It’s Peak Season and the Best Offense is a Good Defense

For many operations, it’s approaching peak season, the time when throughput and productivity can become priority one. Perhaps you’re already adding seasonal help, and every piece of equipment needs to be in top notch shape. Now more than ever, downtime is the enemy, and no one wants to sacrifice productivity even when forklift maintenance is due, whether planned or unexpected. 

Unfortunately, delayed or deferred planned maintenance can sometimes turn into unexpected downtime, which can be far more disruptive than proactively scheduled maintenance. Some companies have turned to telematics solutions, like Crown’s InfoLink Operator and Fleet Management system, to establish and enforce the discipline to complete planned maintenance on time and on their terms. Case examples, like The PRI Group, highlight how telematic systems can inform and streamline forklift maintenance program to proactively address issues and avoid the downtime associated with unexpected issues or those caused by deferred maintenance. 

While Crown’s InfoLink Operator and Fleet Management system can help keep planned maintenance on track, it can also streamline and enforce compliance with pre-shift inspections that can help proactively identify repair issues that could potentially cause unexpected downtime if they aren’t addressed. Telematics can help ensure that inspection checklists are being consistently and thoroughly completed and any issues requiring attention can be automatically relayed to the right contact to proactively schedule service. Crown customer City Furniture recently talked about how the InfoLink system has helped the company identify maintenance issues, complete the proper service when it is convenient for the business and ultimately help them reduce cost. 

When service needs are identified, whether planned or unplanned, you can also reduce downtime by using the Crown Service Request app to submit and track service issues. You can read more about this process in this prior entry on the Crown blog. 

Users of the InfoLink system are also discovering that another Crown solution, Connected Maintenance, is helping them be more proactive in completing scheduled maintenance and addressing potential service requirements. The InfoLink system captures truck health data in the cloud, and the data is reviewed by Crown analysts to help identify potential service issues. Crown can then contact the customer to alert them of the potential for service, then schedule a service call that best fits the customer’s operational schedule. 

Connected Maintenance can help streamline the process for identifying and scheduling service opportunities, but there’s an added bonus. Its data also equips service technicians with essential information that helps diagnose the issue so that they can arrive at the customer facility with the knowledge and parts that will most likely be required, expediting and streamlining the customer’s service experience. 

Some have said that the best offense is a good defense. Taking a proactive approach enabled by the integration of telematics within your operations could help you preserve forklift uptime and productivity by completing planned and unplanned maintenance on your terms. At a time of the year when nothing stands in the way of performance and throughput, it’s nice to know there are options available that put you in control. 

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