Reduce Costly Forklift Downtime with Reliable Parts Availability

For companies that require forklifts in their operations, there are few things as dreaded as forklift downtime. When one of these critical pieces of equipment goes offline, it results in decreased productivity and lost revenue. The supply chain slows, product stops moving, and workers must wait until a technician can get the forklift up and running. Even if a technician can be quickly dispatched and is able to diagnose the cause of the malfunction, without the required part to remedy the problem the forklift will remain down and profit loss will continue.

Parts availability plays a major factor in the duration of expensive lift truck downtime. Manufacturers of these equipment components may have a huge inventory, but it’s impossible to always keep every single possible part that might be needed to repair a lift truck in stock.

So what happens when a needed part is not available in local inventory?

In most cases, manufacturers turn to a single American parts distributor, TVH. The location of their nearest distribution center may be multiple states away, which means getting the part overnighted by air freight is the best option, and comes with a significant expense. That is, if that distribution center even has the needed part in stock. In which case, it could be days before the critical piece is located and able to make its way to the offline equipment.

Atlantic Lift Truck has a clear advantage when it comes to parts availability due to our expansive network. We have a 78% fill rate out of our Baltimore headquarters. Our primary forklift supplier, Mitsubishi Caterpillar Forklift America (MCFA), has more parts depots in the U.S. than most of our major competitors combined. MCFA has a large distribution center in nearby Pennsylvania where the fill rate out of that location is 98%. Plus, airfreight is not needed to have parts delivered to us the next day.

In addition, we’re the only lift truck service provider with access to two major “aftermarket” parts suppliers. Glenn Baer of Atlantic Lift Truck explains, “In addition to access to TVH, Atlantic Lift has exclusive access to a company called Rapid Parts, which is the aftermarket parts supply division of MCFA. No other forklift manufacturer has their own aftermarket parts operation.”

Getting the right part quickly is essential to reducing costly forklift downtime. The Parts Department at Atlantic Lift has the ability to locate parts for all makes and models through our robust supply channels. We have daily parts delivery to 35 Parts Drop locations within the states of Maryland, Virginia and Delaware that offer one-day shipping with no expensive airfreight fees. By partnering with a company that has the best access to secondary parts aftermarkets, you will better position your operation for a speedy maintenance intervention, getting your critical lift truck up and running in no time. To learn more about our comprehensive parts department, visit atlanticlift.com/services/parts/.

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