Picking the Right Forklift Attachments

Identifying and specifying the best forklift attachments for your needs involves a good many factors that impact your operational efficiency, safety, and productivity. Here are some of the things that go into the decision:

• Diverse Operational Needs: Materials handled, environment, specific tasks.
• Load Characteristics: Size, shape, weight, fragility, center-of-gravity, lift-height, etc.
• Safety and Compliance: Industry-specific regulations and standards and consideration of load stability and balance.
• Efficiency and Productivity: The goal is to choose the attachment that increases productivity without compromising the quality and safety of work. 
• Cost-effectiveness and ROI: Initial cost and long-term costs require evaluation of improved efficiency vs. reduced labor costs vs. minimized damage to goods.
• Scalability: Highlighting how attachments can easily scale with the growth of your business and support your increased material handling needs without significant additional investment.
• Safety Improvements: Understanding how certain attachments can make forklift operations safer by improved load stability and reduced manual handling.
• Attachment Compatibility with Existing Equipment: Not merely fit-up, but lifting capacity, lift-height requirements, and hydraulic capabilities.
• Technological Advancements: Leading edge capabilities offer competitive advantages, but they also add complexity when choosing between standard and advanced features.
• Long-Term Durability and Maintenance: It always pays to look at the big picture and balance robust features with maintenance requirements.
• Manufacturer Selection: Selecting the right manufacturer involves understanding breadth of their product lines, unique quality, compatibility with your equipment, after-sales support, and parts availability.
• Customization: Sometimes the perfect attachment doesn’t exist. Here, it’s important to understand the possibilities and the process of project managing a custom-designed forklift attachment that fits your unique needs.

As you can see, choosing the right forklift attachment isn’t as simple as browsing a catalog. Some manufacturers have hundreds of slightly different versions. Our experts have experience with attachments from the ordinary to the unique.