Best ways to keep the trailer clean

You’re already taking the time to maintain your equipment to ensure that it performs optimally on the job, but how much care do you put into the way it gets there? Maintaining a clean and organized trailer can prove to be a major asset to landscaping crews.

For Gerry Andrews, president of Landscape Associates in De Pere, Wisconsin, applying a lean management approach to his trailer setups seven years ago served as an important step in making his company as efficient as possible. Lean management is based on five S’s: Sort, Shine, Straighten, Standardize and Sustain. You sort everything out, clean it all up, organize it and keep it that way, Andrews says.

“When we first started this, our toolboxes would be totally packed with tools, and you could never find anything. It turned out we had seven different types of shovels. After we went through the five S’s, we are down to two shovels,” he says. Once the different types of equipment were streamlined, the next step was to determine the best way to organize them.

Read the full story from the November issue here.