What can digital technology do for your materials handling, warehousing and logistics operations?
Digitalisation is a key focus for Cat® Lift Trucks and its partners. It transforms forklifts into intelligent, connected assets that improve productivity, safety, uptime, sustainability and long term competitiveness. Outi Kettunen, Director Digital Services for Cat Lift Trucks, explains.
Forklifts are progressively becoming data sources in the warehouse and whole supply chain ecosystem
Lift trucks are increasingly equipped with connectivity, turning them into smart assets. Digitalisation makes forklifts visible in real time. Their location, usage, battery or engine health, impacts and operator behaviour can all be monitored centrally. With this data we can, for example:
- Make decisions based on facts instead of assumptions
- Improve utilisation and make correct decisions about fleet size, replacements and investments
- Onboard new employees with increased guidance
At the same time, the environment in warehouses and in the supply chain ecosystem is changing towards being more intelligent. We need intelligence from the forklifts for two main reasons:
- Within the warehouse. Our organisation also offers ‘optimal automation’. This means optimal collaboration between automated and operator-driven forklifts. We can get the best benefit out of this if the forklifts also have connectivity and intelligence.
- In the ecosystem. E-commerce and other highly digitalised partners in the supply chain benefit from connectivity and other IoT (internet of things) data from forklifts.
Digitalisation enables proactive forklift safety
Forklift accidents are still amongst the largest safety risks in warehouses. Digitalisation enables proactive safety instead of incident handling. With telematics and other digital fleet solutions and tools, we can provide:
- Collision detection and proximity warnings
- Automatic speed reduction in risk zones
- AI based camera systems detecting unsafe behaviour
The results include:
- Fewer accidents and injuries
- Lower insurance and liability exposure
- Easier compliance with safety regulations
- Improved staff wellbeing
Predictive lift truck maintenance reduces downtime and total cost of ownership
Digitalisation of forklifts allows us to move from reactive maintenance to predictive, preventive and even prescriptive maintenance. Telematics systems monitor:
- Machine hours
- Other measures of usage of different parts of the forklift
- Battery usage and condition
- Error codes
- And more
With this data we can achieve:
- More efficient servicing
- Higher first-time fix rates
- Fewer unplanned stoppages
- Longer equipment lifetime
- Lower overall maintenance costs
- Higher truck availability
Digital data is a key to improving sustainability and energy efficiency in materials handling, warehousing and logistics
Digitalisation of forklifts is one of the main enablers in transforming our industry towards a circular economy. Examples of this include:
- Detailed data on forklift and battery usage helps us to determine the best strategies for remodelling, reuse, relocation, refurbishment or remanufacturing
- With help from tools like AI, we can move from reactive to proactive mode in many areas impacting sustainability – in warehouse operations, in aftersales services and in activities after the primary usage of the forklift
- Data serves also as an input to companies’ sustainability reporting, both internally and externally
Digitalisation empowers profitable data usage and futureproofs logistics businesses
With logistics digitalisation we can help businesses to stay competitive through:
- Efficient use of AI tools
- Autonomous operations
- Platform based services
- Data driven business models (services, subscriptions, analytics) for all parties in the supply chain
Current and future digital services from Cat Lift Trucks and its partners
We put continuous effort into developing digital services to support logistics solutions. These currently include:
- A global service delivery platform, Lift Truck Solutions (LTS), as a single point for our customers to access our digital tools, including:
- Our e-commerce solutions: DealerNet (for direct dealers) and Parts Store (for customers of our dealers)
- Our diagnostics tool: TruckTool*
- Our newly launched fleet management tools for telematics, service history and performance
- Our FleetController suite and related tools to control and manage optimal automation
- Safety systems meeting demands of different countries
We will continue working to maximise utilisation of all available data. This will include:
- Using AI tools to help field service engineers to diagnose problems and find parts
- Analysing battery data to determine the best next-life usage
- Combining safety systems to work optimally together with connected forklifts
- Finding pathways to bring the logistics industry towards greater sustainability
For further practical guidance on a wide range of topics relevant to materials handling, warehousing and logistics:
- Search our blog
- Search our Eureka online magazine and archive
