Toyota Fork Lifts Number 1 In the Country – Surprised?

Here is something to file in the “things you didn’t know box,” Toyota makes the country’s best selling, safest and most fuel efficient forklifts. Incredible right, but not surprising.

The supply company called, the Toyota Material Handling, U.S.A., Inc. (TMHU), is located in Irvine, Cal., and has been selling Toyota fork lifts for 45 years. The production plant located in in Columbus, Ind. for more than 20 years and has produced more than 400,000 Toyota lift trucks since its opening in 1990. Toyota fork lifts are the industry leader in fork lift safety with its System of Active Stability™ (SAS) that “helps reduce the risk of accidents and injuries, minimizes the potential for product and equipment damage, and increases overall productivity levels.” 

With more than 70 authorized Toyota Industrial Equipment dealers and more than 220 dealership locations throughout North America, Toyota dealers offer comprehensive customer service and support, including one-stop shopping for both new and used lift trucks, rentals, parts and service, fleet servicing and financing.

TMHU offers a variety of Toyota items including:

• lift trucks (fork lifts)
• reach trucks
• order pickers
• hand pallet trucks

TMHU recently announced its 8-Series I.C. cushion 5,000 pound capacity lift trucks ranked highest in performance, fuel efficiency and productivity compared to similarly equipped competitor models in third party testing by USAC Properties, Inc.

Toyota’s 8-Series lift truck dramatically outperformed its competition, which consisted of equivalently equipped 5,000 pound capacity internal combustion models from Caterpillar, Nissan and Yale.

On top of all the best fork lift in the country marks, the Toyota plant that makes them in Columbus, Indiana was recently honored as has been selected by IndustryWeek Magazine as one of the 10 Best Plants in North America. The competition is part of IndustryWeek’s annual search for North America’s manufacturing excellence.

Plus the Columbus, Ind., Chamber of Commerce, recognized the manufacturing plant, Toyota Industrial Equipment Mfg., Inc. (TIEM), as “Company of the Year.”

The Chamber recognized TIEM’s accomplishments, which include:

• The establishment of a recovery plan soon after Japan’s 2011 earthquake and tsunami that adjusted work schedules and allowed associates to continue 40-hour work weeks.
• TIEM’s zero-landfill facility designation achieved by shifting to a waste-to-energy facility and implementing recycling programs.
• The addition of new risk assessment training, which resulted in a 65 percent reduction in safety incidents.
• The integration of a Total Plant Maintenance Program that reduced emergency repairs to just 11 percent of overall maintenance performed in 2009 and enabled the cost-per-hour of downtime to be reduced by 10 percent in the same period.

While we commonly know Toyota as the auto manufacturer, many manufactures over the years have expanded into other areas such as Ford tractors, yet it is often quite interesting to see well-known brands like Toyota be successful in other areas like fork lifts.

Quick survey, did you know about the Toyota fork lifts?

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