J-I-T On The Edge: Break Down & You're Out
DOUG CONDRA
PRESIDENT/PUBLISHER
It appears we are headed into yet another "new" era of how commercial trucks and trailers are going to be specified. Trade cycles are being stretched out, which means fleets will be asking more from their equipment. They'll also be asking more from their equipment manufacturers.
The magic word is uptime.
To a man, fleet managers we've talked to put the elimination of unscheduled downtime at the top of their lists.
It's more important now than ever because today's economic conditions have pushed the just-in-time delivery system - which was working just fine for awhile there - to the brink.
Businesses that can't accurately forecast their sales (and there are a lot of them these days) are not ordering products for delivery until they're absolutely sure they're going to sell them. Their inventories are leaner than ever, and when they order something now, they want it now.
According to the Wall Street Journal, lead time - the time between placing an order and when it is shipped - is now one to three days. A couple of years ago it was three to five days.
As good as trucking has been at making J-I-T work, the pressure is on to be even better. There's no room for unexpected breakdowns.
Say a truck with a load of axles bound for a major automobile assembly plant breaks down and misses its delivery time. The cost of an unscheduled shutdown of the assembly line is $400,000 an hour. If the plant was counting on that load to keep running, the fleet is in big trouble.
As pointed out in this month's cover story (page 56) fleets that were spec'ing tractors for three-year turns are running it out to four, and some even further. Trailers too - say from five-year cycles to seven.
Much of what's needed for the "new" era can be achieved at the spec'ing level. If you used to turn your trucks at three years, maybe you didn't need to specify a fuel/water separator. And maybe you went light on the electrical system, the cab heating/cooling system and other components.
Spec'ing that way instead of going for premium components will save a few bucks up front. But now it becomes a roll of the dice against breakdowns in that extra year or so of operation.
Actually, a lot of what's old is new again. We're back to placing more importance on trade-in values, extended warranties and perhaps above all, durability.
In reality, that represents a return to business basics.
And with the exception that today's equipment is far more durable than it ever has been, the era we're entering really isn't so new.
