The Material Handling Blog

The world of materials handling and logistics is constantly changing, but at the moment, things are more uncertain than ever.  The COVID-19 crisis began at the start of the year, but already it’s caused huge changes to manufacturing, consumer buying habits and ways of working. On top of all this, the UK’s approaching withdrawal from the European Union continues to create uncertainty for businesses on both sides of the channel, especially those that move components or finished goods between the two markets.

There’s one sentence which may be preventing your materials handling operation from reaching its full potential – “that’s the way we’ve always done it.”

An off-the-shelf forklift from a good supplier should be able to provide you with years of faithful service.

However, the winter season is always challenging if you have forklifts that operate outdoors. Ice, rain and snow pose risks to operators and make it harder for these trucks to operate safety and efficiently.

As the COVID-19 crisis continues all over the world, materials handling professionals are focusing on how to make it through the crisis and ensure their businesses returns to full strength once things return to normal. 

The struggle to keep unnecessary costs to a minimum is always important for materials handling professionals. But when economies slow down and business is disrupted, like during the current COVID-19 crisis, using your resources efficiently becomes even more vital.

Forklifts are durable machines, and they can stand still for long periods without creating too many problems. However, during the ongoing crisis, it's important to make sure that your equipment will be able to return to work quickly and smoothly once things return to normal.

The coronavirus crisis is creating huge amounts of disruption for business and society all over the world. Companies are having to deal with high levels of staff absence, reduced demand for services and products and even mandatory shutdowns in some countries.

Many businesses' services have become even more vital - for example, in the food distribution or medical equipment industries. However, other sectors are experiencing a serious slowdown, and for companies that have a materials handling operation, their forklift fleet may be at a complete standstill or utilised much less than normal.

Shuttle racking certainly isn't the cheapest storage system available, but if you want to maximise the capacity of a warehouse, it's a fantastic option.

As we've shown in other blog posts, forklift ownership can have advantages in certain operations over other financing options, such as short-term rental or leasing.

Out of all the different tasks you complete in your materials handling operation, order picking is by far the most expensive.  When you look at the cost involved with handling 1000kg of goods in different stages of the materials handling process, the contrast becomes clear.