Top-driven change
The Evansville, Ind., company has 650 employees in two large facilities 12 miles apart. There's a 325,000-sq.-ft. food division and a three-story, 375,000- sq.-ft. packaging division. It was at this second division where LP-gas (propane) lift trucks moved raw materials and finished product 20 hours a day. The three floors are connected by large ramps for easier material handling. In the past, only propane-powered forklifts could negotiate them and get the job done in a timely manner. When one CEO retired and a new one took over about two years ago, he declared, "LP gas forklifts must go." He was a former CEO of a mining operation and had many new and innovative safety ideas. "We've always been very safety conscious here," Chancellor points out, "but since he came, we have added new safety programs. In the food industry, safety and cleanliness go hand in hand; propane-powered forklifts seem to work against both of these concepts."

A challenging application
There was more to the decision than switching to an all-electric forklift fleet, however. AmeriQual can be a very busy place. "Military business fluctuates in demand," Mike Gengelbach, warehouse supervisor, explains. "Some surges may require us to double our output with short notice. We rev up production, bring more people in and rent forklifts when that happens. We have to be ready to meet demand, and we always do." After the major hurricanes, in the midst of deciding on forklift replacements, AmeriQual was working overtime. Output exceeded 4,800,000 meals a month (usual production is about 1,800,000) and 28 forklifts were needed. That expanded forklift fleet used a lot of propane tanks, 30 to 40 a day, which meant operators were losing productivity when they stopped to change tanks. In addition, LP-gas costs were going up. Electric forklifts would be more fuel-efficient. Lift truck operators were reluctant to switch to electrics, though. They had experienced a few older battery-powered forklifts in the fleet. These trucks were of several different brands, each with its own charger - the result of the company trying to find an operator-pleasing electric forklift and battery that could last an entire shift and get up the ramps with power. "Like any manufacturer, we can't efficiently get our product to our customers without the forklifts," Tom Higgins, production manager, says. "If we want to move material, we need a reliable forklift fleet with the power to get the job done." The search was on to find an electric forklift model to meet AmeriQual's selection criteria, including quality, longevity, power "and above all, good service," Brian Hurst, maintenance supervisor, points out. "We need a dealer who can react quickly to any problem we might encounter. We don't have time for the fleet to be down, and we don't keep spares." A team of managers asked the forklift dealers to come in with a package, batteries and forklifts that could meet their needs. "We asked for demonstrations from as many as we could get, so we could make an informed decision," Gengelbach recalls. "We asked that each dealer bring the best, highest quality suggestion for our application. From the spring to the fall of 2006, different dealerships presented their offerings; it seemed like the longest demo ever, but we had to work around our schedule." The local Cat^® lift truck dealer demonstrated 5,000-lb.-capacity AC (alternating current) E5000 trucks and ES4000 stand-up end control models. The AC design maximizes battery efficiency and complements opportunity charging. "The dealer put a great deal of effort into researching our application and giving us options about different types of forklift batteries and chargers," Chancellor says. "It was definitely the most impressive demo we had. It drove our eventual purchase of nine E5000s with the opportunity-charge Edison Minit-Charge system and 48-volt fast-charge batteries that we began using in mid-December and the order for four ES4000s, arriving any day." He adds, "The Cat lift truck package was a real solution to get us away from propane forklifts and do so without needing a large battery charging/changing area. This was a big accomplishment, to have the power to do the job but not the hassle conventional forklift batteries pose. We never have to change out batteries, which eliminates a safety concern we had. We can plug in the fast-charging batteries during breaks or whenever the trucks are idle for awhile."

"The Cat lift truck package was a real solution to get us away from propane forklifts and do so without needing a large battery charging/changing area. This was a big accomplishment, to have the power to do the job but not the hassle conventional forklift batteries pose."
- Shane Chancellor, Vice President of Assembly Operations

A closer look at the solution
Three of the E5000 Cat lift trucks have 48-in. forks to handle pallets of finished product. The others have 42-in. forks. All lift trucks have sideshifters and nonmarking tires. The trucks are set to a maximum travel speed of 7 mph in keeping with the company's safety emphasis. When the ES4000s arrive, some will have rotating box handlers (carton clamps) with forks. All forklifts have key controllers with shock modules. This system requires the forklift operators to use a radio frequency identification (RFID) badge when they get on and off the truck. "This is the way we know who is on each forklift and when they are on it. There is a built-in checklist about the trucks, and operators must agree that they accept the truck as it is and take full responsibility for it while they use it," Gengelbach says. "We can track the time each truck moves and sits idle and then print out a daily or weekly report." The shock modules emit an alarm and completely shut off the truck if it impacts anything with a G-force exceeding the set limit. It can't be moved again until a supervisor resets the module. That feature, combined with in-house monitoring with the ability to videotape anytime there's an incident, has reduced forklift and product damage. As for the solution to uptime requirements, the forklifts are set up to indicate (with a light) it's time for a planned maintenance checkup (20 hours before a PM is due). "We have a PM agreement with the Cat lift truck dealer based on 500 hours of usage, an interval that's longer than other brands," Hurst explains. "The service technicians check with us regularly and keep up the PMs well, so we've had no issues thus far." "We have a very good relationship with the Cat lift truck dealership folks," Chancellor says, speaking for the selection team. "All our goals for shifting to hassle-free electrics with the power and dealership support we need have been met with Cat lift trucks and our local Cat lift truck dealer."