5 Consequences of Avoiding Regular Dock Door Maintenance - MH Equipment
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5 Consequences of Avoiding Regular Dock Door Maintenance

Every warehouse, retailer and distributor is different. Every company has its own unique operational goals and objectives. Every warehouse manager solves problems differently. But in the material handling industry many of us have something in common–a reliance on dock doors to move products effectively.

In our experience, we’ve found our customers with dock doors usually fall into one of three categories. Which one sounds the most like you?

  1. The Safety Stickler. This person is always thinking about the safety of their crew. You know dock door maintenance is important because it directly impacts the safety of your employees and the drivers who are loading and unloading at your warehouse. You’d hate to see something not fit right or a load to slip. You are on a regular maintenance plan with dock door experts to make sure everything is up to the highest safety standard.
  2. The Efficiency Aficionado. You know you’re this person if you lay in bed at night thinking about a way to decrease the amount of time it takes to unload a truck. You know that five more minutes to unload one truck doesn’t seem like a big deal, but adding that up over hundreds of loads drastically decreases your efficiency. A driver sitting on your yard waiting to unload because of a broken door is completely unacceptable to you. You might already do regular dock door maintenance or you’re close to making it happen, because you know that one small issue could cause massive downtime.
  3. The Equipment Protector. You take great pride in your equipment, and you don’t like to see it constantly being beaten up. An inch or two in the unloading process isn’t the end of the world, but over time, that inch is going to cause major damage to your loading zone. Your eye is drawn to cracked concrete or dock door lights that are dark because you know each of these little things could have a big impact on the rest of your equipment, and the tractors and trailers that are unloading there.

Maybe you’re a combination of more than one of the above, but chances are you relate to a lot of those problems. Whether you’re in retail, manufacturing or distribution, anyone with a dock door knows the importance of keeping them in good working order.

What is your Dock Door Maintenance Strategy?

Once you know which type of dock door manager you are, the question really becomes: what are you doing about it? Do you fully understand how a good dock door maintenance strategy will improve each of the three areas above? How are you handling the need to maintain the effective use of your dock doors? How are you taking care of this critical part of your operation?

You’re likely doing one of three things.

  1. You’re on a regular maintenance plan with dock door experts coming to your warehouse two or more times a year to ensure everything is running smoothly and preventing problems before they begin.
  2. You’re having an employee (or yourself) do the maintenance in-house. You know they aren’t an expert per se, but at least you’re thinking about keeping up with the issue and doing what you can to prevent problems from arising.

OR

  1. You’re crossing your fingers, and hoping nothing bad will happen. You think about having regular maintenance done from time to time, but it never quite makes it high enough on the priority list to get scheduled. After all you and your team have a hundred other tasks to complete each day, and there are no glaring problems needing your attention as far as you can tell.

If you find yourself in category C (and maybe even category B) it’s time to think about this choice a bit more in depth. The last thing we want as an equipment company is for our customers to have a dock door out of service. Especially for our customers who are operating with only one door. If that door breaks down, your entire operation is halted, and there just isn’t time for that!

If you’re not on a regular dock door maintenance plan with MH Equipment, we want you to be aware of the consequences that could pop up.

Consequences of Avoiding Regular Dock Door Maintenance

Having your doors inspected on a regular basis to look for small repairs or maintenance should be a no-brainer. But at the same time, it also seems like such a minor part of the overall operation, that many managers gloss over this piece.

By the end of this article, we hope you have an idea of some of the negative consequences that can happen as a result of delaying this work. And taking it a step further, we hope you realize just how important it is to get your warehouse on a regular maintenance schedule before the end of the day. It just takes a simple phone call to get it all set up. Call MH Equipment now at 888-564-2191 to see the ease of the process.

If you’ve been avoiding maintenance on your dock doors, be on high alert for one or more of the following consequencing to come knocking.

#1 Small issues can become big issues.

A small crack in the concrete, one light that is out, a seal that’s not tight; each of these issues seems small by itself, but each one will contribute to a larger problem eventually. Soon a small crack or poor lighting could lead to any number of issues.

It just takes one truck pulling out too soon, or one load to be dumped in order for major revenues to be lost. Even factors outside of your control like the weather can impact the health of your loading doors. Harsh weather can impact the concrete, seals, and the doors themselves. Don’t ignore the small issues, because sooner or later they will become big issues. And big issues are much more expensive to fix.

#2 Dock safety is compromised.

Safety should always be a high priority, both for your employees and the drivers who are loading and unloading each day. Wear and tear on the doors, or docks that aren’t aligned properly could cause major safety issues. A door that doesn’t roll up properly, or a truck that tips could result in injures. Keep everyone safe by getting on a regular maintenance plan, you’ll prevent problems you might not have even known were possible.

#3 Loading efficiency suffers.

Making a driver work harder to get in position due to a preventable issue is frustrating. It’s frustrating for both you and the driver. The five minutes it takes them to reposition and line up properly multiplied over thousands of loads will cause your efficiency to plummet. It only takes our dock door experts about an hour to do an inspection and repair any small issues on your door. An hour once or twice a year to prevent hundreds of hours of inefficient practices is more than worth it.

#4 Relying on non-experts.

We know you have great people on staff who are more than capable of checking the occasional issue. But when you’re forced to rely on people who have other things to do every day, you’re not trusting this maintenance to the experts, and you’re definitely not guaranteeing the work will remain a high priority and be done at regular intervals. Not to mention, you likely won’t have the paperwork of all the maintenance done each year if you do the work in-house. Let the dock door experts do the work they’re qualified to do. It’s one less thing you and your team will need to worry about.

#5 Decreased credibility

An inefficient dock leaves drivers and external partners frustrated. In their mind, you know the load is coming, so you should have the doors ready for them and in good working order. To not have that will impact the way all of these partners view your business. Your reputation is a critical piece of your operation, so don’t allow it to suffer by avoiding something as easy as regular dock door maintenance.

Implementing a Dock Door Maintenance Plan

An effective dock door maintenance strategy always starts with awareness. Now that you know what could happen as a result of ignoring or delaying this work, it’s time to take action to prevent these consequences. Contact the dock door experts at MH Equipment today and learn how easy and pain-free it is to get on a regular maintenance plan.

Our dock door technicians will put you on a plan and come inspect your doors on a regular basis, and you’ll never have to worry about small issues becoming major problems again. We’ll fight to help you maintain your stellar reputation, improve safety, and increase efficiency the best way we know how.

Don’t wait to schedule this crucial maintenance. Call MH Equipment today at 888-564-2191 and keep your dock doors running smoothly.

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