Last week I was in Cleveland writing about materials handling at the North American Material Handling & Logistics Show (NA 2010). Writing for the show daily publication produced by Modern Materials Handling magazine, I got the chance to see all kinds of materials handling products and systems, including some that save energy and cut carbon emissions.
For anyone unfamiliar with the way goods get moved in large warehouses today, suffice it say it is often far more advanced than a few forklift trucks and rows of static pallet racks. Today, there are all types of automated sortation, conveyor, and storage and retrieval systems that quickly route the goods needed for each order. Warehouse management system (WMS) software is used to control inventory, manage lift truck moves, and coordinate what will be shipped out, received, or staged near receiving for rapid "cross-docking" to another location. Warehouse control systems (WCS) act as the brains between the automation on the floor and higher-level systems like WMS.
Much of the gear is amazing, with robots to automatically move smaller items (called piece picking in industry jargon) to loading zones or other stations. If you've ever seen the way the characters in the Wallace & Gromit claymation movies use home-rigged machinery to do things like make breakfast, think Wallace & Gromit-type ingenuity, but highly digitized, not mechanical, and you'll have some idea of what you can see at the NA show.
At any rate, here is my video report on some interesting green tech I saw at the show:
None of this technology is experimental. Real companies are using it to automate warehouse operations while saving energy. More information on uses and case studies can be found on the sites of the vendors interviewed: ITOH Denki; Swisslog; and Plug Power.
I found it interesting that with the hydrogen-powered fork lift trucks, the green benefits have been a secondary driver to truck uptime. Because it’s quicker to refuel a hydrogen truck (a couple of minutes versus 10 to 15) than swap out an electric battery on an electric lift truck, bigger facilities running 40-plus trucks around the clock gain a significant productivity benefit. They also save some space on the comparative refuel/recharge infrastructure inside the facility, which lets them devote more space to storing goods, or use a smaller facility that consumes less energy. It’s a reminder that warehousing and distribution—like the rest of U.S. industry—is very practical about green tech. They embrace it the minute it makes financial sense. When talking to business people about the three aspects of the Triple Bottom Line—People, Profits, Planet—it's profits that really need to come first.
One other note about hydrogen lift trucks: While both electric lift trucks and hydrogen-powered ones don't spew exhaust, there is said to be less carbon footprint involved with hydrogen due to how the electricity on the grid gets generated. Yes, hydrogen fuel cell use has a carbon foot print in terms of getting the fuel processed, contained, and delivered, but you aren't drawing juice from the local utility grid to recharge lift trucks. That grid--depending on whether it relies on coal, natural gas, wind, solar, or nuke plants--usually involves a bigger carbon footprint than hydrogen cell use. Warehousing also is a confined environment where you can install hydrogen fueling stations exactly where needed. In the wider world of cars and other motor vehicles, that's been a big challenge for hydrogen--having the special pumps in place.
Well, I hope the video conveys some sense of the energy
savings systems available for materials
handling. There will be a similar and even larger show of this type in
Chicago in March of 2011 called ProMat, for those who want to see this sort of tech first-hand. Both NA and Promat also usually feature some educational sessions that focus on greener operations, as well as exhibitors who design facilities or consult with companies on the long-term configuration of their supply and distribution networks.
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