Matchmaker, matchmaker ...

If you think about it, choosing the right type of lift truck is not very different from seeking the perfect mate. In both cases, reliability and trustworthiness are prized characteristics. And—fairy tales about peasants marrying royalty aside—the ability to "fit in" and operate effectively in a particular environment is a major consideration.

With so many classes and categories of lift trucks on the market, though, matching the right equipment to an application can be a challenge. So, will you need Yenta, the matchmaker in "Fiddler on the Roof," to help you find "the one"? Probably not. But before you can begin to screen candidates, you'll have to do plenty of research. Here are some guidelines for gathering that information, analyzing it, and making a decision.

FIRST, GET THE FACTS
The most basic information required includes a profile of what you're moving: what kinds of products, packages, and containers; their weights, heights, lengths, and widths; whether they're palletized; whether they require special handling; and how many of each type of item is handled per shift. You'll also need basic vehicle data like actual run times, usage in hours, maintenance records, and energy consumption (battery amps or volume of gas), says Keith Allmandinger, senior marketing manager at Komatsu Forklift U.S.A.

Next, document the warehouse environment, says Bill Pfleger, president of Yale Distribution, a subsidiary of NACCO Materials Handling Group. Floor conditions, inclines or ramps, doorways, temperature, moisture, and so forth all affect the lift choice, he notes. He also advises conducting a power study to determine whether internal combustion or electric power is most suitable for the environment.

Assess the density and type of storage—rack type, configuration, and height; the type and velocity of products stored in them; and aisle widths, intersections, travel paths, and other features that affect vehicle travel. Then comes product velocity, or throughput: how many units must be moved per hour or shift.

Track exactly what your lift trucks do, and where and how they do it. "Think in terms of the product lifecycle and movement for a particular customer," recommends Greg Mason, warehouse product consultant, Mitsubishi Caterpillar Forklift America Inc. (MCFA). That might include how and where a particular product will be received, put away, and then picked and shipped, he says.

As for where to find all this diverse data, managers can tap a variety of sources. A warehouse management system (WMS) can provide insight into throughput, including pallets per hour and the velocity of individual stock-keeping units (SKUs). Hour meters can determine how much traveling and lifting trucks are doing, data loggers attached to batteries can measure energy usage, and fleet management software can generate detailed performance reports for individual vehicles and operators as well as for different classes of trucks.

But it would be a mistake to rely entirely on technology. You simply can't make an informed decision without site surveys or assessments by technically knowledgeable observers, including the forklift dealer's representative and someone from your own team—"the site survey guy who knows the lift truck and the guy with the need," as Clark Simpson, product marketing engineer for Clark Material Handling Co., puts it.

Indeed, local dealers—and for large projects, a material handling consulting engineer—should be involved in site surveys. They're trained to conduct and interpret the results of those assessments, and they can apply what they've learned from previous projects to your situation. You'll also need input from your warehouse operations team, and speaking with lift truck operators is critical. "They're the ones who live and breathe this, and they typically have very good insight into productivity levels," Mason says.

Site assessments, including demographic and time-study application surveys, are essential because they provide an accurate picture of what's actually happening on the warehouse floor—not just what the numbers **ital{say} is happening. For instance, a software-generated report might indicate that a lift truck has a high utilization rate, says Bill Pedriana, director of sales for Big Joe Forklifts. But what it might not show is that the operator is using the vehicle for personal transportation. That kind of qualitative information, obtainable only through direct observation, can reveal opportunities to make big gains in efficiency.

How much information should you gather? The most important thing is to cover not just normal periods but also your least busy and your peak times, says Susan Comfort, product manager, narrow-aisle products marketing for The Raymond Corp. But don't limit yourself to thinking about the past, she cautions. "You should also anticipate future needs. For example, if your business changes, then its peak demand might also change."

Pedriana agrees that it's valuable to look at historical data but adds a caveat: Business practices are changing so quickly, he says, that if you go too far back, you may not capture what's actually happening today. He further suggests regular communication with upper management about strategic plans—information that could affect DC operations but often isn't shared until late in the game. "Too often, higher-ups will start some strategic initiative, and they assume the engineers and the warehouse managers will come up with a solution to make it work," he says. "If they had known about it in advance, they could have planned for it." (For more about choosing lift trucks for a planned facility, see sidebar.)

WHAT DO THE DATA TELL YOU?
Once the data are in hand, it's time to evaluate the information. Who should be involved? "A misapplied piece of equipment can be costly in many ways, and the key to making the right decision is having the team members involved in the process who have a vested interest in the equipment's productivity," Pfleger says.

