Lift truck tips: No failure to communicate
Lift trucks can be equipped to move information as well as things.
Tom Andel, Columnist -- Modern Materials Handling, 10/1/2009
Lift trucks have become rolling computers. Some may say this to either compliment or curse the state of the art. Old-school mechanics may be the ones most likely to curse today's lift trucks because their inner workings have as much to do with the confounding mysteries of software as they do with the comforting predictability of hardware.
For those who depend on the uptime that real-time communications deliver, however, the sophistication of today's lift trucks is a blessing. Now sensors can be combined with RFID technology to make lift trucks vital information tools for managers. They also raise productivity by letting operators work smarter rather than harder.
For example, if a cable breaks or something short circuits, service staffers have all the information they need to diagnose and correct the problem quickly. Separate electronic modules control engine, brakes and hydraulics. The data is broadcast over the control area network (CANbus) and software can convert the data stream into knowledge.
These days a lift truck's ROI takes into account the quality and timeliness of information gathered as well as the amount and speed of materials moved. Thanks to communications networks and HMIs (human machine interfaces), lift trucks act as management's windows to the work environment.
Sometimes operator intervention isn't even required. By equipping lift trucks with optical real-time location systems and RFID technology, they can track indoor assets and inventory and feed the information to a company's managers so they can make strategic decisions.
EastPack of New Zealand is an example. It is one of that country's largest Kiwi Fruit pack houses. Because it runs a seasonal business, EastPack's challenge is managing staffing levels to handle peak demand periods without incurring spikes in labor costs. Meeting New Zealand's strict food traceability regulations adds another challenge as it balances manpower. All pallets of food shipped out must be tracked at the pallet level throughout the operations, including shipping.
The company is now reading RFID tags on all pallets and using optical location tracking to follow order status in real time and report to a warehouse management system (WMS). Before adopting lift trucks as information managers, EastPack was incurring fines for mistakes in shipments to foreign destinations.
Larry Mahan, co-founder, president and COO of Sky-Trax (www.sky-trax.com), one of the technology providers on this job, says that within two months of going live with this system, EastPack saw a 30% productivity improvement (handling 2 million more fruit trays). The company also eliminated eight lift trucks (from 24 to 16 vehicles, with a proportional decrease in labor). The system had a payback of one season—seven months.
"They had enough operational data in the first year to drive three years additional profit improvement," Mahan concludes.
If that's way too much information for you to handle, and all you want is a plain, ordinary sit-down counterbalanced lift truck, that's cool. But I hope you take comfort in knowing that even today's basic models can be upgraded with the right communications technologies to meet your future visibility needs.
Contact Tom Andel attandel4315@aol.com.
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