Looking to get a foot in the door before the building's even built, Dover Corp.'s Rotary Lift division is offering to help vehicle repair shop owners design their new outlets with an eye to efficient use of space.
The company has taken this initiative-being offered under its ``assistPRO'' program-to another level, offering free professional facility planning assistance to architects involved in designing commercial structures for vehicle repair businesses. Architects can even earn continuing education credits by completing an online course Rotary has set up in partnership with the American Institute of Architects.
Rotary, through its assistPRO experts and its distributors, works with architects to analyze vehicle turning radii and traffic flow for the types of vehicles to be serviced at an individual facility, the firm said.
Using this information, they determine the optimum use of shop floor space, where lifts need to be placed and how much work space there will be around each. Then they apply their knowledge of lift capabilities to the customer's lifting needs to recommend a comprehensive lift selection plan.
At the end of the process, the architect receives a custom layout of the service facility with all lifts placed appropriately to make the best use of the space. The final drawings are provided in the format that works best for the architect: electronic pdf documents, color prints or CAD (computer-aided design) drawings.
The process worked well for Aerts Construction Co. Inc. in St. Petersburg, Fla., which turned to Rotary Lifts for help with a Firestone company store in north Tampa after Firestone specified above-ground lifts for the store, according to Ryan Minney, the architect for the project.
``It just made sense to contact Rotary after seeing that Firestone had spec'd Rotary lifts for the store,'' Mr. Minney said. ``There are much different space requirements for above- vs. in-ground lifts.
``We had some space limitations to work with, and they made some suggestions on repositioning some equipment to make it work and fit. And we got great response time from them, which helped us with the client.''
Rotary gets involved with more than 350 customers annually in this fashion, according to Cory Powell, Rotary technical information supervisor.