Forklift Fleet Management

Four Traits of Safety Minded Companies

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When companies are safety-minded these are four things that almost all of them do proactively to ensure a safe operation.
As managers and owners, we want a safe work environment for all of our employees. Unfortunately, all too often it escapes us. Time passes quickly, and initiatives that were once important standards become guidelines or even merely suggestions. How can we ensure that when we put safety measures in place, they will stay in place as employees come and go in a business climate that is constantly in flux?While we lack the space to answer this question in full detail here, there are a few major approaches to providing a safe work environment that transcend industries, equipment and facilities. We outline these “hows and whys” of workplace safety below.

Since 1970, OSHA has worked to create a safer workplace for all employees, and their mission has been very successful. However, accidents still happen, and not only at companies willfully violating OSHA standards. Sometimes safety goes beyond meeting standards due to unique circumstances in certain operations.

The following are a few approaches to safety that have helped both large and small companies to achieve better workplace safety, fewer incidents and accidents, lower costs, more productivity and better workplace attitudes.

Safety is integrated with company mission – Safe companies put as much emphasis on doing things safely as on doing them productively. From day one, every employee knows they are working for a company that would rather they do their job safely than quickly. These employees will lockout a piece of equipment when something goes wrong, will replace light bulbs that need it instead of ignoring them and will report unsafe behavior or unsafe conditions.

Training never ends – Employees are involved in ongoing training – how to lift more safely, how to sit properly in a chair, how to operate a certain piece of equipment and so on. Your business is fluid: things change; equipment changes; and equipment, building space and employees are added. As your conditions change, your training must address these changes. Training for the safest work environments is never a one-time event or a two- or three-day training initiation. It is an ongoing pursuit of the safest possible work facility. It should be a goal of all employees to see that their coworkers go home safe every night.

Involvement at all levels – While involvement in a safe work environment must start from the corner office, the mission and strategy it is also important to ensure that every employee knows that they are involved and responsible. It is a good idea to create safety teams for every facet of your business, to revolve people in and out of those teams, and to have them conduct frequent facility or department reviews to identify potential threats. The most successful companies have reward systems for reporting anything that could be a potential threat, even if it is as minor as a sharp corner on a coat rack. This keeps all employees engaged in creating a safe work environment.

Accountability – Once you have established your safety mission and mapped out your strategy, everyone involved must be held accountable. No one can shirk their safety responsibilities. If a sharp corner on a coat rack is missed and someone gets cut, find out why no one noticed. Are they doing regular inspections? If safety standards are not being met, it is the leadership’s job to find out why and fix it. Everyone must know that if an accident happens on their watch, it must be accounted for and a plan must be designed to ensure that it will not happen again.

A truly safe, productive and profitable workplace is attained through ongoing efforts, and these are just a few of the major traits of successful organizations. We encourage you to seek the assistance of OSHA, NIOSH or other private safety consultants to help you organize and strategize your safety plans.

If there is anything we can help you with in regard to your equipment and its operators, please contact us at 800-322-5438. We would be happy to assist you!

Forklift Fleet Optimization

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TLI Forklift Fleet OptimizationPurchasing a new forklift or other material handling equipment can be expensive, but that’s just a fraction of what it costs to operate it efficiently, or inefficiently. Getting the most bang for your forklift buck means understanding the products you move and establishing baseline costs as a start. Here are 10 tips for optimizing your forklift fleet.

