materialhandlingupdate
BY TOBY GOOLEY, SENIOR EDITOR
Leave the (forklift)
driving to us?
Automated forklifts offer a number of advantages for warehouse and distribution
operations. But DC managers aren’t rushing to buy just yet.
CRUISE THE AISLES OF A MATERIAL HANDLING
trade show and you can’t help but notice that robots are
everywhere. At a time when improving productivity is the
top priority, warehouses and DCs are trying to automate
every activity they can—including, of course, the transport
of pallets and cases.
Automated guided vehicles (AGVs) that move pallets and
cases have been around for years. But their high cost and
limited flexibility have made them more popular in manu-
facturing plants than in warehouses, where lift trucks rule
the roost. Now, a new type of equipment is bridging the gap
between the two: automated, or “driverless,” forklifts and
pallet trucks.
