New York Container Terminal

Challenge

An Unusual Fleet

“We have about 330 units. We have 89 yard switchers or hustlers. We have 33 full container handlers and 9 that handle empties. We have about 100 electric and propane forklifts that move warehouse cargo, and we have a 2,000 hp diesel-electric locomotive,” he said.

The locomotive moves containers over two miles of track on NYCT’s property and to nearby Arlington Yard where loaded container cars are handed off to rail carriers.

Priscu’s department also maintains 30 pick-up trucks, as well as two school buses used to move work crews around the property.

When Charlie Priscu was named Manager, Power Equipment, the department ran on paper records and was less than well organized at that.

“They really didn’t have a PM program. They might have had one or two Excel spreadsheets around with lists of things they needed to PM, but they weren’t keeping track. It was pretty much, okay, we did this group of trucks three months ago; let’s do ‘em again. That kind of thing,” Priscu explained.

Solution

Gearing Up to Take Control

“I came in in January and they were doing inventory at the end of the year and I inherited the inventory for the next year,” Priscu recalled. “At the time I had an assistant in the outer office and he was kind of taking care of it on an Excel spread sheet. It was just a mess. They did an audit and it failed, and they did an audit and it failed again. What we had listed was not what we actually had in the inventory.

“We had way more stuff than we had on paper, which has been my experience in marine terminals. You have $200,000 or $300,000 worth of inventory on paper; you’ve got $500,000 or $600,000 in your storeroom–parts that are obsolete, stuff that never got put into an inventory. Maybe you’ll use it, maybe you won’t. Maybe you don’t even know it’s there, and you buy another one. You run into all of those issues.

“It took almost a full year to get everything bar-coded and accounted for,” Priscu said.

Results

Overcoming Inventory Problems

“We went from the bottom to the top in one year,” Priscu said.

“My inventory crept from about $300,000 to about $550,000. I didn’t add anything. That was just reclaiming things already here that nobody had accounted for,” he noted.

Now NYCT’s parts inventory is attuned to actual work being done and turns over as needed.

“We use probably 30 or 40 sets of Ford brake shoes a year. We keep two in stock at all times. That way we don’t have disruptions in work. The guy takes the job apart, gets the parts, puts it together, the parts guy orders a new set, and away we go,” Priscu said.