Forklift trucks are colossal machines made of rugged steel to lift heavy loads – but are they intelligent? Contemporary forklift trucks should come with e-software. This is usually web based software which provides logistics companies with a quick and clear overview of their whole fleet. The possibilities are endless with regard to the capabilities. These digital tools can process detailed truck and driver data which is then available online. To monitor the utilisation of the trucks, the customer can define who may use which truck and for which purpose. Different access permissions are administered by access control with chip cards or PIN codes.
The three elements no warehouse should function without: Organisation, analysis and optimisation. The first level “organisation” gives the customer a clear overview of all the trucks in the fleet, providing truck data such as the place of operation and FEM status. The second level “analysis” expands this data to provide every detail. This level even enables the customer to analyse the costs per truck and per location. The third level “optimisation” adds a detailed overview of maintenance data and FEM inspection planning for the customer.
This data allows customers to quickly eliminate any malfunction within their fleet. The intelligent forklift truck sends error codes directly to the manufacturer’s customer service so a respective service engineer can already start to analyse the defect before arriving on site. This ensures that all spare parts for the truck are correct on the first visit. The time needed to find the defect on-site is reduced and travel expenses due to repeated visits are reduced. The customer can trace every step of the process, including reception of the service inquiry and the departure of the service engineer which provides a high degree of transparency for the entire process.
Time is money, the longer your fork lift truck is out of service the larger affect it has on your productivity. It’s vital that when purchasing forklift trucks for your fleet they come with this supporting software to enable continuity throughout your warehouse.
If you are considering purchasing “used” forklifts, ensure that this same level of support and reporting is applicable. Whilst used forklift trucks require a smaller investment think about how many hours you intended to work these machines and the long term affects on an already significantly reduced lifetime. More often than not manufacturers will offer grades of used or rental trucks. This means that you will pay more for a fleet of used trucks which have been restored completely in comparison to a fleet which has undergone minimal restoration to enable them to function. Either way it’s vital that you consider the quality, lifetime and safety of your trucks for both your driver’s sake and the reputation of your business.
Having the digital reporting tools onside will drastically reduce the time to file incident reports which every fleet will experience at one time or another. It is possible to employ manufacturer services to take care of all incident related matters in your warehouse. This is usually an additional fee but will let you focus on your productivity and the running of your business.
Forklift trucks
– STILL have the widest range from a single manufacturer.