The old days of buying a lift truck as a commodity unrelated to other materials handling equipment purchases are going away. Rapidly. It’s all because of fundamental shifts in how distribution centers operate—and new technology, of course.
There’s an important shift underway in the lift truck buying process. In a word, lift truck purchases are becoming holistic.
Did you really just read that? Did the words holistic and lift truck appear in the same sentence? That’s a “yes” on both counts. More importantly, this trend is worth factoring into your lift truck fleet decision process going forward because the leaders are already doing it.
“There is a need for a continuous, regular change in the configuration of fleets,” says Mick McCormick, vice president of robotics and automation at Yale Materials Handling. And that dynamic shift within fleets is due to fundamental changes in facilities and how they work, as companies respond to labor needs and speed to markets.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.