Top 3 Cost Factors In Material Handling Fleet Management And How To Reduce Them

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 Investing in material handling equipment is like investing in your business’s future. Having top-of-the-line models in your fleet and regularly upgrading various equipment like electric forklift, reflects positively on your brand image. This is because material handling fleet is one of the biggest expenses for a company. When your business is able to keep the best of material handling fleet and manage costs without cutting into profits, that translates into effective business management.

Cost factors in material handling equipment (MHE)

All material handling equipment like electric stacker, come with their own set of expenditures which keep happening until the vehicle is retired. Many standardized procedures have been set in place to help business owners optimize their equipment up-keep and reduce costs. Despite the guidelines, there 3 main factors which are not addressed by many business owners.

Top 3 cost factors and how to manage them;

1.       Lack of standardized schedules for preventative maintenance

Maintenance is where business owners bear the majority of the costs associated with material handling equipment like reach truck. As a rule of thumb – 20% of total MHE costs are incurred at the time of purchase, while the other 80% occur over the life of the vehicle.

The best way to minimize maintenance costs is to develop and establish a standardized schedule for preventative maintenance measures. This involves having a database that can tack and monitor all work orders, parts and repairs. By doing so, you are ensuring that your fleet is not just receiving reactive repairs when something goes wrong, as the database alerts you when it’s time to conduct maintenance.  These regular maintenance alerts will give you a holistic, data-driven view into the costs that have the greatest impact on your bottom line.

2.       Inefficient MHE purchasing procedures 

It’s true that only 20% of the lifetime cost of any material handling vehicle like electric tow truck, happen at the time of purchase. Even though it comparatively less, if the acquisition of the vehicle is handled inefficiently, it can lead to unnecessary additional costs.  It’s beneficial for you as a business owner to have a partner during the acquisition period to provide consultation on strategies to increase your buying power through more strategic, long-term purchases. [Financing options].

A third-party logistics partner (3PL) can help you outline a proactive buying approach, rather than reactive.

For example, using this approach, you would avoid purchasing lift equipment every time they break down. You can instead schedule replacements at strategic intervals to be prepared to maintain business as usual.

3.       MHE operator abuse 

A standardized schedule of preventative maintenance does not address an issue that results in the greatest amount of avoidable damage; operator abuse. Operator abuse involves misuse of equipment and vehicles, which needS to be identified as soon as possible and addressed correctly to reduce maintenance costs across your fleet.

Data visualization is the first step for increasing visibility into operator abuse. Your floor manager or facility manager should be collecting and analyzing vehicle data to identify wrong usage patterns and avoidable damage, and begin to create benchmarks. Once you identify root causes and problem areas, you can put together a corrective process to measure against your results.

As a business, it would also behoove you to hire skilled technicians who are qualified and experienced, to effectively combat operator abuse.

Linde India is a pioneer in Material handling equipment and one of the top forklift manufacturers in India. Industrial trucks by Linde; whether diesel lift trucks, electric forklift trucks or warehouse handling equipment, stand out because of their innovative technology aimed at greater cost-effectiveness in logistics. If you are looking material handling equipment dealers or prices in India, you should definitely check out our website- www.lindemhe.com.

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