Viewing Material Handling Efficiency Through the Lens of Forklift Batteries
Almost every time we chat with our customers about forklift fleet management, inevitably the discussion turns to efficiency. Interestingly, no two clients seem to have the same definition of efficiency – sometimes they focus on completion rates, mission times, order throughput, monthly lift hours, or any number of other performance indicators. Across all the ways that warehouse managers measure efficiency in their operations, one factor is universal: forklifts must perform consistently, productively, and without unexpected downtime, as the single largest threat to warehouse efficiency is an unplanned material handling resource limitation right when that resource is needed most. Unplanned downtime can certainly be caused by accidents or sudden equipment failures, but more commonly, downtime slowly creeps up on a fleet manager in one not-so-obvious form, and that is forklift battery performance.
Forklift batteries contribute to overall warehouse efficiencies in both direct and indirect ways, such as:
- Direct Efficiency Benefits – fast charge times, long running hours, and other factors measurable at the battery itself help directly drive up warehouse efficiencies by solving for overall forklift productivity.
- Indirect Efficiency Benefits – ease of charging, avoidance of physical swap-outs, safety benefits, and smaller batteries resulting in smaller forklift footprints (and therefore narrower racking aisles) are all good examples of indirect benefits that battery selection can provide towards overall warehouse productivity.
Another interesting way that our customers frame the concept of warehouse efficiency is by measuring their business’ total environmental footprint. From this perspective, a material handling business may find itself gaining efficiency as it reduces its waste output, raw energy consumption, owned assets, and size of building space – all of which are factors influenced by forklift battery selections. For example, selecting modern battery types such as lithium-ion, choosing smaller battery (and lift) sizes, and properly recycling batteries at the end of their lives are great ways to improve warehouse efficiency with environmental care in mind.
Battery Factors that Directly Influence Material Handling Efficiency
To break down the main ways that forklift batteries directly influence warehouse operational efficiency, let’s run through this list of examples:
- Run Time – batteries with high charge capacities, stable discharge profiles, lower thermal waste, and consistent power output keep forklifts operating at full capacity for more hours between charges. Premium-quality batteries can often support multiple work shifts on a single charge, reducing total charging downtime across shifts.
- Charge Time – when a forklift does require charging, the length of time that the lift will be inoperable while it charges is directly proportional to the remaining operable time available for work. Traditional lead-acid batteries may be the worst culprits of charging downtime, requiring between 8 and 16 hours to charge and then cool. Rapid-charging lithium-ion batteries on the other hand can often trickle charge opportunistically throughout the day, or completely charge within only 2-4 hours.
- Charge Method – while lithium-ion batteries permanently stay within a lift even during charging, lead-acid batteries are often removed from their forklift and charged out-of-place while a fresh, fully charged battery is swapped into the lift. Charging methods (in- place versus out-of-place) have very different impacts on operator effort, safety risks, and time loss should any sort of issue occur.
- Space Impacts – lead-acid batteries require a safe, contained, protected area for handling and storage. Very often, these designated lead-acid battery areas are constructed as enclosed rooms that take away from otherwise usable warehouse space, and can present cramped quarters that forklift traffic has to slowly maneuver around. In these ways, lead-acid batteries have a negative impact on overall warehouse efficiency in terms of space requirements, compared to lithium-ion battery charging areas that are typically no larger than the forklift footprint itself.
- Maintenance – lead-acid batteries require active maintenance which includes measuring acid levels, topping off electrolytic fluids, and general management of wear and tear on the battery. This maintenance takes up personnel time, time which could be used doing other productive tasks and which could be mostly avoided with lithium-ion batteries.
- Housekeeping – cleaning up spills, capturing overflows caused by overheating, and general cleaning of dust and debris around batteries are all general housekeeping practices that can take up operational time and detract from warehouse efficiency. Lead-acid batteries (and their maintenance areas) take much more effort to clean, whereas lithium-ion batteries generate no real housekeeping concerns to speak of.
- Safety – generally speaking, lithium-ion batteries are safer than lead-acid batteries for many reasons listed above. Handling, swapping, servicing, and maintaining lead-acid batteries is significantly more involved than with lithium-ion batteries, and requires moderate personal protective equipment to be worn during service. Even better, sealed lithium-ion batteries do not pose the overheating or acid overflow risks that lead-acid batteries do, which results in higher safety for forklift operators and maintenance personnel.
- Lifespan – simply put, lithium-ion batteries tend to last longer than lead-acid batteries, but with the caveats of moderately higher prices and lower power outputs. The lifespan of forklift batteries influences overall warehouse efficiency in terms of replacement frequencies, times, storage of spares, and amount of time involved in facilitating these replacements.
Key Considerations towards Total Warehouse Operational Performance
At the beginning of our article, we described the difference between direct and indirect efficiency factors that forklift batteries influence. Above we described many direct influences, and next we’ll mention three key indirect benefits that fleet managers should consider when weighing forklift battery options.
- Forklift Fleet Size – any efficiency-related metric must be considered in combination with the scale of impact it can have on the business. For example, upgrading a fleet of five forklifts to lithium-ion batteries may provide huge benefits for the handful of forklift operators impacted, but this may not result in cost-effective efficiency gains over the entire business. Conversely, a minor switch from last-generation lithium-ion chargers to current rapid chargers across a fleet of hundreds of lifts, cutting 5% off each lift’s charging time can result in thousands of freed up operating hours per year.
- Forklift Utilization – carrying on with our above point, forklift utilization is another factor rooted in scale. For example, if lift trucks are used for a single shift a day, charging times may not be a huge concern and allow for cost savings in selecting slower charging options. If instead a lift fleet runs continuously 24/7, every minute that a forklift battery can stay in operation instead of charging is worth a larger investment, as it directly results in “found productive time” that was otherwise unavailable to the business.
- Peak Energy Cycles – energy is expensive, and in localities where energy costs vary between peak and off-peak hours every time, this expense can quickly become a major threat to overall warehouse cost efficiency. Forklift charging periods often fall into peak energy cost times of the day as a function of staff shift changeovers. Businesses may be sitting on hidden expenses charging their lifts at these peak times, and can immediately grab energy cost savings simply by changing their charging times to off-peak hours, as well as changing battery and charger types to longer-running versions that can span over peak cost periods entirely.
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We hope that this discussion on material handling techniques and technologies proves useful to your manufacturing, construction, and distribution interests. Atlantic Forklift Services is your premiere material handling equipment resource, serving customers in the North and South Carolinas with professional equipment sales, rentals, service, repair, parts, training, and solution consulting. As a award-winning dealership, Atlantic Forklift Services partners with world-class equipment manufacturers including Bobcat Material Handling Equipment. To learn more, please contact us by phone at (866) 243-0991, by email at info@atlanticforkliftservices.com, or on the web at https://www.atlanticforkliftservices.com/.