Streamlined battery inventory boosts warehouse efficiency

Office Depot Inc. is a global supplier of office products and services, employs 49,000 workers and reports annual sales of approximately $14 billion. Supporting 1,800 stores in 59 countries, the company also offers award-winning e-commerce sites and a dedicated business-to-business sales organization. Beginning in 2013, the company set out to streamline the number of battery and charger models supporting its lift truck fleet.

At the time, the office supply giant was using 20 different battery models to power a mix of pallet jacks, stock pickers and stand-up counterbalanced lift trucks across its 85-warehouse distribution network. With that many different battery types, simply exchanging forklifts between facilities and accommodating the associated battery requirements was a cumbersome, time-consuming proposition.

To improve overall warehouse flexibility and productivity, Brian Currie, Office Depot’s national fleet manager and senior engineer of supply chain, sought to shrink the number of forklift battery models. Currie knew that doing so would make it much easier for Office Depot to move lift truck assets from location to location as business needs changed. The result was a consistent specification for lift truck battery and charger inventory.

First, representatives for the supplier of the new batteries and chargers (EnerSys) fanned out across the Office Depot warehouse network to take stock of the fleet’s batteries and battery requirements. By late 2016, Currie was able to slash the number of battery models from 20 to five, with the bulk of the fleet now supported by three primary models. Currie says this consolidation has increased fleet flexibility significantly.

The battery optimization initiative will continue across former OfficeMax warehouses and the broader Office Depot distribution network.