Should we get our forklifts serviced now?

Should we get our forklifts serviced now?

Common knowledge is a staple in every field. These are the facts that are common knowledge. The trouble is that the truths of yesteryear may no longer hold water, and what seems obvious at first glance may be surprisingly nuanced upon closer inspection. Costly decisions like expanding your fleet of forklifts necessitate careful consideration of all of your options. As a result of these shifts, long-held assumptions need to be reevaluated. Furthermore, your choices have expanded, and the simple solutions of the past may no longer be optimal.

The Fallacy of the Monopoly of Production

When purchasing new forklifts, most companies choose one primary brand (such as Toyota or Hyster for pneumatic/cushion trucks, Crown or Raymond for electrics). Convenience in working with a single entity to finalize purchase or lease terms is an advantage, but it should not be the driving factor. The biggest problem is upkeep.

Maintenance fees are typically included in full-service leases. You can anticipate prices and timetables for upkeep and then put the issue out of your mind for the term of your lease. This picture of perfection has two major flaws. For one reason, most full-service leases don't pay for repairs on worn parts like brakes that wear out or components that are no longer under manufacturer warranty. It's impossible to predict with certainty how much money will be needed for upkeep.

The fact that you'll only need to keep stock of one set of parts and educate your workers on one machine (or at least equipment from a single manufacturer) would seem to be another argument in favor of choosing a single supplier. You'll end up saving some money, it's true, but at what cost?

Forklifts have several uses in your business, and not every manufacturer can meet all of those needs. Simply put, there are too many unknowns. Electrics are low-noise, low-cost, and pollution-free, but they can't go very far. Turning radius can become crucial in some warehouse applications with limited aisle width. Turret trucks may be necessary in the worst-case scenario.

To ensure that you have the most effective vehicle for each task, you should first identify the specific features and characteristics needed for the task at hand and then purchase the required number of trucks from the manufacturer who produces the best forklift with those features and characteristics. It is not uncommon for a large facility with many locations to have lift trucks from four or five different manufacturers. Is this a recipe for an impossible maintenance situation? The opposite is true.

Keep in mind that you are still relying on a single forklift brand for a certain job, and that, having chosen the model that excels at that duty, you can expect to incur less maintenance costs overall for that model. Vehicles that are better suited to their intended use have fewer problems with periodic maintenance and fewer problems with component breakdown.

Initially, the cost of keeping a greater inventory of parts may be higher, but the ongoing cost of doing so should be negligible. Training, too, might allow for sub-specialization. For instance, it would be more cost-effective to train two employees on one of the brands in use rather than two employees on maintenance for a single brand.

Contrast: new versus refurbished

The conventional wisdom holds that remanufactured forklift trucks, despite being cheaper than brand-new ones, are not a good investment because of their lower reliability.

As the price of major machinery continues to rise, the market for reconditioned forklifts has opened up. In the past few years, the demand for refurbished forklifts has grown to the point where it justifies the cost of putting up an assembly line to disassemble, inspect, and reassemble a vehicle to ensure its quality and reliability under severe use.

Refurbished can have a variety of meanings, depending on who you ask. Make sure the item has been completely dismantled, sandblasted, painted, and reassembled before going down this road. Everything, including the engines, needs to be taken apart, reconditioned, and repainted so that it looks and runs like new. Used forklifts are a dangerous investment, but reconditioned models are a safer bet.

Trucks have been refurbished by third parties for years for consumers with low mileage who cannot afford new vehicles. Since there weren't many reliable rebuilt vehicles available, they had to do it on their own. That's not the case any longer. Factory-reconditioned forklifts can be purchased for as little as a third of the price of brand new trucks, thanks to the expansion of the market for refurbished vehicles. Furthermore, they can be purchased in large enough quantities to interest a fleet user.

It's tempting to buy a refurbished forklift because of the low price and large supply, but what exactly are you getting? Is this the kind of place where you become stuck in maintenance hell? Also, not always.

Vehicles that have been refurbished have typically been put through a "shakedown cruise," during which time the damaged parts are tested and then replaced. The improved product is a trustworthy device. Compared to a brand new truck, the useful life of a restored one is, of course, shorter. If you buy a refurbished device, you only pay a fraction of the price of a brand new one. Since you are already through the run-in phase, you have avoided the majority of the initial high maintenance expense. You keep it in good working order and remove it from service about a year before you would buy a brand new unit, saving money by not having to perform as much maintenance at the end of its life. You have saved a ton of money on your initial investment, and there's a chance your maintenance expenditures will go down, too.

Popular Names

One last commonly held belief about forklift truck fleet maintenance is whether or not to use OEM or aftermarket parts. It stands to reason that a business using a specific make and model of forklifts should keep on hand only the spare parts that are approved for use with their equipment. The good news is that this is not always the case.

Many of my colleagues and clients in the industrial sector are furious with China because of how formidable a rival it has become in recent years. Forklift purchasers can benefit from the same low prices that annoy other industries when China enters the market. Chinese factories that have for years supplied the American market with components for other truck manufacturers are beginning direct sales in the United States.

Take note that these manufacturers are often identical to those responsible for the branded components. There is no corresponding drop in quality for the cheaper parts. The technique of distribution is what makes them cheaper. There is no middleman deducting a fee from your winnings. To keep customers loyal and reduce the cost of production, forklift companies do not use aftermarket components as a profit center.

There is less cause for concern about the potential for greater maintenance expenses with a multi-manufacturer and/or remanufactured fleet of forklift trucks now that prices for spare parts have dropped. Today, more than ever, a fleet may be assembled by answering the two questions that truly matter: what is it that forklifts accomplish for your business, and which forklifts, new or used, can execute the job(s) most efficiently and cheaply?