Moving materials through your facility safely and efficiently is critical to your success, so finding the right material-handling partner is essential. Here’s how to find a material-handling provider who will help take your business to new heights.
With soaring warehousing costs, continuing supply chain snafus, and critical labor shortages, you’ve got enough on your plate without worrying about bottlenecks in your facility’s workflow or costly material handling mishaps that lead to product damage. You need a reliable material-handling provider who understands your business, listens to your material handling concerns, and delivers reliable solutions that help you deliver results.
Equipment and facility infrastructure upgrades can add up, so finding a provider helps you solve your current material handling challenges while helping you prevent future challenges is critical to your business. Selecting the wrong provider can have long lasting implications that can leave you with expensive equipment that doesn’t work as promised, doesn’t solve your material handling problems, and solutions that can’t grow along with your operation.
Ask the Right Questions
Do they understand your business?
Does your material-handling provider really understand how your business works? The right partner will strive to understand your overall business and your short- and long-term goals so they can make recommendations that solve today’s problems while laying the groundwork for avoiding additional issues as your business grows and/or changes.
Do they understand your material handling challenges?
In addition to understanding your overall business, does the provider truly understand your material handling challenges? Are they willing to visit your facility and assess your current processes and workflows so they can make the best equipment recommendations possible? Failing to assess and understand the specific challenges your current material handling processes present will only lead to more inefficiencies, potential safety issues, and material damage.
Do They Have In-Depth Knowledge of the Equipment They Sell?
Does your supplier truly understand the equipment that they are providing? Even if they’re an authorized reseller for various equipment brands, it is important to know:
- Do they have in-depth knowledge of the equipment they rep?
- Can they explain the features, advantages, and benefits of each piece of equipment?
- Can they offer customized solutions?
- Can they tell you about the true cost of ownership of each piece of equipment (installation, start up, maintenance, replacement parts, inspections, etc.)?
How Will They Work With You?
When selecting a material handling provider, it is important to understand how they will work with you so there are no surprises. Many providers call this their proven process or their partnership process. These processes simply define what it looks like to do business with them and defines topics such as:
- Assessment of your material handling needs
- Their quoting, design, and review process
- Management of your account
- Equipment installation and startup processes
- After sale customer support, training, and parts/service availability
In Conclusion
Selecting the best material handling equipment provider for your business takes some time and research but is well worth the effort. The right provider will offer equipment solutions that will increase your material handling efficiency, throughput and safety, now and in the future.
Let PFlow Handle Your Heavy Lifting
At PFlow, we take tremendous pride in the safety, performance, and durability of our industry-leading vertical reciprocating conveyors (VRCs), and we strive to deliver outstanding customer service and after-sales parts and service support.
Our VRCs offer unmatched safety and efficiency and are designed to meet your specific material size, space, and lifting requirements. Click below to learn more about how PFlow’s VRC experts and knowledgeable material-handling dealer network can work with you to design, install, and operate equipment that will serve your needs today and for years to come.