Did you know that the Clark Company is credited with inventing the fork truck in 1917 but no one is really sure who invented it first? A truck mounted forklift is the little donkey of the lumber trade, they take all the weight and keep on moving. If you are looking at improving your work productivity in a lumber yard we are here to help.
Keep reading to learn how you can make sure that you are as productive as possible.
Table of Contents
Maintenance
When you are using forklifts for lumberyards, you have to think about the yard maintenance as much as the forklift maintenance. All lumber yards are subject to wear and tear on their driving surfaces. This means that uneven surfaces or debris from lumber can cause damage to your equipment that is handling your materials.
You want to make sure that everything is kept level and clean to ensure that you extend the life of your forklift.
Reducing Time
Every company depends on orders shipping out on time. This is why you can use your forklifts efficiently in order to reduce the lead time for sending orders out. You can take advantage of optimizing the process of preparing loads that have to be shipped out.
One way to do this is to place all of your electronic order forms together or your paper forms and then have your forklift operators bring the right sized cut lumber and build out the loads ahead of time. If this is done correctly you will have all of the orders complete and ready to go when the truck arrives for pickup.
You might even want to consider hiring someone on a full-time or a part-time basis to handle the task of scheduling the pre-built loads and to manage the inventory. This planning and prepping will go a long way to make sure you are running an operation that is always one step ahead when it comes to efficiency and inventory management.
Higher Profits
Being strategic about where you place your product will reduce your driving time which will lead to less forklift replacement and less maintenance. You will have to sit down and make layout decisions to figure out things like which kinds of woods are bought together and having them near each other to speed up order pickers and to reduce wear and tear on your forklifts.
Also, take into consideration creating a route for your forklift operators to make fewer runs. If you usually move an entire bundle with a high capacity forklift then you might want to consider having a space for larger forklifts to do the simple lifting.
Ready to Add a Truck Mounted Forklift to Your Lumber Yard?
Now that you learned our top tips on adding a truck mounted forklift for higher lumber yard efficiency, you can start shopping around for the perfect forklift for your work needs.
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