What Forklift Safety Trends were Found at ProMat in Chicago 2023

What is the latest forklift inspection trend? A couple of weeks ago, SIERA.AI exhibited at the ProMat Show in Chicago. The statistics reported by MHI were accurate. Over 50,000 people were in attendance at the show, which only projected 25-30,000. There was great information to be found with the numerous people stopping by our booth. We thought it would be great to share some of the feedback that we received. It could help you determine if you are ahead, behind or right on target with your forklift safety investment. Let’s get started.

What is a Forklift Inspection Trend?

A forklift inspection trend is a discovered pattern that grows in popularity because it brings value to the facility, forklift fleet, forklift manager and more. A forklift inspection trend can help a facility save money, improve efficiencies as well as gain new insights into areas that were not realized in the past. Let’s take a look at the trends found during our discussions with attendees at Promat.

Forklift Inspection Trend – Gaining Speed

Many (not all) of the attendees have implemented some sort of digital solution for the forklift inspection process. The solutions that have been implemented have served a basic purpose, and they are grateful for it. However, the desire for more information and tying pedestrian detection into the mix has left the stand alone digital forklift inspection less desirable. They are willing to get rid of their current solution in order to gain a combined solution with pedestrian detection. And solutions do exist that combine both, such as SIERA.AI’s forklift safety solution.

Forklift Inspection Trend – PDF

There were a couple companies who got a bit creative on this forklift inspection trend. This is taking the forklift inspection piece of paper, scanning it into the computer and making a pdf file and placing it into a folder on the desktop. Yes, it is now ‘technically’ digital, but there is nothing that you can do with those files in order to make a decision. There’s no collection of data into a single location where meaningful analysis can be done. Let’s hope this forklift inspection trend is short term.

Forklift Inspection Trend – From Single to an Agnostic Brand

Attendees have expressed their frustration with forklift manufacturers only offering forklift inspection solutions that work only on their brand. One attendee shared how they got a large brand forklift manufacturer to put their forklift inspection solution on another branded forklift. The result fell flat. As a result, the customer had them take the digital forklift inspection off completely and were searching for a solution that would work on any brand forklift. We agree.

Forklift Inspection Together with Pedestrian and Object Detection

Those companies that implemented a forklift inspection solution is searching for a pedestrian detection system AND detects objects. This means they want more than just the pedestrian, they want to know if what was hit, or nearly hit was an object. When further questioned, the attendee explained how they want to reduce more than just the Worker’s Comp line item, but also facility damage and product damage. These attendees understood the value of the technology that enables it, and how it translates to their bottom-line costs and savings.

2 Different Detections

SIERA.AI is the only company out there today that can separately detect the pedestrian and the object and report on it. The AI machine learning technology can tell the difference between an person and object and provide the proper information to the forklift driver when the warning is given. Either a symbol of a human or a symbol of a box tells the forklift driver what is there.

In addition, it will also report it accordingly on the telemetry Dashboard. Now you’ll know the data for each and make better decisions.

Since we’re briefly talking about detection, let us show you how it works. Contact us today at sales@siera.ai or call us at (512) 817 0702.