The company uses a fleet of 29 Cat^® lift trucks throughout its 500,000 sq. foot facility to move, stock and transport more than 3 million pounds of material each month. Efficiency is a top priority of Port City Metal Services and with such a large facility, employees rely on the forklift fleet to work.

With each forklift running an average of 200 hours every three weeks and playing such an integral role in the production of the business, it's important that forklift parts can be located and replaced quickly, as needed. Port City Metal Services has depended on their local Cat lift truck dealer, Darr Equipment, for more than 20 years to provide a broad range of reliable replacement parts for their forklifts.

Until recently, Port City employed a manual process to order forklift parts. Darr Equipment simplified the process by introducing nGauge^®, an on-line lift truck parts ordering system available through Cat lift truck dealers. Streamlining forklift parts ordering through nGauge allows Port City to spend less time on its forklift fleet and more time on its business.

Freddy Bell, maintenance supervisor at Port City Metal Services, has been pleased with the benefits of the nGauge system and has seen cost savings as a result of the change.

"Now we place one consolidated order daily with nGauge, instead of placing several orders and making multiple part pick-ups," says Bell. He estimates that combining part pick-up trips to Darr Equipment saves Port City approximately $50 per trip. With multiple trips each day, the cost savings add up.

nGauge provides other timesaving features to help Port City find replacement forklift parts quickly and accurately. The problem of outdated lift truck parts catalogs is eliminated through nGauge's electronic system which provides current information with search options to quickly and accurately identify in-stock products.

The system also provides an option to locate current part information for expired or superseded part numbers to compare existing stock before ordering new forklift parts. Bell says this has been another cost saving benefit to the company.

"Whether you're performing a tune-up, replacing a broken tail light or rebuilding an engine, you need access to the right forklift parts," says Kelly Kinsfather, Product Support Sales Representative for Darr Equipment. "With nGauge, you can quickly check availability and pricing on millions of replacement parts for all forklift makes and models."