September 2024 | 5 Stages of Intralogistics: How do Forklift Operations Fit in?

In today’s market, operational efficiency isn’t just a goal—it’s a survival tactic. As businesses face mounting pressure to deliver faster and more cost-effectively, the need to streamline processes, particularly in intralogistics, has never been more urgent.

For many companies, manual material handling with forklifts remains the norm. However, as these pressures intensify, more businesses are recognizing the critical role of automation in driving operational excellence.

Through our extensive work with intralogistics teams, we’ve observed that companies typically progress through distinct stages on their journey toward full automation—though not always in a linear fashion.

A crucial aspect of this journey is optimizing forklift operations, which, despite being essential in warehouses and factories, are often riddled with inefficiencies. Addressing these inefficiencies early on is key to laying a solid foundation for a smoother transition to automation.

Stage 1: Manual Material Flows

Manual processes hold significant potential for efficiency gains. Forklifts, for example, are often underutilized, operating at just 40-50% capacity and typically fragmented, flexible yet prone to inefficiencies.

The reliance on manual operations without holistic optimization can lead to errors, inconsistencies, and delays, especially as operations scale. (to learn more: check out our piece about the 7 sins of forklift operations)

Forklift Inefficiencies are a hidden drain on productivity

While forklifts remain a critical tool, they are also one of the largest sources of inefficiency.

These inefficiencies manifest in several ways:

• Poor Traffic Management: A lack of coordination between forklift movements and pedestrian traffic or even mobile robots creates congestion, accidents, and costly delays.
• Static Task Assignments: Operators often receive inflexible, one-size-fits-all task lists, leaving them unable to adjust to real-time needs. This results in idle forklifts, wasted fuel, and underutilized workforce.
• Inefficient Route Planning: Without real-time tracking, forklifts often take unnecessarily long routes, wasting time and energy while increasing wear and tear on the equipment.

To address these challenges, companies need to focus on quickly analyzing and optimizing their forklift operations, particularly in areas like task allocation and inventory management, to unlock immediate gains in efficiency and safety.

Consider the impact of transitioning from paper-based tasks to a digital, dynamic task management system. This shift enables forklift drivers to receive tasks in real time, based on the best possible allocation of resources, considering factors such as location, priority, and availability. This approach makes operations more responsive and reduces bottlenecks.

The first step toward automation is a thorough analysis and optimization of forklift operations.

Conducting an audit using real-time localization can identify inefficiencies and pave the way for a digital solution involving more intelligent planning and dynamic task management. This not only boosts efficiency but also reduces operational costs, creating a strong foundation for future automation.

Stage 2: Isolated Automation

After identifying inefficiencies or processes ripe for automation, companies often seek quick wins by automating isolated tasks. This is typically where Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs) and Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMRs) begin to make their way onto the shop floor, replacing straightforward, repetitive tasks that are easy to automate.

However, while these automated systems take over certain processes, manually guided vehicles continue to play a critical role operating outside the zones that have been automated. It’s crucial to optimize forklift usage when considering the shop floor as a whole.

By integrating data collection technologies—such as real-time localization systems—companies can optimize routes and minimize travel distances in areas where material flows are still manual. While manual and automated material flows do not overlap in this second stage, digitalizing forklift operations is crucial for moving into the next one.

Stage 3: Combining Manual and Automated Systems – Gradual Integration

As companies experience the benefits of isolated automation, the next step is to integrate these automated processes with manual operations.

Forklifts remain a core part of this hybrid stage. As more processes become automated, forklifts and human operators work alongside automated guided vehicles (AGVs) or autonomous mobile robots (AMRs), handling the more complex, non-repetitive tasks.

Forklifts in a Hybrid System

In a hybrid manual-automated system, the challenge is to maintain flexibility while ensuring that automation enhances, rather than hinders, efficiency.

Forklift operations at this stage must be finely tuned to adapt to the introduction of automation, which may require:

• Intelligent Task Prioritization: Automated systems may handle routine tasks, but forklifts could be prioritized for more urgent or complex work. Implementing an intelligent task management system that allocates tasks based on the best possible resource to execute the job ensure that forklifts are used effectively.
• Improved Traffic Management: As automation increases, traffic management becomes more complex. Forklifts must operate smoothly alongside other resources on the shopfloor without causing congestion or safety hazards. An intelligent traffic management system can coordinate these interactions, ensuring that all vehicles—manual or automated—move safely and efficiently.

Stage 4: Complex Automation – Scaling for Efficiency

At this stage, companies are ready to fully embrace automation across their intralogistics operations. Processes that previously relied on manual forklift fleets are now replaced by technologies such as AMRs, AGVs, or autonomous forklifts.

However, companies often find that the software solutions used in earlier stages (Stages 1-3) are no longer sufficient to handle the complexity and scale of operations at this level. This necessitates a complete overhaul of the software infrastructure, which can be a significant undertaking involving extensive change management in operations, qualification, and maintenance.

Given the scale and complexity of these changes, projects at this stage are often large and carry a high risk of failure. To mitigate these risks, it’s crucial to have a solid foundation from the earlier stages and to approach the transition to complex automation in a targeted and measured way.

Stage 5: Full Automation – Blending Human Expertise and Autonomous Systems

In this scenario, the goal is to achieve a perfect balance between human expertise and complex automation. While automated systems handle the majority of standard, routine tasks with precision and efficiency, manual processes remain vital for providing flexibility and human judgment in more complex scenarios.

Forklifts in Advanced Automation

Even as automation scales, manual forklift operations can remain a factor for handling exceptions or flexibly ramping up capacity in a way that automated systems aren't equipped or cost prohibitive to manage. Regular analysis of forklift usage allows businesses to continually optimize fleet size and deployment, preventing downtime and reducing operating costs.

By blending automation with human skills, companies can achieve maximum productivity and flexibility in their intralogistics operations, ensuring that both automated and manual processes work in harmony to meet operational goals.

No matter where a company is on the journey to full automation, forklift operations remain a cornerstone of material handling.

By addressing inefficiencies early, companies can unlock immediate productivity gains. This optimization creates a strong foundation for gradually integrating more advanced automation solutions.

Ready to future-proof your forklift operations? Let SYNAOS’s Real-Time Localization and Forklift Guidance solutions lead the way to smarter, more cost efficient intralogistics.