At TFS, we talk to a lot of companies about material handling. What we’ve found is that most businesses don’t even realize they’re not actively managing their forklift fleets and facilities.

Yes, it’s absolutely true that most are doing some sort of management, but when we crunch the numbers to demonstrate how much money they’re leaving on the table, they’re stunned. 

That’s because active fleet management means more than just dealing with a vendor to choose forklifts and negotiate a monthly payment.

The pandemic, inflation, supply chain issues, labor shortages, and more: companies are grappling with one of the most unpredictable times in modern history—and material handling has been hit especially hard. While it may feel that you have no effective way to control costs, the good news is that you likely have many more options than you think.

In the market for a new forklift? Be prepared to wait. With order lead times stretching from six months to over a year (and beyond), companies waiting to replenish their fleet are challenged to make do with what they have until their shipment comes in. 

“Before this, a lot of companies were used to being reactionary with their orders because the supply chain was so wide open and you could get your hands on the things that you needed within the relative time frame,” says Ryan Boyd, TFS Vice President, Racking and Automation. "With today's supply chain issues and lead times, companies need to be more proactive and think about the bigger picture sooner rather than later."

Finding operational savings and efficiencies can feel like squeezing blood from a stone. This is as true for CFOs as it is for private equity firms seeking optimal value from their investments. But as many dealing with material handling operations have discovered, optimization can be as simple as partnering with a forklift fleet management specialist.

There’s no question that every company is reeling from supply chain issues right now. Lead times on equipment have quadrupled, even quintupled. What used to take two or three months can now take more than a year—or even two.

Forklifts and how they are paid for and managed may seem like a straightforward, run-of-the-mill operation for a company. But in reality, how a company makes decisions about forklift financing can drive productivity, safety and cost structures across your production facilities and warehouses. Done right, it can become a competitive advantage in today’s age where it is supply chain vs. supply chain.

Distributors and manufacturers are dealing with a myriad of challenges in 2021 as volatility and change have accelerated after the pandemic. On the demand side, the massive shift from retail to e-commerce purchasing puts enormous pressure on omnichannel capabilities. In addition, it has accelerated volatility of customer tastes and choices. On the supply side, increasing tariffs, supply issues and a host of transportation bottlenecks are giving supply chain leaders more challenges.

Is your business booming? Congratulations! That is, unless you manage material handling and you’ve tried to order new assets to handle the onslaught of orders, and have gotten the news about long lead times.

We talk to a lot of supply chain, manufacturing and distribution execs, and we know a lot of them got to where they are by being control freaks (and we mean that in the nicest possible way). After all, when you take your job seriously, it can be hard to trust that an “outsider” will buckle down, let alone understand enough about your operations to actually improve certain things.

Today, you probably outsource many critical, but non-core parts of your operation, such as delivery vans, long-range semis, MRO products, and more.  This is probably because you’ve seen the cost benefit--and you understand the added soft benefit of allowing your people to focus on your core business, instead of these ancillary enablers. After all, semi-truck experts are likely to know a heck of a lot more than employees whose job descriptions don’t even mention the word “semi-truck.”