Compressing Costs and Improving Productivity Through Intelligent Fleet Asset Management.

Trucktruth.com, an online resource for lift truck manufacturers, buyers, operators, and dealers, announces Hyster FleetSmart Seminar 2009. The seminar was created to educate material handling equipment owners and inform them of proper fleet management practices. The next invitation-only event will be held on June 18, 2009 in Dallas, Texas. Companies, both large and small, are effectively utilizing fleet management to help eliminate non-value–added costs tied to maintaining their fleets. Hyster FleetSmart Seminar topics include:

• Identifying opportunities for compressing costs
• Basic principles of Fleet Management
• Fleet Management system reporting capabilities
• Aftermarket solutions to maximize productivity
• Single-sourcing all of your OEM equipment
• Technology-based products to further minimize your cost of operations
• Financial advantages of leasing

In addition, you will have the opportunity to view several technology products on display and speak with knowledgeable experts in the field of telemetry.

Future dates include:

• Billerica, MA – Oct 1

A typical lift truck has hundreds and hundreds of moving parts that can wear to the point of failure if not lubricated, adjusted, or replaced on a regular basis. A good inspection program, some inspect as many as 200 points, is designed to expose those neglected areas of a lift truck to help ensure you get the life expectancy out of your lift truck components.

Customers who need comprehensive inspection programs for their lift trucks are typically experiencing

• Increases in unscheduled downtime
• Expensive repair bills on a regular basis
• Unsatisfactory service from their current provider

These companies are also typically the ones who elected to save money on scheduled maintenance by choosing a local service provider who could save them a buck or two on maintaining their lift truck.

Why bother to invest the time inspecting a lift truck?

Because these areas, when not inspected on a regular basis, can lead to more expensive, unforeseen repairs. You should do everything you can to ensure your lift trucks are being maintained properly and in accordance with the manufacturers recommendation. At the conclusion of an inspection, the company should take the time to review a detailed report identifying those areas, or components of the truck that can lead to additional unscheduled downtime, larger issues and ultimately higher repair bills if left undetected.

Do your trucks have what it takes?

Are your lift trucks tough enough to handle the application and operating environment your operations demand? Take a look at some of the the areas that should be inspected on each internal combustion lift truck.

Operational Check
• 7 key components
General truck Visual Inspection
• 13 key components
Steering System
• 9 key components
Steer Axle
• 8 key components
Engine
• 24 key components
Cooling System
• 9 key components
Fuel System
• 5 key components
Gasoline System
• 6 key components
L.P. Gas System
• 8 key components
Ignition System
• 8 key components
Brake System
• 11 key components
Parking and Seat Brake Cable
• 4 key components
Electrical System
• 12 key components
Instruments
• 11 key components
Electrical Accessories
• 5 key components
Transmission-Powershift
• 16 key components
Transmission-Manual
• 5 key components
Wet Clutch
• 5 key components
Gear Box
• 3 key components
Drive Axle
• 13 key components
Differential
• 5 key components
Hydraulic System
• 27 key components
Mast Mechanical
• 17 key components
Hose Take-Up and Attachments
• 3 key components

Achieve fleet performance goals

Best practices in maintenance can make your lift trucks more productive by reducing unscheduled downtime. Your service company should have skilled technicians with years of experience servicing all makes of lift trucks. By committing to a maintenance schedule recommended by a professional service compan , you can ensure that your fleet is in top shape with maximum uptime.

You have a number of options when choosing a service provider for your material handling equipment. So how do you choose the one that is right for your business needs? Choosing a service provider to do your scheduled maintenance by price alone can leave you paying more in the long run through additional unscheduled downtime and more costly, major repairs. Look for a plan that ensures each and every truck on your agreement receives a thorough inspection, from fork to counterweight, to help ensure little problems do not turn into big, expensive ones.

Comprehensive Record Keeping

Controlling the quality of service is the utmost importance. In order to ensure that your fleet’s maintenance needs are being fulfilled, make sure your service company has a procedure checklist that is completed by the technician for every lift truck in your fleet. This checklist will then become a permanent record of your lift truck fleet’s maintenance and condition.

