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Quality
driver productivity. Patel says the automated scanning saves drivers time by
eliminating the need to manually scan a
label with a radio-frequency (RF) gun and
in some cases, to dismount from the truck
to scan a pallet. Swisslog estimates the system can improve driver productivity by
up to 30 percent. That’s crucial, because
drivers represent about 77 percent of lift
truck operational costs, according to data
from Crown Equipment Corp. provided
by Swisslog.
A SEAMLESS TRANSITION
Bobcat deployed SmartLIFT on 25 of
the more than 100 lift trucks at the
Gwinner manufacturing facility. Those
are the vehicles used in receiving and
putaway, and for ferrying pallets to a
kitting area. They are about evenly split
between 3,000-pound stand-up trucks
and 6,000-pound propane vehicles. The
system became operational in May.
In daily operations, the information
captured from the pallet labels feeds
directly into Bobcat’s ERP system, which
then directs drivers to storage locations.
This allows the company to keep similar
products close to one another. That’s
important because most of the palletized
goods are destined for a kitting area,
where goods are depalletized and assembled into kits bound for manufacturing
locations.
As for the transition, Herbst says that
training drivers proved relatively easy.
“We had no significant issues,” he says.
“With a day’s instruction, people were
able to do runs that were 100-percent
accurate. It is a very intuitive system.”
SYSTEM YIELDS QUICK GAINS
So how is it working out? By all accounts,
SmartLIFT has produced the improvements that Bobcat had been looking for.
In the few short months since the company began using the system, driver productivity has risen by between 25 and 30
percent with near zero mis-location of
pallets.
On top of that, the operation is benefit-
ing from better information. “We’ve seen
a significant improvement in inventory
accuracy,” Herbst says. “I don’t know
the last time something wasn’t where it
was supposed to be.” He says it’s
difficult to assign specific numbers
to SmartLIFT, but he credits the sys-
tem with much of the improvement.
He has told Swisslog that the sys-
tem is trending toward an 18-month
return on investment.
Bobcat is already expanding the
use of SmartLIFT technology to
other facilities. Herbst says the sys-
tem will enable managers to see
inventory moves at all of those sites
as well as at Gwinner. “We’ll be able
to track goods dock to dock. That
will be a huge advantage that we
don’t have today.”
