© 2012 Material Handling Industry®. Copyright claimed as to audiovisual works of seminar

sessions and sound recordings of seminar sessions. All rights reserved.

Welcome to Session 219

Sponsored by: Presented by:

Joe LaFergola

Marketing Manger of

Information & Business

Solutions

Best Practices for Warehouse

Optimization

Best practices for

warehouse optimization

• Many factors for consideration:

– What are my maintenance costs?

– Do I have too many/few lift trucks?

• Are they being used properly?

– Am I maximizing my productivity?

– How am I managing other assets?

• How can I manage energy usage?

Best practices for

warehouse optimization

• One area that can have enormous benefits

to the bottom line:

– Lift truck battery

maintenance

Best practices for

warehouse optimization

• Agenda

– Battery 101

– Best practices to extend battery life

– Tools to make tracking easier

Battery 101

• Lead-acid batteries

– Rechargeable batteries

– Represent about 60 percent of all industrial

batteries sold worldwide

• Types

– Flooded (wet)

– Gel cell

– Absorbed glass matt (AGM)

Battery 101 • Advantages of each battery type

– Wet • Longer service life

• Easier to recharge when completely discharged

• Lower cost

– Gel cell • No liquid electrolyte to spill or leak

• Can be deep-cycled several times without damage

• Totally corrosion- and maintenance-free

– AGM • No liquid electrolyte to spill or leak

• Can be deep-cycled several times without damage

• Less expensive to ship (nonhazardous material)

Battery 101

• Electrical process

– All lead-acid batteries work on the same set of

reactions and use the same active materials.

Battery 101

Lead

Dioxide

(PbO2)

Lead

(Pb)

LOAD Anode - Cathode +

A chemical reaction within the battery causes electrons to

flow from the negative plate to the positive plate.

H2SO4

Electron flow

e-

e- e-

e-

Battery 101

• Battery life

– Average of five years

– Approximately 1,500 cycles

• A cycle is a discharge

(80 percent) and

charge (100 percent).

Battery 101

• Ampere-hour capacity – The electrical capability of a storage battery

• The number of ampere hours the battery can deliver under specified conditions

– Temperature

– Rate of discharge

– Final voltage

• Determined by multiplying the number of amperes the battery will deliver by the number of hours during which the current is flowing

Battery 101

• Rated capacity – The number of ampere hours the battery is

capable of delivering when fully charged and under specified conditions

–Temperature

–Rate of discharge

–Final voltage

–Specific gravity

– United States industry standards for motive power batteries always specify rated capacity to be at the six-hour rate of discharge.

Battery 101

• Voltage – Many voltage conditions have been

recognized for storage batteries.

– The most important of these are: • Open circuit voltage

• Initial voltage

• Average voltage

• Final voltage

Best practices to extend

battery life

• Charging – Under normal circumstances:

Charging is recommended

when a battery reaches 80

percent depth of discharge.

– Three ―8s‖ • 8-hour charge

• 8-hour cool

• 8-hour run

Best practices to extend

battery life

• Never overdischarge a battery – Will harm the battery and cause a lift truck’s

electrical components to run excessively hot

– Can easily increase the recharge time to recover, resulting in a battery that is only partially charged for the next day

– Can impact the ability to recharge because most automatic chargers must sense a minimum battery voltage to activate and turn on

Best practices to extend

battery life

• Temperature range

– Battery capacity is reduced

as temperature goes down

and increased as

temperature goes up.

Best practices to extend

battery life

• The standard rating for batteries is at room temperature (77°F). – At approximately -22°F,

battery ampere-hour capacity drops to 50 percent.

– At freezing, capacity is reduced by 20 percent.

– At 122°F, battery capacity would be about 12 percent higher.

Best practices to extend

battery life

• Equalization

– Select ―weekend,‖ ―equalize‖ or ―weekly‖ charge (depending on your brand of charger) approximately every five to 10 cycles to keep the battery performing at peak efficiency

– Failure to do so or selecting this option too often will harm the battery and shorten its effective life

Best practices to extend

battery life

• Watering

– New batteries require water approximately every five charges

– On both new and reconditioned batteries, check two or three pilot cells every two charges to see that the water level is just above the Element Protector

• If low, add only enough water to cover the Element Protector after charging to avoid ―boil over‖

What does this mean in ―$‖?

Scenario No. 1 — $$$

• 50-truck fleet

• $5,000 per battery

– Useful life = five years

– Typical life is four years or

20 percent reduction or

$1,000 per battery

• $50,000 in savings by extending

life to a full five years

Scenario No. 2 — Productivity

• 750 ampere-hour battery – 600 ampere-hour useful work

• 20 percent loss – 480 ampere-hour useful work

• 15 minutes to change battery – 4.2 percent productivity loss

– More batteries needed to accommodate a multiple-shift operation

– Added labor costs for more frequent battery exchanges and recharging

– More energy lost in more frequent recharging (the process is only about 80 percent efficient)

Tools to make tracking easier

• Spreadsheets

• Monitoring device

• Vehicle Management

System (VMS)

Tools to make tracking easier

• VMS

– Battery

– Truck

– Operator __________________________________

• Battery monitoring device

• Battery monitoring device with VMS

© 2012 Material Handling Industry®. Copyright claimed as to audiovisual works of seminar

sessions and sound recordings of seminar sessions. All rights reserved.

For more information:

Speaker: joelafergola@raymondcorp.com

Home page: www.raymondcorp.com

Visit The Raymond Corporation

in MODEX 2012 Booths 712 and 605