When planning for a custom lift table application, how much time should you leave for the entire process? There are many steps involved in moving from an idea for a custom lift table all the way through to the custom equipment being operational in the field. It is never too early to start bouncing around ideas for your custom lift table. If you reach out to your Pentalift Sales Representative early in the design process and make yourself aware of all the potential physical restraints and safety elements that you need to keep in mind while planning, you could save yourself on wasteful revisions later in your process.
While budgeting time for the custom lift table application, you should consider it in stages. The first stage will be determining your requirements and moving to quote. Plan on several rounds of questions to narrow down options and to work through decision points before arriving at firm quotation. This process requires back and forth discussion and can be relatively quick for very simple applications, but could take up to a week or even more for more complicated customization. It could then be several business days (allow up to one week) to have Estimators investigate custom components and fabrication methods to determine all of the associated costs, and then for the sales representative to complete and send the firm quote. Summary: From concept to quote, several business days to two weeks.
Now that you have your quote, have reviewed the proposed equipment with all parties, and have decided that you wish to proceed, you need to allow time for the next stage…generation and review of approval drawings. All custom equipment requires a detailed approval drawing be reviewed and signed by the customer before the potential work order is sent for scheduling. This is the stage where Pentalift Engineering completes a final review of the proposed customization, conducts any studies to complete any remaining engineering requirements, and confirms final dimensions impacted by the review. There is a drawing queue, so several business days should be budgeted for drawings even for the simplest of custom applications. Once completed, these approval drawings will be sent for your review, and a signed or stamped copy must be returned to Pentalift before scheduling the order, so make sure you budget time for your own internal drawing review and approval process. Summary: From receipt of order to providing approval drawings, several business days to one week.
Once you have returned signed or stamped approval drawings to Pentalift, the work order is entered into the system for Credit Approval and Production Scheduling. Everything at Pentalift is made-to-order, and there are no finished good inventories of any kind. This means that lead times can fluctuate depending on the shop loading when your order is received. Production Scheduling will review purchased and fabricated component lead times along with the production schedules to determine the best estimated completion date available. This date is communicated back to the customer by Pentalift Admin through a formal order acknowledgement. A single piece of simple custom equipment could take from 6 weeks after receipt of signed/stamped approval drawings, and the quantity and the complexity of the customization can increase the lead time significantly from there. Summary: From receipt of signed/stamped approval drawings to equipment complete on Pentalift’s dock ready to ship, minimum six weeks and common to be up to 12 weeks.
Finally, it is important to remember that the date that is provided by Pentalift is the date that the equipment is expected to be completed in-house at Pentalift Equipment. You will need to budget any additional transit time that will be required to get your equipment from Pentalift’s shipping dock to its final location. Summary: Add up to one week for transportation of the finished equipment.
It is never too early to get started on your custom lift table design. Get in touch with your Pentalift Sales Representative early in the process to minimize later revisions. You should budget a minimum of eight weeks even for the simplest pieces of custom equipment, and add additional weeks from there as the sophistication of the customization increases. Contact your Pentalift Sales Representative to discuss the process in more detail.