Planned replacement cuts warehouse downtime and disruption

AS BUSINESSES weigh the cost of downtime against the cost of planned upgrades, a growing number are moving towards preventative replacement strategies for manual handling equipment.

Single failure creates warehouse-wide bottlenecks

Traditionally, pallet trucks and other handling equipment have often been used until failure, with replacements only ordered once breakdowns occur. But with tighter delivery schedules and increased order volumes, a single equipment failure can delay picking operations, slow dispatch processes and create bottlenecks across entire warehouse zones.

Pallet Truck Shop MD Phil Chesworth said the economics of equipment replacement are changing. "We’re seeing a clear shift in mindset," he explained. "Businesses are increasingly recognising that the cost of downtime is often far greater than the cost of replacing a pallet truck before it fails. When equipment breaks during peak activity, the disruption can ripple across the whole operation."

Many failures are predictable, Chesworth added. "In most cases, equipment shows signs of wear long before it actually breaks. Wheels become harder to manoeuvre, hydraulics lose smoothness, and general performance declines. 

"The challenge is that teams often continue using equipment until it becomes a problem, rather than replacing it while it is still functional but clearly deteriorating."

Treating handling equipment as a managed asset

Preventative replacement strategies are particularly relevant in high-throughput environments, where equipment is in near-constant use. In these settings, the risk of operational disruption increases significantly as assets age, even if they are still technically operational.

But there has been a change in perception when it comes to manual handling equipment, with operators increasingly treating it as a managed asset rather than a consumable tool, and building replacement cycles into broader maintenance and operational planning, Chesworth observed. 

"Downtime affects everything downstream," he said. "When a pallet truck, stacker or table trucks fails it can delay orders, impact staffing efficiency and create congestion elsewhere in the warehouse."

For operators in high-throughput environments, it may be worth reviewing whether current manual handling equipment is being managed as a planned asset or simply run to failure.

For more information:

www.pallettruckshop.co.uk

Tel: 01384 841400