That could include the plant or warehouse manager, shift supervisors, the maintenance manager, service technicians, the safety manager, and the lift truck operators who will be performing the activities in question. In addition, says Komatsu's Allmandinger, the company controller and "green" project managers increasingly are involved. Finally, the consulting engineer and prospective lift truck suppliers can provide insight into what the data mean and how they translate into a truck choice.

Why so many players? Because each one will have a different focus, explains Andy Smith, senior marketing product manager at Crown Equipment Corp. Shift supervisors will focus on inefficiencies, while warehouse managers might think about business cycles; they may also be aware of a contract that's about to expire or a new one that could influence the type of truck required. Technicians, fleet managers, and forklift operators will know what detracts from the current fleet's performance. The local forklift provider can help to consolidate and prioritize their concerns, and then put together a proposal based on that input, he explains.

The team will consider what tasks (for instance, picking, putaway, and loading/unloading trailers) and activities (such as lifting and horizontal travel) the lift trucks are currently doing, what they **ital{should} be doing, and what will be expected of them in the future. They will also examine the physical demands and constraints on trucks and operators, plus their efficiency and cost performance. The aim is to uncover inefficiencies, safety issues, and excessive costs—all signs of a possible mismatch between a truck and a particular application, or that the truck you plan to buy won't be a good fit. Just a few examples of what the analysis might turn up:

• Trucks that move into a rack should be lifting 25 percent of the time, says Comfort. If they're being used more for horizontal transport, then it could be more cost-effective and efficient to position those trucks near the racks and use a different type of vehicle to shuttle loads to and from the racks.
• Lift trucks that may be at home elsewhere in the warehouse may be totally inappropriate for loading and unloading trailers. A standard two-rail mast that's designed to provide maximum visibility will puncture the roof of the trailer before the load reaches the necessary height for travel and must not be used for loading and unloading, Simpson explains. Designs that allow for simultaneous movement of load and rails have a similar problem, he says.
• It sounds simple: For low lifts and horizontal transport, a sit-down counterbalanced truck is the obvious choice; if you have to go higher, then some type of reach truck usually is best. But even when the former is the case, if the aisle length and width and the turning space at intersections are too tight for the bigger forklift to maneuver efficiently, it will slow throughput and create a safety hazard. "You have to understand all of the tradeoffs, such as aisle size versus productivity," Smith says.
• If workers have to wait for a forklift driver to pick up assembled pallets and deliver them to another location nearby, you're wasting time and money while creating a safety hazard, says Pedriana of Big Joe. It might be better to substitute a walkie stacker: Workers can use the smaller vehicle as a lift table and then deliver the finished pallet themselves to the next location, rather than have an operator drive heavy equipment where people are working.

ONE SIZE DOES NOT FIT ALL
All of the experts consulted for this article have seen warehouses try to skimp on costs by using one type of truck for as many applications as they can. That might work for a small facility that performs just a few activities for a limited set of items, Comfort says. But in most cases, it doesn't pay to go that route.

For one thing, if a particular type of lift truck doesn't have the correct rated capacity and/or the correct attachments for every type of load it will carry, the lift truck may become unstable and tip over, resulting in injury or even death to the driver and bystanders, says Simpson. Furthermore, treating a lift truck as a jack-of-all-trades could place stresses on the lift truck that it wasn't designed to handle, thereby shortening its life, he says.

The more variety, volume, and speed required, the more important specialized lift trucks become in order to avoid compromising cost, space utilization, and efficiency, Mason says. A high-throughput facility, for example, could benefit from using one type of lift truck for loading and unloading trucks, another for high-level order picking, and another for high-level full-pallet putaway. It could even use different trucks in the same area. For example, low-level picking could be done with inexpensive end-rider pallet trucks, while the more expensive counterbalanced forklifts handle second- or third-level picking.

Ultimately, the objective is to select the best truck for the application in terms of safety, efficiency, and total cost of ownership. Making the right choice depends on understanding not only what your lift trucks are doing now, but also what you **ital{want} them to do. "You have to know your warehouse operations, your operational metrics, and what spells success for you," says Smith.

That's why it helps to think of a lift truck as part of an overall business process, such as fulfillment, Pedriana says. The more efficient that process is, the more profitable it will be. If you scrutinize each of the tasks required to carry out that process and then apply differentiated equipment to optimize them, he says, the lift trucks you choose will be potential profit generators, not just an expense.