How Technology Can Help Prevent Damage Caused by Forklifts

Forklift damage prevention works to keep the cost of repairs caused by lift trucks down to a minimum. There are numerous costs associated with forklift damage in the manufacturing, distribution center and warehouse. It can be lumped into different line items of expenses, thus not telling of the true cost of damage caused by forklifts. So how can forklift damage prevention help lower the repair cost in facilities? Let’s take a closer look.

What is Forklift Damage Prevention?

Forklift damage prevention takes a proactive stance to damage done in the facility by forklifts. Most facilities maintain a budget for facility repairs, but how do you know if it was caused by the forklift truck or another piece of equipment? With technology advancing, you can begin to determine the cost of repairs caused by the forklift truck.

Damages and Repairs to the Facility Infrastructure

Forklifts can damage the facility in many ways. Within the facility itself, damage caused by forklifts affect many parts of the infrastructure. Let’s take a look at a few areas:

• Floors: Forklifts can cause extensive damage to the concrete floors or even if the concrete floor has a topping like epoxy. One of the most common forms of damage is dragging forks. Dragging forks can create various depths of long gauges. Other forms of floor damage caused by forklifts can be chipping or cracking especially if product drops off of the forks and onto the floor or the forks or forklift attachments hit the floor. Without timely repairs, the floor has weakened and can cause the floors to further crack, chip and flake.
• Walls and Wall Corners: Walls and wall corners are commonly damaged by forklifts turning to tight, or carrying product and not estimating the turn or distance properly. Walls are constantly scraped or even chunks are taken out by the forks itself.
• Docks: Docks are regularly a line item for repairs as forklifts are commonly working within the vicinity.

Additional Damage and Repairs

Forklift damage prevention can also occur to other aspects of the facility as well.

• Racking System: The racking system is one of the most affected by forklifts. It is commonly hit, scraped and bent by the forklift with picking up or putting away product. However, we all know that it also gets hit with turns in and out of the aisles.
• Other Equipment: Other equipment such as carts, pallet jackets, AGVs and even forklifts get hit on a regular basis causing damage and costly repairs. The equipment can be moving or stationary, it may be because it’s not where it should be parked, or left out in the aisles.

Other Stationary Equipment: Let’s not forget the other equipment such as conveyor lines, processing lines, workstations and more. This is a costly hit as it can bring down the entire line until this is repaired.

Facility and Equipment Damage Prevention

One of the best ways for forklift damage prevention to be put into place is with a forklift safety system. A forklift safety system such as SIERA.AIs will alert the forklift operator with audio and visual cues. It will also alert the operator if it is a pedestrian or an object within its defined path.

Defined path is the distance you want the forklift operator to be warned. Do you want the operator to be alerted 2’, 10’ 13.25’, it’s up to you. You can go as far as 30 feet.

Impact Detection

You can also be alerted with notifications to near misses, low, medium and high impacts. Within the telemetry Dashboard, this can help you to understand the patterns of one or all of the operators, make adjustments within the facility and provide training where needed.

Summary

By implementing a forklift safety system, you’ll be able to lower the cost of repairs to the facility and the equipment itself by gaining control of the information provided in the telemetry Dashboard. Contact us today to learn more at sales@siera.ai.