Forklift Utilization in the Automotive Industry (Case Study)

Introduction

Indoorway has implemented a real-time forklift tracking project for a manufacturer of parts for the automotive industry located in Poland. The main purpose of the project was to help the logistics manager assess inefficiencies in forklift utilization, identify potential health & safety risks, and provide data for optimization decisions that drive productivity gains.

To achieve this goal, Indoorway tracked the movement of fifteen forklifts during three shifts for four weeks in a 12,000 square meter facility. Each forklift was equipped with a physical Indoorway tag and each allocated to one of two groups in line with their functional purpose: warehousing or transport.

This was possible as each object monitored by Indoorway system can be given an infinite number of so-called “attributes,” which in case of forklifts can be e.g. type of forklift, its purpose, date of purchase, production date. If the movement of WIP is monitored, an attribute can be an ID number of a specific product. This makes an analysis of movement much more useful, as management can see certain processes and activities not only in real time, but also compare different tracked objects according to many criteria.

The two main KPIs used to provide the data for the final report included:

• Shift activity based on the number of times forklifts entered specific areas in the facility i.e. highway, warehouse, production, unloading, and parking. These were identified together with the client and marked accordingly on the site map
• Time spent by a forklift in those areas. This provided useful information both about the utilization of each forklift and productivity per shift.

Figure 1 presents the digital map of the facility.

Figure 1. The floor plan of the facility. Areas: U — Unloading, H — Highway, B/P — Parking, W — Warehouse, and P — Production.

Project Results

The forklift location data that we gathered during the four weeks of measurements was turned into insights and provided to the Client in the form of an analytical report. One of the most informative parts of the report was the digital spaghetti diagram, which showed the historical patterns of forklift movement (Figure 1).

By applying various criteria to the data used in the spaghetti diagram, the logistics manager could understand the actual utilization of selected forklift(s) during various shifts, identify bottlenecks, inefficiencies and potential risks. Examples of different criteria that can be applied to such analysis include:

• By forklift or groups of forklifts e.g. by type
• By time spent in an area identified on the Client’s site map
• By events e.g. entrance or exits to a specific identified area
• By speed, or movement patterns (moving vs stationary).

Figure 2. Spaghetti diagram for Forklift #1 (four weeks, aggregated)

Figure 2 above presents the aggregated movement (i.e. forklift traveling above the speed of 30 cm/s) data for the four-week period for Forklift #1 in the form of a spaghetti diagram. Normally, such diagrams are drawn manually and based on observations. Indoorway used the actual and very accurate data and applied movement detection algorithms to simplify the analysis and produce a user-friendly visualization of the movement.

Note: stationary data was eliminated from this analysis.

In this case, the diagram drew attention to the following issues:

• Routing Deviations (RD in Figure 3 below). The operator of the monitored forklift picked own routes that were often longer than the standard routes. This created not only additional costs (lower efficiency, higher fuel consumption) but also an avoidable risk of injuries. For example, please note the pass through the warehouse (just below W in Figure 3). This area has other active equipment and personnel, which means extra caution is necessary. The correct route is via the Highway (H). Indoorway system can add additional context to this information by running analysis of speed on this particular route, then divide the data by forklift, or operator. Appropriate action (additional training, new rules) can then be taken in order to prevent potentially big problems resulting from injuries, or destroyed infrastructure.
• Routing Losses (RL in Figure 3 below) — the forklift, which was designated to the Warehousing area, also traveled to Production facilities (marked by P in Figure 3), which were outside of their designated areas. This created not only cost inefficiencies, but an additional risk of destroying infrastructure because the monitored forklift may not have been designed to operate on the surface of the production facility (for example, its tires could damage the facility’s surface with reinforced wheels).

Figure 3. Routing losses and routing deviations, as depicted by the spaghetti diagram

By analyzing the patterns of movement of the monitored forklift, the logistics manager was able to develop a good understanding of its actual utilization as well as a number of specific risks and inefficiencies. The spaghetti diagram, for example, clearly showed that the movement could be optimized to avoid routing losses and deviations. The resulting optimization initiatives would translate into concrete financial benefits, the extent of which can be measured by the finance team.