Breaking with Tradition, Flexibility is the Key

Any periodic maintenance plan should be based on each lift truck’s application, make, model, and operating environment. Some of the items that should be included are:

A periodic maintenance program should include different services based on the number of hours of service throughout the year

An example plan would include:

Every 250 hours or 6 weeks for IC units or 350 hours or 2 months for electric units:

• System lubrication and general inspection
• Operational evaluation
• Engine oil and filter change
• Wheels and tires-check for damage
• Hydraulic lines-check for wear or leakage

Additional items performed every 1000 hours or 6 months of operation:

• Complete tune-up
• Fuel filter change

Additional items performed every 2000 hours or 1 year of operation:

• Antifreeze coolant change
• Transmission fluid and filter change
• Hydraulic oil and filter change
• Clean and repack wheel bearings
• Brake system inspection

Lift truck forks are often mistreated and forgotten. Forks last a long time if treated properly, but they can look as good when they are used as when they were new – minus a little paint. Here are a few examples of how lift truck forks can show damage:

• Surface cracks – these can be determined by visual inspection or subjected to a “nondestructive crack detection process.??? The forks should never be returned to service if surface cracks are detected.
• Bent Blade or Shank – If deviation from straightness exceeds 0.5% of the length of the blade or height of the shank, the fork should never be returned to service.
• Fork Angle – Any fork with a deviation of greater than 3 degrees from the original specification should never be returned to service.
• Difference in Fork Height of Fork Tips – If the difference in tip heights exceed 3% of the length of the blade, the set of forks should never be returned to service.
• Wear of Fork Blade and Shank – If the thickness is reduced to 90% of the original thickness, the fork should never be returned to service.
• Wear of Fork Hooks – If there is substantial wear to an extent that the clearance between the fork and the fork carrier becomes excessive, the fork should never be returned to service.

Also, worn forks can reduce the capacity of the lift truck. If the forks remain in use and it’s assumed that they can lift the same load as usual, there is a risk of losing the load in a fork breakage costing you considerable money… not to mention the time needed to get a new set of forks on order and replaced. The Industrial Truck Association recommends that forks be withdrawn from service when the fork blade’s thickness has been reduced by 10%; however, few users understand that a 10% reduction in blade thickness results in capacity reduction of 20%. This translates to a 20% reduction in the safety factor of the pair of forks.

Fork inspections should be performed by the manufacturer or an expert of equal competence. Your local Hyster dealer has such an expert who can perform these free inspections on a regular basis. At the same time, the dealer can make recommendations to keep your forklifts up and running with no loss of time and money, thereby providing a safer work environment for your employees. Contact your local Authorized Hyster dealer today to schedule your free fork inspection.

Today, companies of all sizes and types are outsourcing lift truck maintenance to professional service providers and focusing more on their core business operations. Whether you have one truck or a fleet of trucks, a outsourced maintenance agreement (OMA) will help you spend less time worrying about your lift truck productivity and more time on growing your business. Not only does it help minimize downtime, but the monitoring of maintenance expenses and productivity per vehicle helps in planning your operational costs and simplifying fleet budgeting.

An OMA can provide you with a fixed cost per run time hour for each truck in your fleet. Additionally, your lift trucks can be performance benchmarked to other trucks in your fleet as a productivity guideline.

Each lift truck operates under unique conditions. To handle this, look for a customizable program to meet your specific maintenance requirements. An OMA should begin with a site inspection to help ensure your fleet meets your specific needs. Look for skilled technicians trained for various lift truck repairs that can handle repairs on all makes of lift trucks. Access to an extensive parts program helps ensure mixed fleets are supported properly.

Peace of Mind

Any good OMA covers virtually every repair on a lift truck, excluding such components as seats, tires, forks, and batteries. Exceptions to a typical OMA would include customer misuse or neglect. It should provide scheduled and un-scheduled, Periodic Maintenance (PM) and breakdown repairs, for a set monthly fee.

Your customers depend on you.

Your ability to provide excellent response to your customer needs can be dependent on having your lift trucks up and running when you need them most. The best way to assure this is with an OMA.

