Jeff Burns, President, Kenco MHE Solutions – Understanding how your MHE is being used can help you identify productivity roadblocks months or even years before they cause disruption.
Supply chain and manufacturing professionals know data drives everything we do. We’re measured on productivity, downtime and resource management. Every step in our facilities is measured, every pick monitored. It all must work like clockwork to keep up with customer expectations. That’s why we must also pay close attention to material handling equipment (MHE) metrics. Understanding how your MHE is being used can help you identify productivity roadblocks months or even years before they cause disruption.
I recently sat down with Kevin O’Meara, supply chain expert and Executive VP of Business Transformation, for an insightful discussion on how data unlocks better MHE management. We touched on three key asset metrics every facility manager should be tracking:
Asset lifespan: How long is too long?
One of a logistic pro’s greatest headaches is keeping track of how often each piece of MHE is utilized and comparing that against recommended lifespan. Think of all the forklifts on the floor, vs. robots, pallet jacks and conveyors. Each one of those has a different recommended cycle life. Then consider how many different brands are on the floor, because those manufacturers’ unique specifications impact lifespan too. So instead of trying to adjust replacement schedules to ensure each piece of MHE is retired at the right time, managers often apply rigid rules to lifespan, leading to incredible waste in productivity from both early and late retirement.
With budgets tight and turnaround time for new MHE measured in years, now’s a good time to consider tools for tracking more granular data related to MHE lifespan – such as cycle count and battery life. Understanding when a product can be pushed a bit longer without creating a safety issue, or whether keeping an asset in operation will increase risk, can help facility managers ensure they’re getting their money’s worth from individual assets.
Asset optimization: Are you maximizing MHE productivity?
As consumers demand faster shipping for lower costs, that same desire has taken hold on warehouse and manufacturing floors: how can I move goods out the door expending the fewest resources possible?
Unfortunately, that attitude leads managers to cut corners. It might mean choosing the cheaper forklift up front, then paying for it via increased downtime. Or it could mean waiting a little longer than recommended to replace parts. Sure, you might be able to stretch tire replacement into the next fiscal year, but if a forklift has a blowout, you have downtime and perhaps an OSHA violation that are going to cost you so much more than new tires. And ultimately, this approach has a negative impact on your most important asset – your employees. Every minute they’re sidelined, waiting for critical MHE to be repaired, is another minute morale is negatively impacted.
A smarter approach: take a deeper look at your data to ensure each of your assets are being used appropriately day-to-day, and that they’re being used in the right facilities. You may find that older MHE assets can be moved to a less critical facility and improve output. Or, you may uncover a facility with half the output as your busiest facilities somehow have 20 more forklifts than needed. You can also make better decisions about what types of MHE to purchase, looking to multi-purpose assets that can reduce spending without reducing productivity.
Safety: Are you taking every step possible to reduce risk?
Without a doubt, safety is a facility manager’s top priority. Both asset lifespan and utilization play a role in reducing the risk of accidents, but it’s worth specifically calling out safety – because tracking data related to it can help correct unsafe behaviors before they cause downtime. Nobody is productive, experienced or talented enough to act unsafely, and while it’s important for managers to actively walk the floors and call out unsafe actions, their eyes can’t be everywhere.
Advanced telemetry tools can be an extra pair of eyes, taking note of each time an asset moves too quickly or brakes too hard. This technology can even be programmed to lock a driver out of an asset until they’ve done a complete safety check prior to operation. As telemetry tools gather data, managers can better identify patterns in a specific employee’s actions – are they acting unsafely out of “will” or “skill,” because of knowing disregard or lack of training – and determine appropriate corrective actions.
Granular visibility is possible
At Kenco, our Strategic Insights offering – part of our Kenco MHE Solutions suite – gives supply chain and manufacturing teams deeper visibility into all their assets, across all their facilities. We can help you track lifespan for each individual asset, determine when to reuse vs. retire an asset, and how to strategically position your MHE across your facilities. The numbers speak for themselves: on average, Kenco MHE Solutions customers save 26% by optimizing their existing MHE. You can also pair our FleetCloud telemetry technology with Strategic Insights to keep track of safety measures throughout your supply chain.
Learn more about Strategic Insights here. And if you’d like to hear my full conversation with Kevin O’Meara, you can watch the replay below.