  1. Assess your fleet’s total cost. The cost of your forklift or material handling equipment is typically only about 20% of your total long-term cost. Find out what service is costing, parts, labor, break-downs, rentals, additional equipment kept on hand for break-downs, overtime resulting from down time etc… This can be a real eye opener.
  2. Optimize your forklift fleet by material flow. Determining what each piece of equipment is moving, where, when and how often can help you determine productivity and equipment choices. This way you can determine a lift truck’s cost per pallet move, rather than cost per operating hour.
  3. Find an integrated dealer that understands all facets of your business. Work with a company that not only sells equipment but understands all facets of material handling. These types of dealers can provide you with total solutions which encompass all the areas of your material handling operation.
  4. Get out of the service business. Get information and quotes for full maintenance leases from your dealer. You dealer knows your equipment better than you, and can maintain it to be more productive. Full maintenance takes the guess work out of total equipment operational costs by eliminating “surprise” repairs that often occur over time.
  5. If you perform your own service, look into parts programs. Parts availability is key to maintaining uptime, so an effective parts distribution network facilitated through a lift truck manufacturer and its local dealer is essential to keep your fleet running. Some dealers can provide parts for multiple brands and types of trucks. In addition, dealers will sometime consign parts to your facility, further improving your parts availability and uptime.
  6. Stay on top of equipment advancements. Like most facets of business, material handling advancements can improve your operation and productivity. Attend ProMat, stay connected with industry resources and work with a dealer that is on top of providing the latest in material handling products including forklifts, storage and retrieval and material moving equipment.
  7. Look into fleet management. Knowing the cost of operating equipment, where and how it is being utilized is key to allocation efficiency and productivity. Software programs are available that can provide you with this information. Work with a dealer that can provide these solutions to your operation.
  8. Invest in training early and often. Build a robust and active training program. Safety and productivity go hand in hand. Well trained operators and employees are proven to be more productive and safe. Training reduces your product and equipment damage costs, injury, insurance and many other latent costs of fleet and equipment operation.

Optimizing your materials handling operation takes a bit of work. However, working with an integrated materials handling partner will take a lot of the load off your shoulders and help you operate a more efficient and effective materials handling operation.

Give us a call at 800-322-LIFT to speak to one of our material handling professionals.

Tips to Lower Your Material Handling Costs

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Reducing your costs means increasing your profits and increasing your profits has never been more challenging than in recent years.  Our experience with hundreds of various types of operations, utilizing hundreds of pieces of equipment in more than a thousand ways, has exposed us to thousands of variations in facilities, equipment, and applications. In working with these diverse clients, we have recognized commonalities that, when implemented, resulted in lower total operating costs for materials handling most of the time. Following are five that we highly recommend:

Choose Application-Specific Equipment – In other words, “buy the right equipment for the job at hand.” We often see equipment being used in applications for which they were not designed. That results in accelerated wear, increased damage and ultimately, increased costs. Working with professionals who can survey your applications and recommend the right equipment for each job is one of the most important things you can do to decrease overall costs.  Using the proper equipment with the right specifications means efficient, productive results.

Planned Maintenance – Your fleet equipment works hard. And hard-working equipment needs proper maintenance.  Working with a professional and reputable fleet service provider that serves you at appropriate intervals is the key to catching small maintenance issues, before they become larger and much more expensive. In addition, well-maintained equipment operates more efficiently, experiences more up-time and results in improved operator morale.

Invest in a Robust Training Program – Operator safety training is required by OSHA, and a daily inspection of equipment is one of OSHA’s requirements. Most companies train their operators regarding safe operation, but more often than not, the training stops there. Clients that invest in training employees to perform daily inspections, and to know what to look for, see results. If you install a process for equipment that will eventually need repair, you can ensure that unsafe equipment stays off the operating floor, and small repairs can be handled before they blossom into colossal nightmares.

Work With Single-Source Dealerships When Possible – The more work you can assign to a qualified and reliable supplier, the fewer calls you have to make. In turn, the supplier becomes more familiar with your equipment, facility and applications. This leads to greater efficiencies for you. It also allows your supplier to better understand your operation and thus make logical suggestions that can reduce your costs, increase your efficiency and productivity, and ultimately improve your bottom line.

Fleet Management – Whether you do it yourself or assign responsibility to your materials handling partner, fleet management is a key part of knowing the useful economic lifespan of your equipment. And economic lifespan may vary by application within your operation. If you keep a finger on the pulse of your maintenance expenses and know when it’s time to trade in or re-lease, that process will more than pay for itself in the long run.

There are hundreds of other things you can do to minimize the total operating costs of your facility. We have addressed some of them in previous feature articles. We hope that you have found these Top Five useful.  If we can assist you further, or provide you with more information, please contact us at 888-322-LIFT.