Why is the safety inspection before the forklift starts often not carried out in place?
The safety inspection before the forklift starts work every day is the first line of defense to ensure smooth production and safe operation. By checking the appearance, engine, brake system, lights and horns of the forklift, it aims to prevent problems before they happen and ensure that the forklift is put into operation in good condition.
This should be the core measure to prevent failures and ensure safety, but it is often not truly implemented because employees are perfunctory and only "tick" it off. This formalistic approach not only weakens the effectiveness of the inspection, but also allows the forklift to operate in potential hazards, seriously threatening production safety and efficiency.
What is the reason for the poor effect of the daily inspection of the forklift?

1
The current situation of inadequate implementation

There are many inspection items and insufficient time
Forklift drivers need to complete a large number of safety inspection items before work every day, including but not limited to tires, brakes, lights, hydraulics and other systems. Due to the urgency of production tasks, the time allocated for safety inspections is often limited. In order to catch up with the progress, drivers have to speed up the inspection, and sometimes they can only take a quick glance and cannot be comprehensive and detailed. Such an inspection process undoubtedly increases the risk of missing important problems, resulting in poor inspection results.

Lack of training guidance and insufficient skills
Some novice forklift drivers do not have a deep understanding of the standards and procedures of safety inspections when taking over the job, and lack systematic training and guidance. They may not be able to accurately identify potential safety hazards or use inspection tools correctly. Most of the time, they rely on their own exploration and experience accumulation to gradually master inspection skills. This lack of skills directly affects the effectiveness of safety inspections, causing some problems that should have been discovered in time to be missed.

Poor feedback mechanism and delayed problem solving
When forklift drivers find abnormal problems during inspections, such as severe tire wear and insensitive brakes. They may face the dilemma of poor feedback channels or problems that cannot be solved in time after feedback. It is understood that some forklift drivers try to report to the team leader or maintenance department, but the response they get is often just "know" or "deal with it later", but the problem is not solved for a long time. The delayed problem solving methods such as poor internal communication mechanism, unclear division of responsibilities or slow response of the maintenance department weaken the enthusiasm and sense of responsibility of drivers for safety inspections.

Problems are hopeless and inspection enthusiasm is frustrated
After many unsuccessful feedbacks, forklift drivers developed resistance to daily inspections. Even if they inspected carefully, they found problems that could not be solved in time. What was the point of such inspections? As a result, they began to be perfunctory when performing inspections, and sometimes even skipped certain inspection items. This negative attitude further exacerbated the problem of inadequate implementation of safety inspections.

Record management is chaotic and information utilization is inefficient
Forklift safety inspection records are an important basis for tracing problems and summarizing experience. In actual operations, some companies have chaotic safety inspection record management, such as record loss, damage, or unclear content. In addition, these records are often not fully utilized and analyzed, and cannot provide strong support for improving safety inspections. Due to the lack of effective management and supervision mechanisms, inspection records often become a formal requirement rather than a real work tool. This inefficient way of using information limits the continuous improvement and enhancement of safety inspections.

2
Analysis of the reasons for inadequate implementation

01Problems at the management level
The management system is imperfect or poorly implemented: there is a lack of clear and specific inspection standards and processes, or although there is a system, it is not effectively implemented, resulting in the inspection work becoming a formality.

Inadequate supervision: The management's supervision of the inspection work is not strong enough, and the problems in the inspection are not discovered and corrected in time, which greatly reduces the inspection effect.

02Problems on personnel
Operators have weak safety awareness: Some operators do not pay enough attention to safety inspections, and may ignore the inspection link in order to rush the work, or take a perfunctory attitude towards the inspection work.

Lack of professional training: The inspection personnel may not have received systematic professional training, and do not have a deep understanding of the structure, performance and inspection requirements of the forklift, resulting in omissions or misjudgments during the inspection process.

Lack of responsibility: Some inspection personnel may lack a sense of responsibility and are not careful and meticulous in the inspection work, resulting in poor inspection results.

03Problems in the execution process
The inspection process is cumbersome: An overly complicated inspection process may make operators feel cumbersome and time-consuming, thereby reducing their enthusiasm for performing inspections.

Improper inspection records: Inspection records are an important basis for reflecting the quality of inspection work, but some operators may not fill in the inspection records according to regulations, or the records are incomplete and inaccurate, making the inspection records lose their reference value.

04Equipment and environmental factors
Equipment factors

Equipment aging and wear: Aging and worn parts increase safety hazards, and insufficient inspections can easily lead to accidents.

Equipment complexity and diversity: There are many types of forklifts with different characteristics, and it is difficult for inspection personnel to fully grasp them, which is easy to omit and misjudge.

