Forklifts get new groove going with 3D gyrations

Not too many years ago, forklift operators always worked either horizontally or vertically.

They steered their machines down a warehouse aisle. They turned the machine to face the rack. They lifted the forks straight up and positioned them in front of the pallet they wanted to bring to the ground.

But today, it's just as common to find forklift operators working diagonally across the rack, says Michael Hancock, a logistics supervisor at International Game Technology in Reno.

He watches as a machine guided by a wire in the warehouse floor moves down the aisle at the same time that the operator rises nearly 20 feet in the air behind the forks to pick an order.

The rapid change in forklift technology is one of the unheralded factors shaping the logistics industry that's a key element in northern Nevada's economy.

The development of faster, more efficient, and smarter forklifts influences everything from the design of giant new distribution centers to the training programs that educational institutions run to train forklift operators.

"It's a big deal," says Dale Rogers, director of the Center for Logistics Management at the University of Nevada, Reno. "New lift trucks are way more efficient than they used to be."

How efficient? Take a hike through IGT's sprawling warehouse operation with Hancock and David Martin, another logistics supervisor for the company, and see the world through their eyes.

On the receiving docks, Martin says highly efficient new battery systems and the AC motors that are replacing DC motors allow forklifts to run for a shift and a half before they need to be recharged substantially increasing the time the machines can be at work.

New forklifts are loaded, too, with computing power. Some, for instance, feature rugged computer displays that show operators what orders they need to pick.

For logistics managers, Martin says, a key piece of technology is ShockWatch an electronic key that limits use of a forklift to a qualified operator, tracks the hours that it's in use and provides a plethora of management information, including times when loads get the sorts of hard bumps that might cause damage.

On the other side of the IGT warehouse, where Hancock oversees shipments of finished goods, changing forklift technology continues to boost productivity.

Because operators don't need to steer the machines that are guided by wires in the floor, they can focus on moving up and down the racks while the machine moves back and forth.

And when they arrive at a rack location, they don't swing the entire forklift into position. Instead, only the forks swing into position.

That may not seem like much of a change, but it's carried big implications for warehouse developers.

Forklifts that don't swing into position can work in substantially narrower aisles as narrow as 5 feet in some instance. That allows more racks across the footprint of a warehouse. At the same time, more sophisticated forklifts can work on racks as high as 30 feet above the warehouse floor. More racks and higher racks dramatically increase the storage capacity of a distribution center.

"It's definitely influenced the way we build," says Par Tolles, a Reno-based principal in the development firm Trammell Crow Co.

Better forklifts, for instance, were one of the key elements that allowed development of tall new distribution centers with racks 24 or 28 feet high.

The technological change also puts pressure on operators of distribution centers to swap out machines more quickly.

Twenty years ago, warehouse managers typically expected a new forklift to serve them at least 10 years because technology was slow-moving, says Steve Raymond, chief executive officer of Raymond Handling Concepts Corp. His company is one of the biggest manufacturers of forklifts.

But today, Raymond says, five-year replacement cycles are far more common. With costs running $20,000 to $30,000 for a standard electric forklift, that's a big investment for a distribution center with a fleet of machines.

The new technology puts greater emphasis on training warehouse workers, says Scott Alquist, who coordinates industrial safety programs for the Institute of Business and Industry at Truckee Meadows Community College.

"There's more to it than sitting in a seat and moving a couple of levers back and forth," he says. "The quality of the operator increasing, and part of this is due to the new technology."

TMCC runs forklift operator courses every three weeks or so along with specialized sessions tailored to individual employers.

Even though it trains about 750 operators a year, employers still scramble to find good hands.

"Forklift operators are in demand. I get calls all the time," Alquist says.

Raymond expects the pace of change in the forklift industry to continue.

Among the next innovations, he says, will be television cameras mounted on forks to help operators better see pallets as well as improved guidance systems to automatically position forklifts precisely where they need to be in front of a rack.

And engineers continue to find ways to handle ever-higher loads. Machines now can handle material 442 inches more than 36 feet above a warehouse floor.