The logistics of lift

Not all forklifts are created equal. While it’s easy to dismiss the hard-working vehicles that make warehouses and loading docks their natural habitat as the same simple machine manufactured over and over again.

That could not be farther from the truth.

Forklifts are carefully engineered for very specific purposes and sending the wrong lift to do the wrong job makes about sense as eating steak with a spoon. For instance, some forklifts are made for outdoor use while others are engineered for labor inside a warehouse. What’s the difference? Well, let a diesel lift fill a warehouse with fumes for a couple hours. The reasoning becomes obvious. Other factors that come into play include lift loads and space – some lifts require 10-12 feet of aisle space, others require less.

There’s also the issue of cost. A cheap forklift isn’t cheap – $15,000 will get you in a base model – and it’s not impossible to break the $100,000. Beyond that, the cost of running and maintaining the equipment comes into play.

Still, when the right lift is doing the right job in the right environment, it truly becomes the lifeblood of logistics. We couldn’t imagine doing our job without them.

Logistics still rides the rails

It’s easy to get caught up in the romance of the rails. There’s real magic in the nostalgic idea of locomotives steaming across the American West or watching the landscape rattle by from the sepia-toned comfort of a Pullman car. And while we all acknowledge that those fantasies are the product of a bygone age, railroads in and of themselves an important piece of the logistics puzzle.

Rather than being relegated to relic status, shipping by rail remains one of the fastest, most environmentally friendly and and economically viable means of getting products from one place to another. It’s incredible to think that a system that races its roots back to the 19th century remains not only active, but essential.

Here are some hard numbers on what makes rail transport so effective. It takes one gallon of fuel to move one ton of freight 484 miles by rail. That’s the distance between our Savannah facility and Miami. In 2009, 173.46 million tons of freight moved through Georgia via rail. In order to make up those numbers via traditional trucking, almost 10 million additional trucks would have to hit the road.

That’s keeping things on track.

Logistics is a Party

Sometimes the best way to explain a complicated process is through analogy. Recently, we found a piece written on supplychainnetwork.com by Jeff Ashcroft that does a great job of explaining supply chain management by comparing it to planning a party. Here’s how he broke down the comparison.

The first step in planning a party is determining the number os guests. The supply chain equivalent is determining the volume and type of product being delt with. Next, he suggests establishing the type of party being plan or, logistically speaking, required storage and handling. The size of the party venue, be it living room or rented hall, compares directly to the size of warehouse and fleet required and support staff – waiters, bartenders and the like – relates to the number of warehouse workers and drivers required.

Ashcroft goes on to compare the sound system to an operating system, refreshments and supplies to required racking and the time and duration of the party to the service level required by the client.

He makes an interesting point. According to Ashcroft’s theory, much of what we do in supply chain management uses the same logic applied to things in our everyday lives. It doesn’t have to be a party plan. It can be something as simple as getting the kids to school or as complicated as economic recovery. The principles remain the same.

Read the full piece here

Comparing apples and oranges

With the exception of the fruit we carry in our lunch bags, there’s not a lot of fruit that comes in and out of the RBW warehouses.

But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have a profound effect on our business.

Shipping, like so many businesses, has its seasons. Things pick up, for instance, in the months leading up to the holidays. There’s also an enormous demand for equipment and operators, particularly in the South, during the harvest seasons in Florida. And while were are not in the business of getting Tickle Me Elmo to Toys R Us or grapefruit to the local grocers, knowing that these things will draw from the same well of trucks and drivers that we need to get our job done requires significant advance planning.

Shipping, in fact, is a lot like the global economy. While the price of gas in England does not directly affect us as drivers, it does affect the price of crude. And while the need to get citrus from point A to point B does not affect our need to distribute golf car parts, it does affect the logistics of getting it done. Planning means more than knowing where to get trucks, it means knowing when.

The Future is Now

When RBW began operations in 1954, the tools of the trade were, by todays standards, pretty primitive. Shipments and inventories were tracked with pencil and paper. Finances were calculated on a mechanical adding machine. Both the packing peanut and bubble wrap were yet to be invented. Things were different, but our goals were the same.

Today you’ll still find pencils and paper in our office, but the adding machine has long since been retired and crumpled paper in corrugated cardboard boxed are no longer the packing standard. Technology hasn’t changed what we do, but it has certainly changed the way we do it. Today, logistics is an electronic industry. We are regulated by bar codes and microchips. Packing is as likely to incorporate space age polymers as it is the classic cardboard container. Does it mean we do things differently. Not really. But it does mean we can do things better and more efficiently. That’s important, and will continue to be important as technology – and the logistics industry – continues to move forward.