Airline's standardized operation extends lift truck life
American Airlines minimizes maintenance, meets emissions standards, and eliminates its spare fleet with a new lift truck operation.
By Staff -- Modern Materials Handling, 10/1/1998
"Two years ago, we started looking at the fleet of lift trucks we have working across our system," says Dewey Kulzer, manager of ground support equipment for American Airlines. "Because each of our 85 locations bought its own lift trucks, we have nearly every make and model ever built."With such an array of lift trucks, American Airlines had to operate, maintain, and support all of them. It was an expensive and tedious task at best.
To optimize productivity and cost effectiveness, Kulzer standardized his fleet.
"We looked at our existing fleet for lift trucks with the highest utilization and lowest maintenance rates, and one type kept appearing," says Kulzer. "At our largest facility located in Dallas, we were running nearly 50 particular units. Almost all of them had over 20,000 operating hours and were relatively low maintenance," he adds. "Some had 30,000 operating hours and higher."
Based on this data, Kulzer worked with a local lift truck dealer to develop a long-term strategic partnership providing American Airlines with the lift truck manufacturer.
The first step was for the lift truck supplier to understand American Airlines' freight operations. The local lift truck dealer, supplier representatives, and Gene Niedholdt of American Airlines assessed 15 freight handling sites.
The next step was unit selection. The primary model American Airlines will use is a 6,000 lb., electric, cushion-tire lift truck. Able to handle the rigors of the job, these electric units meet one other important selection criterion-they will allow American Airlines to meet EPA clean air/zero emissions standards for airlines before the 2010 deadline.
This strategy is also congruent with American Airlines' SAE 2000 program-a quality improvement plan designed to narrow the airlines supplier base and do business with only those companies who exceed the ISO 9001 quality standards.
To extend battery life in his electric lift trucks, Kulzer uses a process called opportunity charging.
"Traditionally, everyone in the lift truck industry ran their truck until the batteries had to be recharged," says Kulzer. "Then they would park the lift trucks and charge the battery to 100 percent capacity. Those batteries were good for X number of cycles and then you needed new ones.
"About 15 or 20 years ago, the airline industry found you could charge those batteries to 80% and they wouldn't recognize it as a charge," he says. "By always charging the batteries to 80% and training operators to plug them into a charger whenever the lift truck was idle, you could greatly extend battery life. In some cases, batteries were running up to 10 or 12 years.''
Kulzer stresses that the key to making opportunity charging work is in training the lift truck operator to plug the truck into a charger every time it is stopped. Therefore, the battery is always charged and the lift truck is ready for an extended period of service.
American Airlines also has engaged in a leasing program developed by the supplier who worked with Kulzer to determine his expectations and needs.
American Airlines historically kept its lift trucks for a long time. That left them with a large maintenance issue and need for a spare fleet, two things the airline wanted to minimize. The leasing program allows American Airlines to rotate their lift trucks every 36 months.
"The lease program allows us to have a new fleet with nearly zero maintenance and no down time," says Kulzer. "We're going from 200 or 250 hours of maintenance a year down to 17. And I have almost totally eliminated my spare trucks."
Technicians of American Airlines receive training to the supplier's standards so they can do the scheduled maintenance themselves. When training is complete, technicians will maintain the fleet according to warranty.
"When we decided to partner with a forklift supplier, we were looking for something more than a typical customer/vendor relationship,'' says Kulzer. "The supplier is always willing to listen to our questions and concerns, and they respond to them with solutions that work for American Airlines.''
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