A Case for the Forklift

Overview

At our local customer's machine shop, recurring downtime logs frequently showed operators and welders waiting on either material or a forklift. These categories—'Waiting on Material' and 'Waiting on Forklift'—were often used interchangeably, but both indicated persistent resource access issues.

The Challenge

Material handling delays were creating bottlenecks across the floor, stalling active work and leaving labor underutilized. The facility lacked data to prove how often this occurred or how significantly it was impacting production.

The Solution

After surfacing the issue with Auredia data, leadership at the facility was able to build a business case to pursue additional forklifts. The goal was to reduce these delays and improve workflow continuity between stations.

Current Status

Although a decision was made to move forward with forklift acquisition, the timeline has since been pushed back. As a result, the opportunity for improvement has been identified, but the facility has not yet seen the benefit materialize on the floor.