Supply Chain Efficiency

Royal Furniture’s fleet of Pack Mule utility vehicles reduces downtime and keeps the focus on getting products out the doors of its 400,000 square foot distribution facility.

Managing a high sales volume while continuing to deliver high customer satisfaction is a challenge, especially in today’s competitive retail market. Businesses must utilize an efficient supply chain to keep deliveries on time and running smoothly.  To achieve this, Royal Furniture, a high-volume furniture retailer, uses Wesley International’s Pack Mule electric utility vehicles in its main distribution facility. Wesley International is known as America’s premier provider of forklift free material handling solutions and its Pack Mule line is known for high quality, toughness and simple maintenance.  It is the simple maintenance that Royal Furniture credits for helping to keep deliveries running smoothly.

“The maintenance on the Pack Mule is just so much simpler,” says Mark Miller, who works in Royal Furniture’s 400,000 square foot distribution facility.  Mark finds the Pack Mule “easier to take care of… and cheaper.” He points to easy maintenance as the primary reason he prefers Pack Mule to other brands. When switching parts, Mark says, “My guys can just whip them in and whip them out and we lose hardly any down time.“

Mark Miller switched to Pack Mules 13 years ago and has never looked back. Before the switch, Mark used Taylor Dunn electric utility vehicles, which he found much more complicated to maintain. The wasted man-hours, finding problems and replacing parts, could have been put to better use in distribution. He credits Wesley International for designing a vehicle that allows him to easily identify and replace parts without complicated procedures like removing the motor. He likes that he does not need to test solenoids to find which one might be causing a problem.

Mark likes the simplicity of Pack Mule’s design, making the utility vehicles easier to examine for problems. “If you pull this part out on the Pack Mule, you can look at it and see whether the part was wrong or not.” This simple design makes Mark’s job less complicated: “You can see it; you can see what the problem was.”

As an expanding business that has grown from a 25-employee business to a 225-employee business in just 25 years, Royal Furniture has filled its enormous distribution facility with an extensive product selection. The company is proud to utilize the best technology available in this facility, including its fleet of Pack Mules.

Royal Furniture has other reasons to be proud as well. The company has been consistently recognized as a top seller in America for sales per square foot. In business since 1946, Royal Furniture prides itself of a high level of customer service, despite the challenging sales volume. A great asset in providing good customer service is Royal Furniture’s fleet of Pack Mules.

Switching to Pack Mules has been a great decision for Mark. He is able to focus on the finer points of maintaining an efficient supply chain, rather than maintaining his electric utility vehicles. The simple design and ease of maintenance have kept him using Pack Mules for 13 years. Imagine the man-hours you could save by switching to Pack Mule in your distribution facility.