Forklift fleet grows, maintenance costs shrink
By Staff -- Modern Materials Handling, 9/15/1999
The past four years have been good ones for Simpson Dura-Vent (SDV), a manufacturer of venting systems for gas appliances. Sales have soared to $66 million with the expanding housing industry. The number of employees has grown from 150 to 275 working two shifts, and manufacturing space at the Vacaville, Calif., plant has nearly doubled.During that time, the number of forklifts has risen from 10 to 17, yet the cost of maintaining those forklifts has been cut in half. The maintenance budget of $120,000 in 1995 was sliced to less than $60,000 in 1998-even though the fleet has grown significantly, says Tom Gurney, production coordinator for the Vacaville facility. The cost reductions came after an evaluation of lift truck needs.
Four years ago, SDV operated with several brands of lift trucks, only two of them Toyotas. Unfortunately, a distributor was at SDV virtually every day fixing something.
Free quarterly reports on each truck from another distributor, however, reflected the high cost of the maintenance. The reports were the evidence Gurney needed to replace all but two of the forklifts with new models, ranging from 2,500- to 10,000-lb capacities.
"Those reports help determine when a lift truck is cheaper to replace than repair," he says. "And those spreadsheets go a long way to help justify our annual capital budget. It really helps to have solid proof right there in front of us."
The focus is now on routine, on-site truck maintenance, such as checking fluid levels, safety equipment, and tire wear. Parts and maintenance work on each truck is done every 200 hours or once a month, whichever comes first.
More extensive service is provided once a year or every 2,000 hours of operation.
Preventive maintenance is performed at that time to avoid big-ticket repairs later. "They really go over the trucks with a fine-tooth comb. That's where we save a lot of big money on the lift trucks," says Gurney. He adds, "We're also pleased to be operating more productively and efficiently because we don't have the down time that used to be routine." Toyota
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