A solid OMA features:

• Site equipment evaluation
• Routine, comprehensive analysis of maintenance and repairs performed on each lift truck
• Complete maintenance coverage for your lift truck fleet, from scheduled PM to breakdown repairs
• A fixed monthly cost
• Response time guarantee
• Uptime guarantee options and back-up equipment
• Coverage for all makes of lift trucks
• Application consulting and solutions for improved lift truck effectiveness
• Periodic reporting

Prevention costs less

The smart program for servicing lift trucks is based on proactive, preventive maintenance. Don’t leave anything to chance. Unfortunately, many companies’ bad experiences have taught them to catch potential problems before they can become bigger problems. A comprehensive, scheduled maintenance program helps ensure your fleet is operating at peak performance. Look at an OMA as an uptime policy for your lift trucks. If you’re looking for a more reliable and profitable fleet with guaranteed uptime, reduced and easily budgeted maintenance costs with optimized overall fleet performance, look into an OMA.

This white paper explores relevant fleet management solutions that can be tailored to address specific material handling needs. With a step-by-step process on how to implement a successful fleet management program, the white paper aims to help businesses emerge leaner, stronger and poised to take advantage of the economic recovery.

The information focuses on opportunities to reduce operating expenses and improve productivity in material handling operations through proper fleet management. These opportunities, explored in full detail within the white paper, are:

1) Initial Assessment through Survey and Analysis
2) Centralizing Your Services
3) The Value of Maintenance Reporting
4) The True Value of Lift Truck Replacement…Even in a Difficult Economy
5) Implementing a Fleet Optimization Model
6) Maximizing Productivity and Cost Compression through Telemetry Technology

Within each section are a variety of charts and examples to explain the importance of each individual area.

Download the White Paper

Surveys estimate that fewer than 6% of companies can accurately identify their lift truck operating expenses. If you don’t know what your costs are, how can you manage them?

Operating a lift truck fleet is a reality of your business, but managing a lift truck fleet in addition to focusing on your core business responsibilities can get complicated. Trying to keep tabs on service schedules is tough enough. When you add in the varying degrees of usage of each unit, multiple facilities in different locations, and the possibility of several service providers and parts suppliers, it gets even trickier.

When lift truck fleets are not maintained appropriately or utilized efficiently, downtime increases, productivity is reduced, and you end up with more equipment than you really need. This all affects your bottom line when more and more money is being spent on an aging fleet that doesn’t perform as cost effectively as it should. Does your company have any one of these issues with your fleet? Then an effective fleet management program might be the answer.

A well-defined fleet management program helps determine your overall materials handling costs and identifies ways to reduce them through lower service expenditures and increased productivity. This can accomplish several goals, including:

• Lower operating costs
• Reduced fleet size
• Improving or eliminating on-site parts inventory
• Monitoring costs
• Reduced supplier base
• Maximized fleet efficiency

Research has shown that only 20% of the total cost of materials handling is associated with the price of acquisition. The other 80% is directly related to operator and maintenance expenses.

Consider also that on average, companies have 10 to 20% more units in operation than are necessary to do the job. This adds up to a large expense that can be avoided with a well-structured fleet maintenance program.

It is estimated that fewer than 6% of companies are able to accurately identify their lift truck operating expenses. The bottom line is that if you don’t know what the problem is, you can’t manage it.

Most companies deal with fleet maintenance on an as-needed basis rather than having a formal periodic maintenance (PM) program. A comprehensive PM program is the best way to identify and correct problems while they are small rather than waiting until repair issues have reached crisis mode.

Proper fleet management begins with selecting the right lift truck for the application – tough enough to handle your most difficult loads easily, without giving you more truck than you need.

Planned Replacement Is the Key to Success.

A key component of any successful fleet management program is a planned replacement strategy. As a general rule, lift trucks have an economic life of approximately 10,000 to 12,000 hours. This varies based on maintenance practices, operating conditions and the type of equipment used.

The chart below illustrates an example of the total costs (operating and ownership) associated with owning and operating a lift truck for a period of 20,000 hours compared to the total operating costs for 20,000 hours with a planned replacement at 10,000 hours. Substantial cost savings are available through the execution of a fleet management program that incorporates the philosophy of planned fleet replacement once a unit has reached its Optimum Economic Life Replacement Threshold.

You’re Only Steps Away from a More Efficient Fleet.

Fleet Management is a step-by-step process that can’t be taken lightly however. A long-term commitment by your company is vital to your success. Follow these steps, and you’re on your way to managing your lift truck fleet.