Activity Overview

Another important section in the analytical report was the summary of the activity of all 15 forklifts during the monitored period. The following visualization represents the activity levels in five specific areas of the facility divided by shifts (marked by I, II, and III in Figure 4) within a period of four weeks. The x-axis shows the timeline of the shifts while the y-axis represents the number of events that occurred in that timeframe. Event is counted as each entry of a forklift into the specified area.

Figure 4. Activity levels of the tracked forklifts during the three shifts

The data on the chart shows:

• How activity levels drop significantly during breaks (around 10:00 on the first shift, around 18:30 on the second shift, and around 3:00 on the third shift) and shift handovers (around 14:00, 22:00, and 6:00)
• The biggest activity drop was observed after the break on the second shift. This is not uncommon as this is when often the management leaves the facility and does not return until the morning of the next day. The level of activity drop on the entire third shift is however quite worrying, even though expectations towards the third shift are generally lower
• The activity begins to drop before the breaks and shift handovers. This means that there’s an opportunity to increase the activity of the fleet.

To find out the reasons for such a significant drop in forklift activity during the third shift, the management in charge of intralogistics can generate a spaghetti diagram for this specific shift, or even replay the movement on that shift in fast forward. It would allow them to see how much time forklifts spent in specific areas of the facility and spot potential for improvements, particularly if data is compared to better performing shifts.

Another important finding from the analytical report was an uneven distribution of work throughout the shifts (marked by UD in Figure 5 below). One reason for this problem could be the need to pick up the work pace after the night shift, so the forklifts working during the first shift that starts at 6:00 have to complete more tasks.

This result, therefore, revealed a problem in the routine that may have contributed to various wastes and issues, including irregular schedules, delays, and overtime.

Figure 5. Uneven Distribution of work and Activity Drop, as visualized by the Indoorway analytical report

For the management, the uneven distribution means that they have an opportunity to maximize forklift utilization during the third shift and increase the efficiency of intralogistics overall. Since the data provided by the analytical report allows to track events to specific time points in shifts, as well as track individual fleet units, the managers can dig deeper into data to identify even the most obscure factors that drive costs of intralogistics.

The calculation of the time that the tracked forklifts spent in specific areas of the facility also revealed potential risks. For example, it was discovered that warehouse and transport forklifts spent 17 percent and 25 percent, respectively, in the Parking area, which means that this time was lost (LT in Figure 6). This finding suggested that the fleet was underused, so there is a scope to improve asset utilization by getting rid of some of the forklifts.

Figure 6. Time spent by forklifts in the parking area (LT)

Also, the warehouse time (marked in green in Figure 6) is not necessarily productive time because the forklifts can remain in warehouses for long periods of time without being engaged in their tasks. To determine whether the time spent in the warehouse was productive, the logistics manager can create an additional report on warehouse forklifts and their activity.

Summary

Indoorway produced the analytical report on intralogistics containing a spaghetti diagram and a detailed visual overview of forklift activity during three shifts. By identifying and evaluating the results for the monitoring of two specific KPIs of asset utilization, it became possible to define the following risks:

• Forklift routing deviations that caused intralogistics delays as well as health & safety risks
• Forklift routing losses that informed the management about intralogistics processes not being executed according to a plan
• Significant activity drop in the third shift that highlighted the need to improve management and processes
• Uneven work distribution meant that the management had an opportunity to improve productivity through better asset allocation
• Different forklift shift performance that could be resolved by analyzing the reasons for various activity levels in specific areas.

We have chosen to select a case study based on a specific timeframe. However, the Continuous Improvement approach favored by many industrial companies means that the improvements never stop. Management always monitors their activity, set new standards, tracks variances, make improvements, sets new standards and so on.

This can only be done well with access to consistent and accurate data. Please do not hesitate to contact us or visit our website if you would like to learn more about your intralogistics processes.