Forklifts have existed for over 100 years — but it's only in more recent decades that ergonomic design has become a important question for manufacturers to answer.
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When your product can mean life or death for your customers, a solid forklift fleet and reliable logistics operation is an absolute must. Johnson Controls, a manufacturer of fire safety products, is one of these companies. The international firm not only makes fire detection and alarm systems, but also fire suppressions solutions as well. These are important products, and the company needs to get them to the customer as smoothly and quickly as possible.
When you've spent money on new equipment, and invested time and even more budget in safety training and education, damage to forklifts can be a major headache that can increase downtime and endanger staff.
Loading and unloading goods as they come into the warehouse can be one of the more expensive and potentially problematic processes in the materials handling process.
Most people in this industry will have heard of the 80/20 rule, or Pareto Principle, as it's sometimes known. It's a basic theory that claims that around 20 per cent of any process is responsible for 80 per cent of the results of that process.
In manufacturing, for example, it is said that around 20 per cent of the defects in a product are responsible for around 80 per cent of the problems. The rule can apply to sales as well - in this case, 80 per cent of sales often come from 20 per cent of customers.
Densely-packed, high-bay warehouses are excellent at using floor space efficiently. However, they’re not necessarily easy to work in – lifting 1000kg+ weights to heights of well over 10 metres is a challenge, and places high demands on both drivers and forklifts.
As anyone who's been responsible for costs in a warehouse knows, order picking is often the most expensive warehouse operation.
Loading and unloading naturally has associated costs, and stacking can be expensive - but neither come close to the cost of order picking.
It’s possible to spend large amounts of time and money trying to reduce logistics costs by making small changes around the warehouse - but when it comes to the total cost of owning your truck over its lifetime, the driver is often the biggest factor, and can sometimes make up 70% of the total cost.
Forklift safety is vital in the modern warehouse. If you want to keep efficiency high and staff happy, making sure that forklift drivers know the rules is essential. Paying attention to the regulations also reduces the risk of breaking the law, too.
Accidents can harm your bottom line and damage your company's reputation - so keeping the best practice at the top of your mind is important.
Moving goods around inside your warehouse and storing them in a rational way is a major challenge - but the process of actually getting the goods inside in the first place is also filled with potential problems. High costs, queueing and inefficiency can all arise when you're not unloading optimally. That's why making the process as smooth and quick as possible can have a positive 'knock-on' effect on the rest of your operation.
