If productivity and performance are the primary ends for a lift truck buyer or leaser, efficient operation and easy operator control are the means. And indeed, productivity and performance are key attributes, according to Modern's Lift Truck Customer Satisfaction Study. In fact, 87% of respondents said that “productivity” was extremely important or very important, and 77% said that “operator control” was extremely or very important.

Modern contacted some of the leading lift truck suppliers about how they engineer these attributes into their products. At Toyota Material Handling U.S.A., the design process takes three to five years, and it starts with customer input.

“About one year after the launch of a new truck, we begin to survey customers to see what they like, and also what improvements they would like to see,” says Martin Boyd, national product planning manager. The company then uses this information as input when designing new trucks.

Toyota also works with designers from Japan, who come to the United States to evaluate customer applications, what needs to be designed into the new products, and technology trends to see if something can be added to the truck to better meet customer needs.

Once engineering and marketing agree on the design, they develop prototype trucks. Customers then have the opportunity to try them out. “This confirms that the new designs do indeed meet customer needs and expectations,” explains Boyd. “If there are still things that need to be changed, it is still early enough in the design process for this to occur.”

Toyota's recently launched 8-Series AC-powered reach truck started this way. Productivity and performance are linked to faster travel speeds, reduced maintenance costs and an overall extended life cycle.

Crown Equipment developed a concept called “Technovation,” or the combining of technology and innovation, to improve performance, reliability, safety and value, according to Matt Ranly, senior marketing product manager. New ideas are generated by a team of managers from marketing, design and engineering who spend time in the field with customers.

“We even spend time with our competitors' customers so we can understand what features they may need to be more productive and efficient,” adds Ranly.

With its vertical integration philosophy, Crown designs and manufactures most of the truck systems and components itself. This process ensures that all of the subsystems work together. The company also develops its own controls, including operator touchpoints, the safety systems on the truck, performance parameters and the diagnostics on the truck.

Years ago, it was customer requests that led Raymond Corporation to incorporate AC technology in its lift trucks, according to John Colborn, marketing manager.

Raymond's ACR system was designed to enhance uptime and reduce battery changes. Because the AC motor delivers more runtime per battery charge, trucks can usually operate through a full shift. Quicker acceleration and direction change are also part of the mix.

One big box retailer's new distribution center found that such benefits allowed it to move 12% more pallets per hour.

Raymond also offers the Vantage Point System, a color imaging system that offers operators visual assistance when storing and retrieving pallets at greater lift heights. “We have found that new 'brick and mortar' is going up very high,” explains Colborn. “The vision system helps operators deal with these new heights, allowing them to see where the forks are at the higher heights. They can use this to help them in the placement of the load and to align the forks.”