Pumping Up Productivity on the Plant Floor

Mark Shepherd, Distribution Manager, Ingersoll-Rand ARO

Ingersoll-Rand ARO in Bryan, Ohio is highly regarded as a global leader in manufacturing fluid handling pumps and fluid power motion control components. IR ARO manufactures approximately 1,500 different configurations of pumps. It is a multi-faceted operation where one end product may require 100 or more parts from multiple locations within the plant.

As if those logistics weren't challenging enough, now factor in that the plant was constructed in the 1930s and has undergone numerous expansions, including the construction of additional buildings that require material-handling equipment to traverse parking lots and multiple ramps. Plus the workspace around machining centers remains very tight.

"Crown has a lift truck for every application."
"We need our lift trucks to handle high capacity loads with speed, flexibility, dependability, adaptability, and durability in order to maximize uptime," said Distribution Manager Mark Shepherd. "Our floors can be rough, we have four ramps that allow transition between buildings, and we have to have the ability to deliver items to other buildings across parking lots. Crown has a broad line of lift trucks to meet our needs."

Crown lift trucks on the job at IR include:

• Seven reach trucks (RR 5200 Series)
  - used throughout the plant in every operation
• Two rider pallet trucks (PR 3000 Series)
  - for shuttling parts between machining operations
• Two walkie stacker trucks (ST 3000/20 MT)
  - for various uses in the assembly area
• Four counterbalance sit down rider trucks (SC 4000 Series) - for unloading and loading trucks and taking materials to machining or assembly
• One counterbalance sit down rider truck (FC 4000 Series) - for recycling and reclamation
• One tow tractor (TWR) - takes a chemical recycling tank throughout the plant
• Numerous hand pallet trucks (PTH 50 Series)
  - used throughout the plant
• Using Crown lift trucks, the IR ARO plant has been able to complete all materials handling with one-third fewer man-hours for a saving in excess of $150,000 per year compared to their previous material-handling equipment.

"The kind of relationship you want."
Mark appreciates Crown's commitment to keeping his fleet humming. A planned maintenance program helps prevent serious problems. Only ten service calls were made through the first eight months of 2004 due to a truck down situation. "Crown typically responds within 4 hours - and I believe that 99.9 percent of the time the problem is fixed within two hours of the serviceman's arrival," said Mark, who also can't say enough about his Crown service representative Joe Nofziger. "In my 17 years of experience, I have never worked with a better service technician. Joe is professional and extremely efficient. I have total trust in him. That's the kind of relationship you want from a service provider."

"No OSHA recordable incidents."
Safety is also a major concern. Crown trained Mark and other managers/supervisors on the safe operation of every truck in his plant, knowledge they have passed on to every operator. "Since the operators went through the training, they are much more familiar with the equipment. They have a much better idea of what a lift truck can and can't do, so they don't put themselves in a position that isn't safe. Since I've been at IR, there have been no OSHA recordable lift truck incidents."

"No tolerance for anything
other than the highest quality."
Mark put it best when he compared his company's commitment to quality with that of Crown's. "There is no tolerance at Ingersoll-Rand for anything other than the highest quality work possible. Our expectation is that
Crown lift trucks will meet that same high quality standard.
And they have come through day in and day out."