Downtime. It’s every material handling equipment user’s worst nightmare. You could have the most sophisticated piece of equipment with all of the gadgets and gizmos, but if it’s not operational, you won’t get much work done. When work isn’t getting done, you have to make up for lost time, increased cost, and dissatisfied customers.

While downtime isn’t always caused by equipment failure, it can certainly hamper your ability to move products and raw materials that allow your business to function. Thankfully, eliminating downtime with your equipment can be simplified into the following categories: using the right tool for the job, proper usage, proper maintenance, and quality parts and workmanship.

1. Forklift Basics: Using the Right Tool for the Job

When customers have problems with certain components repeatedly failing or causing problems and can’t figure out the cause, the problem is usually that the tools they’re using are not equipped to handle the job. In diagnosing these problems, pay attention to the usage of the forklifts to understand what might be causing the issue.

For example, a customer was lifting heavy loads of bricks and transporting them across surfaces that weren’t flat. As a result, the product bounced up and down during transport, putting significant stress on several of the forklift’s components such as the carriage and lift chains.

This particular problem was solved by adding a hydraulic accumulator to the forklift. The accumulator absorbs the shock by using nitrogen to actively adjust the hydraulic pressure, reducing the carriage and chain wear, and providing a smoother ride for the operator.

This shows the importance of using the right tool for the job. Whether you need an aftermarket installation or a completely different forklift model, a simple change or two can save you a lot of money and downtime.

2. Proper Forklift Usage

Once you have the right piece of equipment, the next step is to make sure you’re using it properly. Monitoring how the forklifts are used is the key to determining if the way they are being operated is an issue.

Improper operation is unsafe, and it can also lead to accelerated wear and tear on equipment. Some bad habits may include:

Tip loading – When a load is lifted using the first third of the forks or the load is not fully secured against the front face of the carriage.

Hot shifting or “plugging” – When shifting the transmission between forward and reverse while an internal combustion forklift is in motion. This can cause accelerated wear, potentially significant damage to the transmission, and increased tire wear.

Pushing or Pulling loads – Forklifts are designed to lift and carry loads, not to push or pull them.  Pushing or pulling loads puts significant stress on various components, including the carriage, load backrest, and mast.

Overloading – Lifting a load that exceeds the forklift’s maximum capacity, as indicated on the data plate, is extremely dangerous. Not only is this type of operation unsafe, but it can also damage hydraulic components, forks, and other attachments.

Improper entry/exit – Putting excess strain on the seat assembly by not using the grips and putting all the operator’s weight on the seat to aid entry and/or wearing sharp tools when entering and exiting the forklift can lead to bodily injury, as well as accelerated wear and tear on the seat and hood of the forklift.

These are just a few examples of how improper forklift usage can increase maintenance and repair costs over time. Proper operator training, safe operation, and best practices can help combat some of these issues.

3. Proper Forklift Maintenance

Just like any other vehicle, if you don’t take care of your forklifts, breakdowns and failures are inevitable. Forklifts have pre-determined intervals for when certain maintenance needs to occur. Depending on the particular model, type of work environment, and the number of hours that are put on it daily, this can be a frequent occurrence. For example, if you have dirt, dust, and fibrous materials floating around, you may need to change filters and clean the radiator more often. And if you run three, eight-hour shifts a day, you’re going to reach the 250-hour service interval faster than someone only running one shift.

What is a Site Survey?

A site survey is when a trained warehouse consultant visits a work space to help maximize the business’ work place through racking, equipment, and a multitude of other factors. Their job is to help a business work as efficiently as possible and utilize all the space a company owns. But why should you think about getting one? Below are a few reasons.

Warehouse Operation Efficiency

Once a warehouse consultant comes on the scene at the time and date arranged specifically for the site survey, it doesn’t take long for them to identify opportunities that can carry already profitable business even further.

For example, let’s say a company is pulling pallets with a reach truck, bringing the pallets down, removing the product, and then putting the pallet back up onto the racking unit. In this case, a Toyota order picker may be a more optimal equipment choice to get the job done.

Often times, companies have already thought of this, but their response as to why they haven’t done it yet is usually: “We’ve always done it this way.” Those words echo through warehouses and distribution centers nationwide, and often deter operations managers from making the moves they must make in order to meet the changing demands of the modern-day distribution environment.

For those companies that do embrace change, a site survey typically starts by inventorying all forklifts and determining how that equipment is being used in the facility.

Warehouse Storage

On the warehouse floor, a site survey can help detect storage problems (e.g., stacks of pallets that are pushed into corners using hand pallet jacks), inventory management issues, and poor use of vertical space. There are times when managers say they don’t have enough space, but only have product stacked 12 feet high in a building with 25 foot ceilings. This is an opportunity for the warehouse to grow up, instead of out. The site survey will also help determine the best equipment for this type of application, such as order pickers, reach truck, or a combination of both.

All of these steps culminate into a complete warehouse optimization package designed to help operations achieve and exceed their customer service, safety, and profitability goals. By getting material handling professionals involved early in the process, these operations may be able to optimize their space and equipment in a way that they may not have been able to handle on their own.

If you would like to learn more about site surveys and warehouse consultations, download our free E-book, “Making the Case for Warehouse Consultants.”

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