To Rent or To Purchase? Weighing Forklift Acquisition Options For most readers in the supply chain, deciding between renting or purchasing a forklift comes down to two questions: what's the cost, and how long will I need it? In most one-off applications, that's about as complicated as the decision needs to be. However, once the application...

Common Dock Door Issues and Troubleshooting Tips Just as there are no tall trees without deep roots, there is no such thing as a highly productive warehouse with poorly functioning dock doors. At any given distribution, warehouse or manufacturing facility, dock doors serve many goals - safety, security, profitability,...

Working at Heights using Industrial Aerial Work Platforms Out of all the hazards that come with material handling and maintenance activities, working at heights is one of the most significant, being unavoidable, always risky, and highly variable. For these reasons, working overhead requires extremely careful planning and execution,...

Ensuring Forklift Safety and Performance with Proper Tire Selections In many ways, a forklift's tires are the most critical component on a lift, as even tiny issues with a single tire can jeopardize the truck's stability, handling, and reliability. For this reason, warehouse fleet managers must be well versed in the many...

Forklift Classifications According to OSHA As with most things related to industrial safety, the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has established a general categorization system for powered industrial trucks that the wider industry uses as a framework for equipment designations, training, and code enforcement....

Industrial Warehouse Dock Doors - A Threshold between Extremes In most supply chain facilities, dock and door systems are expected to operate around the clock keeping harsh weather out, hospitable environments in, and operators and goods safe. For this reason, dock system maintenance is a crucial necessity of any supply chain operation...

The Role of Forklift Operators in Material Handling Safety In the supply chain, forklifts serve as indispensable resources that come along with their fair share of risks. To combat these risks, forklift operators serve as the last line of defense, using their judgement and experience to navigate each day’s work in a safe manner. As it...

Viewing Material Handling Efficiency Through the Lens of Forklift Batteries Almost every time we chat with our customers about forklift fleet management, inevitably the discussion turns to efficiency. Interestingly, no two clients seem to have the same definition of efficiency - sometimes they focus on completion rates, mission times, order...

Forklift Maintenance as an Investment Strategy For most supply chain operations, warehouse effectiveness is directly tied to how productively their internal operations function. Accurate picks, timely order turnarounds, consistent order building, and streamlined interactions between handling steps all drive high operational efficiency, and in...

Industrial Rental Equipment in Seasonal Businesses The seasonality of different material handling, construction, and other industrial businesses may not always be obvious, but it certainly presents itself in more than one way. Many of these seasonal impacts result in widely varying operational peaks and valleys, driving significant...