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Silgan Container, a metal food packaging manufacturer, was experiencing fast wear-out on its forklift tires. In their three-shift warehouse operation in California, tires were being replaced every 600 hours, going out of round and even developing flat spots as they drove. The company was forced to purchase more than 400 tires per year and experienced product damage from the bouncing of the forklifts. Silgan called their salesperson at J.M. Equipment Company, R.J. Days, for help and suggestions. J.M. Equipment quickly called in its expert tires salesperson from Continental, Mark Madding, to help diagnose the problem and come up with an effective solution. Mark presented Continental's MH20 forklift tires. While the Continental product would have a greater up front cost, Mark was confident that Silgan would save money over the total lifetime of the tire due to longer running. They agreed to take the "ContiChallenge" and run the MH20s side by side on an identical forklift with their current tire. If the Continentals did not last longer in the same operation, Mark and Continental would buy them back. What did they find? Silgan quickly saw that the Continental industrial tires "flattened" the competitor! In an interview with the MHEDA Journal, service manager Matt Day said the drivers noticed the Continental tires spun less. More importantly, they could run their entire useful life without the development of a flat spot, which would save on the product damage. In the end, the Continental industrial tires met and exceeded the challenge. Silgan was able to operate at its same rates with more than double tire lifespan (1,600 hours), reduce the product damage from bouncing forklifts, and was able to reduce its annual tire purchases from more than 400 tires annually to only 280 in 2010. It was a solution that everyone enjoyed and helped keep business running smoothly at less cost for Silgan Container.
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