Forklift and Pallet Jack Damage
Products Used
Rolling Service Doors
Model #ESD10Thermiser® Insulated Rolling Door
Model #ESD20Thermiser Max® Insulated Rolling Door
Model #ESD30Extreme® 1024 High Performance Door
Model #EPD1024 and EPI1024Rolling Fire Doors for Safety and Security | Cornell
Model #ERD10 and ERD11
SITUATION: A large Retail Big Box customer was having issues with repeated service calls due to damage to their Receiving Doors. They were spending in excess of $500,000 per year on service calls for these doors across all of their locations.
Our valued customer approached us to help them find a solution to this drain on their overall budget. We accepted their challenge to reduce their number of service calls and annual service spend on their Receiving Doors.
ACTION: We developed a plan to uncover the top issues by reviewing their service records in search of trends of damage. We discovered that more than 50% of their Receiving Door service calls were to replace damaged slats, curtains or bottom bars. This helped us narrow in on what would cause that type of damage. Next, we visited multiple store locations and observed employee behavior. We combined what we had learned from watching employees use the doors, trends in their service calls, and our door expertise to develop a solution that would solve their issues permanently.
RESULT: We concluded the service calls were a result of repeated light impacts to the doors by forklift drivers. Their Receiving Areas were used as staging areas for incoming inventory. These pallets of inventory were placed in front of the receiving doors. When a forklift driver came to pick them up, they would use the door as a backstop by pushing the pallet up against the door to lift it. These repeated small impacts created damage to the door over time. Another problem we saw, that was unexpected, was that every single receiving door in every store we visited was damaged, but the doors were still operable. After interviewing employees and asking about this, we found out they do not request service calls on the doors until they are no longer functioning. This was a cause for concern considering the use of damaged doors leads to a more expensive ultimate repair. As we watched the employees use these doors in a damaged state, we realized this was most likely the cause for some of the other service calls above and beyond just damaged slats or bottom bars. This made coming up with a solution even more exciting, as it would reduce service calls even more than we originally anticipated. Our solution was the Heavy Duty Bottom Bar (HDBB). It is 5.5x stronger and 4” taller than a standard bottom bar. This creates a rigid barrier that deflects the forces that would normally create damage to slats and the bottom bar. The HDBB protects the slats above from creasing because the added rigidity will no longer allow this to happen. The HDBB is so strong, it can handle the impact from a 1700 pound forklift traveling 3mph with no damage. This solution paid for itself after the first impact. Service calls on these doors have decreased 75% since the implementation of the Cornell solution.
Our valued customer approached us to help them find a solution to this drain on their overall budget. We accepted their challenge to reduce their number of service calls and annual service spend on their Receiving Doors.
ACTION: We developed a plan to uncover the top issues by reviewing their service records in search of trends of damage. We discovered that more than 50% of their Receiving Door service calls were to replace damaged slats, curtains or bottom bars. This helped us narrow in on what would cause that type of damage. Next, we visited multiple store locations and observed employee behavior. We combined what we had learned from watching employees use the doors, trends in their service calls, and our door expertise to develop a solution that would solve their issues permanently.
RESULT: We concluded the service calls were a result of repeated light impacts to the doors by forklift drivers. Their Receiving Areas were used as staging areas for incoming inventory. These pallets of inventory were placed in front of the receiving doors. When a forklift driver came to pick them up, they would use the door as a backstop by pushing the pallet up against the door to lift it. These repeated small impacts created damage to the door over time. Another problem we saw, that was unexpected, was that every single receiving door in every store we visited was damaged, but the doors were still operable. After interviewing employees and asking about this, we found out they do not request service calls on the doors until they are no longer functioning. This was a cause for concern considering the use of damaged doors leads to a more expensive ultimate repair. As we watched the employees use these doors in a damaged state, we realized this was most likely the cause for some of the other service calls above and beyond just damaged slats or bottom bars. This made coming up with a solution even more exciting, as it would reduce service calls even more than we originally anticipated. Our solution was the Heavy Duty Bottom Bar (HDBB). It is 5.5x stronger and 4” taller than a standard bottom bar. This creates a rigid barrier that deflects the forces that would normally create damage to slats and the bottom bar. The HDBB protects the slats above from creasing because the added rigidity will no longer allow this to happen. The HDBB is so strong, it can handle the impact from a 1700 pound forklift traveling 3mph with no damage. This solution paid for itself after the first impact. Service calls on these doors have decreased 75% since the implementation of the Cornell solution.
