Lift truck maintenance programs set a new course for efficiency

At first glance, you wouldn’t think that a lift truck has much in common with a Boeing 787 Dreamliner. The 787, after all, is the most technologically advanced commercial aircraft ever manufactured and a lift truck is, well, used to move stuff.

But take a closer look, and the two have much in common. Both are workhorses expected to run at peak efficiency, with a minimum of downtime, for years and even decades. Both are absolutely essential to the smooth operation of their businesses. Just like a 787, a modern lift truck is outfitted with sophisticated electronics and sensors that monitor and report on the status of key components.

But even more important than the condition of any one plane or lift truck is its position within the fleet. Although fleet management in the warehouse is somewhat less imperative than air traffic control, it is no less important to the operation as a whole.

In both cases, efficient operation depends on visibility into the real-time activity of the entire fleet as well as a precise understanding of costs, down to each nut and bolt. For lift truck users, this means the total cost of ownership—including fuel, labor and maintenance costs over the useful life of the equipment—is more important than the upfront price.

In fact, equipment maintenance is at least three times as important, since acquisition costs are typically only 25% of a lift truck’s total cost over time. Having recognized this, lift truck users and manufacturers have spent recent years creating new business and ownership models for fleet management, parts management and maintenance.

Lift truck users now evaluate a supplier’s maintenance capabilities as much as the truck’s operating capabilities. “Maintenance is almost always part of the RFP,” says Mike Romano, CEO of Associated Supply Chain Solutions, one of the largest distributors of lift trucks in the country. “Maintenance contracts, fleet and parts management services and telemetrics—the aftermarket—is the way manufacturers and distributors are differentiating themselves in the market.”

Lift trucks and jet aircraft share something else in common: Today’s technician requires more skill sets than ever to keep equipment running. “Yesterday’s technician was a guy with a wrench,” says Neal Hittepole, director of branch aftermarket sales for Crown Equipment Corp. “Today, they are professionals who have gone to school and present themselves in a different way. In addition to their mechanical skills, they have to understand electronics and software and they have to problem-solve.”

Fleet management and maintenance
Fleet management is an all-encompassing program intended to optimize total cost of operation of a customer’s leased, owned and rented lift trucks. A solid fleet management program looks at the root cause of expenses, establishes preventative instead of reactive maintenance practices, works to right-size the fleet, encompasses operator management and provides the tools to manage administrative costs. At the end of the day, fleet management should create a definitive view of each lift truck’s operating cost per hour.

Today, there are two kinds of fleet management, which often overlap. The first involves vehicle financing and maintenance programs offered by lift truck manufacturers with service provided by their network of dealers. The goal of such programs is to gradually transition equipment users away from the chores of fleet management and enable them to focus instead on their core competencies.

The second kind involves data collection equipment affixed to equipment and the related software programs that identify patterns in use and abuse. By monitoring the day-to-day operations of the vehicles and their operators, the goal of such programs is to provide visibility and actionable data to managers so they can address small problems before they become big.

While each supplier tailors their program differently, most offer some variation of the following services:

Fleet analysis. This involves a survey of the make, model, age and hours of service for each vehicle in a fleet, along with its intended use. That information provides the baseline to determine the right size of the fleet and whether existing equipment should be retained, retired, redeployed within a facility or replaced.

Call center management. Users with multiple locations or multiple shifts want one phone number that all their fleet managers can call for service, regardless of where they are located. Especially with a lean fleet, downtime is unacceptable, so the responsiveness of service technicians is critical.

Consolidated billing. With this service, the supplier examines the repair orders from all of the dealers maintaining a fleet, verifies that the pricing is correct and justified, and then presents one bill to the customer.

Tracking and reporting. In addition to providing consolidated billing, fleet management programs also include usage reports covering parts inventory, repair history, avoidable damage and each unit’s cost per hour.

Fleet rental and fleet disposal. Many fleet managers will also take care of the rental of additional vehicles during peak usage periods and handle the sale or disposal of owned vehicles when it’s time to retire or replace them. Leases can also help establish ideal equipment rotation practices and can be designed with the flexibility to scale fleet size with peaks and valleys in use.

Fleet management software. Whether offered by a supplier or a third party, fleet management software not only tracks the operations of a truck, it is also tied into a vehicle’s electrical system, providing maintenance personnel with information in real time. Fault codes generated by the truck can be sent by e-mail to a technician’s smart phone or computer, along with the serial number of the truck. That allows the technician to do some troubleshooting in advance, and to bring the tools, parts and components for a likely repair to the job site. Moreover, it allows a technician to become more predictive about maintenance.

“The telemetric systems on today’s trucks allow one person to monitor a whole fleet,” says Pat Huebel, national training and customer service operations manager for Toyota Material Handling U.S.A. “The activity of the truck is being reported back to a terminal in a manger’s office, where they can set up alerts so that if there’s an error code, it will flash up on the screen before the operator even realizes there is a problem.”

Technicians: Beyond the tool belt
Just how important are technicians? “We have a saying that we win a customer through the sales function but keeping them is the result of our ability to service the fleet,” says Pat DeSutter, vice president of fleet service and aftermarket for Yale Material Handling Corp. “A technician who consistently presents themselves in a professional manner builds a level of trust that you can’t replicate just with an account manager calling on the customer.”

Like the automated materials handling industry, lift truck manufacturers and distributors are taking proactive steps to attract the next generation of technician. “One of the things we struggle with is making the graduates of tech schools aware of the opportunities in our industry,” says Toyota’s Huebel. “The skills they’re learning in automotive school, for instance, can serve as a good foundation for lift truck maintenance. Pay in our industry is good, the benefits are good, and there are opportunities to work on the road, work in the shop and work in manufacturing plants and distribution centers.” For its part, Toyota is finalizing a technician recruiting video that service managers can take to technical schools and military recruiting events in their areas to bring awareness of the industry.

Meanwhile, companies like Crown have developed relationships with technical schools with automotive training programs, like the University of Northwest Ohio, where the company sponsors a class in lift truck maintenance. Similarly, DeSutter says that Yale is looking at more strategic alliances with technical schools and community colleges and offers an in-house apprenticeship program to develop new technicians.

What’s more, lift truck manufacturers are adapting their training methods to the learning style of the next generation. In fact, the day of memorizing the service manual is over. Training is now done in the classroom and online. And, as with the materials handling industry, one of the most important skills isn’t found in the toolbox but focuses on a technician’s people skills. For that reason, new hires often begin their training in customer service. Crown puts its technicians through its customer care training program to learn how to interact with customers, the parts department, the sales department and the rental department before they are given the keys to a customer service van.

Once hired, creating a career path is also a key to a successful technician program. At Associated, for instance, Romano says his organization makes a commitment to offer technicians 40 to 80 hours of training a year to advance their skills, pays for performance, and offers opportunities to advance to supervisory and management roles, such as a team leader or field service leader. “You can advance from an apprentice to a forklift technician to an automated system technician into management,” he says.

“There’s no question but that our industry needs new technicians,” says Toyota’s Huebel. “We need to make these young men and women aware of the opportunities we offer, onboard them, train them, and pay them to keep them. They’re looking for different challenges than when I entered the industry.”

Companies mentioned in this article
Associated Supply Chain Solutions, associated-solutions.com
Crown Equipment Corp., crown.com
Toyota Material Handling U.S.A., toyotaforklift.com
Yale Materials Handling Corp., yale.com