Step 1: Survey
A complete study of your current fleet helps identify your maintenance costs. Gathering information on the age, specifications, application, usage and condition of each lift truck provides the necessary information to conduct a detailed analysis of your fleet.

Step 2: Analyze
Once the initial survey is complete, utilization studies should be prepared to determine baseline costs and projected service needs. Maintenance history is combined with these results to estimate the opportunity for potential cost savings.

Step 3: Propose
Based on the conclusions drawn from the fleet study, gather recommendations for equipment configuration and replacement, fleet redeployment and maintenance options. Your proposals should also include recommendations for training, parts capabilities, and possible financing alternatives.

Step 4: Implement
Determine a final action plan based on the product recommendations and a product supply strategy. Schedules for training, maintenance and the disposal and replacement of equipment are implemented, and finance options are resolved. Commitment and support are the keys to successful implementation. Effective fleet management programs are not one-time events, but rather are a long-term commitment that provides year-over-year cost savings for your company.

Step 5: Monitor
Each element of the plan is reassessed at regular intervals to ensure your materials handling equipment remains in optimal condition and that hours and usage are reflected appropriately in service schedules. This also enables us to make any necessary adjustments due to changes in your business needs. Ongoing tasks include continuous fleet size review and replenishment, maintenance cost analysis and management reporting.

If this all seems too complicated, or too much to take on, Hyster dealers use the five-step process outlined above everyday to create individualized fleet management programs. From conducting a comprehensive survey of the existing fleet to continuous monitoring of the final strategy, they are a constant source of information, support and service. Here’s how we’ve helped others:

Planned Replacement and Central Purchasing Benefit Food Processor.

A major food processing company with more than 300 locations and 3,000 units needed to centralize material handling procurement and implement a fleet management program. After exploring several options, they turned to Hyster Fleet Services. As a result, the company now has an effective planned replacement program. With central purchasing, they are able to achieve savings through economies of scale and enjoy the benefits of a dedicated account manager.

Fleet Analysis Reduces Paper Company’s Costs.

To help improve corporate return-on-investment, a major paper industry company sought the expertise of Hyster Fleet Services. An annual survey and analysis of their entire lift truck fleet was implemented. The company reduced the average age of its fleet by 50% and trimmed fleet size by nearly 20%. Savings of approximately $800,000 were realized in the first year, with projections of over $4,000,000 in cost reductions over the next 5 years.

Comprehensive Program Provides Auto Manufacturer with Substantial Savings.

Both immediate and long-term savings were the goal of a major automotive manufacturer who turned to Hyster Fleet Services for a fleet management program. A recommendation was made for a planned replacement program, alternative financing solutions, centralized billing and maintenance outsourcing. The result was annual savings of more than $3,000,000.

Hyster Company offers several maintenance options through the Hyster® Dealer network that provide a cost effective solution to meet your fleet maintenance needs. The goal of each program is to improve your productivity and uptime while reducing fleet management costs.

Hyster Company also offers the right truck for your job. With more than 130 lift trucks to choose from – from small-capacity pallet jacks to container handlers capable of lifting more than 115,000 pounds – we offer the right materials handling solution for any application.

Maintenance for All Makes.

As much as we’d like for your entire fleet to be Hyster, we know that’s not always going to be the case. But just because you operate other brands doesn’t mean we can’t help handle all your maintenance needs. Through our UNISOURCE™ program we can supply the parts to cover just about any brand of lift truck you might have. Our trained technicians can provide the service support you need to keep your units up and running.

How You Finance is Up to You.

Once your fleet management plan is in place, we’ll assist you in reviewing alternatives to financing your future lift truck acquisitions. Your local Hyster dealer offers competitive financing and leasing options through Hyster Capital and other dealer-specific sources.

It’s Not Just About the Lift Trucks.

Any company worth its weight knows success has just as much to do with the support before and after the sale as the sale itself. Hyster Company takes great pride in being more than just a lift truck manufacturer. Through our Hyster Dealer network we are also fleet managers, parts suppliers, capital procurement specialists and trainers. You’ll find that when it comes to your fleet management needs, there’s not much we don’t do.

For more information, a Fleet Management brochure or cd, contact your local Hyster dealer or call 1-888-FLT-SVCS.