Keeping demanding two- and three-shift operations performing as productively as possible can be a real challenge. On the production floor, that can mean using hundreds of square metres of valuable real estate for a battery room. Internal combustion forklifts present other concerns — for some plants, excessive noise and poor air quality create environmental and OH&S issues. These and other operational matters all directly impact a company’s bottom line.
The top five U.S. automotive manufacturers, many leading North American food and beverage companies, and the five biggest U.S. airlines have addressed these concerns by converting to a more space efficient and productive solution for providing power to their forklift and ground support equipment fleets. These companies and dozens of other industry leaders have permanently replaced their battery rooms with thousands of decentralized smart chargers from industry leader PosiCharge.
Eliminating the Beast of Burden
With PosiCharge smart chargers, vehicles never stop working in order to change batteries. Companies can run trucks on one battery all day just by plugging in for a quick charge during breaks and shift changes. This has eliminated the need for battery changing and everything that goes with it: unproductive space devoted to a battery room, as many as hundreds of extra batteries, battery changing equipment, time-wasting trips to the battery room, and extra maintenance on battery inventories. Keeping vehicles operating can result in savings of up to 70 percent compared to battery changing.
Ford Implements PosiCharge Enterprisewide
Automotive manufacturers were among the first to truly embrace fast charge technology. Ford Motor Company in the U.S., with its large number of lift trucks, battery stock, and changing rooms, recognised the multiple benefits of the PosiCharge system early on.
Six years ago Ford installed the first PosiCharge production unit. This quickly led to full implementation at one plant and has culminated with both Ford Vehicle Operations (manufacturing) and Ford Customer Service (parts distribution) committing to deploying the PosiCharge system throughout all 40 facilities in North America.
“The PosiCharge technology produces enormous savings to the company’s bottom line,” says Roger Tenney, manager of Industrial Vehicle Strategy and Engineering at Ford. “Productivity has improved and operations have become more efficient.”
Tenney says battery stations have been set up in natural work areas, eliminating the need for constant trips back and forth to a battery room. On lunch breaks or when workers have a few minutes of down time during their shift, they can drive a few metres to a charging station in their immediate work cell to charge the forklift battery.
“Our employees enjoy better air quality and less noise, and we’re experiencing a 75 percent reduction in total charging time required during a typical day,” Tenney says. “During a single shift, forklift and tow motor drivers were traveling 26 miles back and forth to the battery rooms. That non-value added work is eliminated with the PosiCharge system.”
A Winning Collaboration for Australian Customers
CenturyYuasa, the company that brings you the trusted brand Century Batteries, has partnered with PosiCharge to bring this exciting technology to the Australian market. To find out if your site is suitable for fast charging please contact Century on 1300 734 580.