Equipment update and transformation: Technology updates quickly, and the inspection requirements of new forklifts change, and inspection personnel need to adapt in time.

Environmental factors

The operating environment is complex and changeable: Different operating environments increase the difficulty of inspection and affect the effect.

The impact of the environment on equipment: Environmental factors directly affect the performance of forklifts, and they need to be fully considered to prevent omissions.

Insufficient light and illumination: Poor lighting increases the difficulty of inspection and the risk of misjudgment.

05Lack of intelligent management tools
The traditional paper inspection record method may not meet the modern enterprise's requirements for efficient and accurate inspection work. The lack of intelligent management tools such as fleet management systems and forklift inspection apps may lead to inefficient and error-prone inspections.

The data analysis process of paper records is cumbersome and complicated. In contrast, intelligent management tools can more easily process and analyze data and provide managers with intuitive and clear reports.

Comparison video of paper inspection and inspection app:

In the face of these situations, how to improve?

01Plan reasonable inspection items
In-depth equipment analysis: Organize professional technicians to conduct a comprehensive analysis of forklifts, identify key performance parameters, wearing parts and frequent failure points of each component.

Historical data review: Review and analyze previous equipment maintenance records, failure reports and customer feedback, and summarize common problems and root causes.

Customized inspection checklist: Based on the above analysis, develop an exclusive inspection checklist for each vehicle model or type, and clarify the specific requirements, standard values and acceptable range of each inspection item.

02Develop different inspection frequency requirements

Risk assessment: Evaluate the risk level of each inspection item based on the importance of the inspection item and the use of the equipment.

Differentiated settings: Increase the inspection frequency for high-risk items, such as daily or shift inspections; low-risk items can be reduced to weekly or monthly inspections to balance efficiency and safety.

Dynamic adjustment: Regularly review the inspection results and flexibly adjust the inspection frequency according to new problems or changes.

03Promote and implement training on the inspection form
Centralized training: Organize all employees to participate in the training on the use of the inspection form, and explain in detail the meaning, inspection methods and recording requirements of each item.

Practical exercises: Through simulated inspection scenarios, employees can operate hands-on to deepen their understanding and memory.

Feedback mechanism: Set up a question box or online communication platform to encourage employees to raise questions and suggestions for improvement.

04Establish a feedback process for equipment abnormalities
Clear process: Develop a detailed abnormal problem report and feedback process, including the steps to discover the problem, reporting channels, responsible person information and subsequent processing procedures.

Establish archives: Establish maintenance archives for each device to record the report, processing and results of each abnormal problem.

Instant communication: Use internal communication tools to ensure that the relevant person in charge can receive the problem report and respond immediately.

05Make a visual "Common Problems and Countermeasures" description

Graphic and text: Use charts, flow charts, photos and other forms to intuitively display common problems and their solutions.

Easy to understand and remember: Ensure that the description is concise and clear, so that employees can quickly check and understand.

Regular updates: As problems are constantly solved and new problems emerge, regularly update and improve the "Common Problems and Countermeasures" description.

06Use equipment management APP to improve work efficiency

Intelligent inspection: Use equipment management APP for electronic inspection to reduce the risk of errors and loss of paper records.

Data analysis: The APP should have data analysis functions, automatically count inspection data, generate reports, and help managers find potential problems in a timely manner.

Mobile office: Support mobile terminal operation, so that employees can check and record anytime and anywhere, improving work efficiency.

07Establish inspection mechanism

Multi-level supervision: Set up inspection responsible persons at different levels, such as team leaders, supervisors, managers, etc., and each level conducts on-site inspections at different frequencies.

Cross-check: Encourage cross-checks between different departments or teams, learn from each other, and make progress together.

Feedback and rectification: Problems found during the inspection should be immediately fed back to the relevant departments and individuals, and the rectification progress should be tracked to ensure that the problems are solved in a timely manner.

08Incentive and assessment mechanism

Establish an incentive and assessment mechanism for inspection work, reward employees with outstanding performance, and provide guidance or punishment for those who fail to meet the standards.

Conclusion
The safety inspection before the start of forklift operation is often not carried out in place, and the root cause lies in the limitations of the planned maintenance model. Preventive maintenance emphasizes maintenance based on the actual condition of the equipment, which can detect potential faults in advance and avoid sudden downtime. Enterprises need to strengthen information construction, enhance employee awareness, and introduce assessment incentives to promote the transition from planned maintenance to preventive maintenance to ensure the safe operation of forklifts and improve production efficiency and competitiveness.