenario will not come about at least until there is global harmonisation of roading regulations. In Europe, this is a prime item on the agenda of ESTA, the European association of heavy haulage and mobile cranes. In the USA, the Specialized Carriers & Rigging Association is working to bring all the states into line with each other. Both initiatives are worthwhile but even if they completed their tasks tomorrow, it would be many years before all terrain crane manufacturers felt bold enough to rationalise their product lines. Until then, confusion and madness must reign.