You know that forklift maintenance is mission-critical. Unplanned downtime can cost your facility as much as $22,000 per hour, and poorly maintained forklifts are the number one cause of breakdowns. Yet, no matter how vital, fleet maintenance is one more drain on your already overloaded day. So what do you do when there are only so many hours to work and forklift fleet management is just one task too many? Read on to learn how to make forklift maintenance automatic and effortless.
Safety is your top priority despite all the demands on your time, and you know how important forklift maintenance is in keeping your staff safe. Still, unless your industry has been plagued with a recent rash of accidents, it can be challenging to justify additional resources for maintaining your forklift fleet. To fix that, let’s try a little thought experiment.
Imagine your facility on its busiest day. You're staring down the barrel of some heavy deadlines, and you need your whole team doing their best work to make your targets. Suddenly, one of your forklifts sputters and dies. Start your stopwatch because, until that forklift is fixed, you could be losing more than $350 per minute.
The total cost of downtime varies by industry, but on average, manufacturing operations lose between $20,000 and $22,000 per hour, while warehouses lose about $10,000 per hour. Even if one of your forklifts goes down for a single shift, that unplanned downtime could cost you between $80,000 and $176,000. Relying on forklift repair instead of planned forklift maintenance is the same as saying that wasted revenue is inevitable.
Yet, planned forklift maintenance prevents these losses by fixing downtime before it happens. With a bit of time and care, your forklift fleet won’t let you down again.
Sure, a little time and care will keep your forklifts up and running, but that's the whole problem, isn't it? You already have so many demands on your time, and no matter what, you'll never get a wasted second back. To make matters worse, forklift maintenance isn't like brushing your teeth. It requires more effort than a twice-daily scrub and an hour of deep cleaning every six months. For example, an IC forklift should receive at least the following every 250 hours or two months:
At the 500-hour mark, it needs all of that plus:
And at 1,000 hours or six months, it needs all of the above and more. It's enough to make your head spin. So what do you do when you already have too much to do, no time to do it, and planned forklift maintenance, though vital, is just too much to tackle right now?
You get help from your team. Not your staff. They already have their own responsibilities and may lack the necessary technical qualifications to properly maintain your fleet. Instead, you turn to a trusted forklift fleet management solutions partner like Mid Columbia Forklift. Plus, saving time isn’t the only value of working with a forklift fleet management company:
Our expert team has the technical skills and experience to create a custom maintenance plan to fit your unique needs. Our forklift technicians come to your facility on your schedule and handle all the necessary forklift maintenance so that you don’t have to. Whether you have one forklift or fifty, our customized plans will keep your machines running, preventing budget-busting breakdowns and even improving their resale value. Let us help you stay on top of forklift fleet maintenance. To learn more about which maintenance plan is right for you, contact us online or visit your local Mid Columbia Forklift.
Auburn 253-854-5438
Pasco 509-547-7413
Wenatchee 509-663-9009
Yakima 509-457-5137