Intermec has entered into an aftermarket reselling agreement with NACCO Materials Handling Group to provide vehicle-mount computers, handheld bar code scanners and radio frequency identification (RFID) equipment for NACCO’s Hyster and Yale brand lift trucks.

This agreement advances the trend in warehouses and DCs toward marrying RFID reading infrastructure with materials handling equipment—a trend that brings with it two key benefits:

1. Intermec research shows there’s about a 4-1 ratio of dock doors to lift trucks, so moving the technology away from dock doors and installing it on the trucks lowers the cost for capital equipment.
2. Purchasing lift trucks that come equipped with bar code scanners and RFID technology minimizes customers’ lead time.

“In the past there was no link between the Yale and Intermec system, so the customer had to purchase the Yale and then the Intermec, then either have Intermec install it or some third party,” says Dale Guckian at Yale Materials Handling.  He adds that Yale is trying to bridge that gap so eventually it may provide these solutions out of its factory.

Chris Kelley, director of RFID for Intermec, says he foresees a time when more manufacturers will offer data capture equipment built into their lift truck lines.

“If you design data capture systems into the truck at the beginning, I can argue that it will probably be more reliable,” he says. “I can route cables and design them in ways to be secure and out of the way and less subject to damage than in a retrofit.”