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Warehouses are constantly driven to maximize operational efficiencies. As an integrated solutions provider, The Raymond Corporation continually innovates products and introduces solutions to proactively address today’s material handling challenges. To ensure operations are productive and efficient before applying automation, consider the following five tips: Invest in education and training. Educating forklift operators’ and technicians’ specific needs will help organizations achieve better results. Tools such as Raymond’s Virtual Reality Simulator provide advanced, hands-on instruction that is designed to improve operator skills, build confidence and keep them learning in a realistic virtual warehouse before they ever set foot on the floor — saving time and preventing potential disruptions. Adopt a lean management approach. Lean management is a long-term operational discipline that systematically seeks to improve efficiency and quality by identifying expenditures, visualizing the current state of performance and, ultimately, eliminating waste in time and materials. When applied correctly, lean management can effectively and efficiently produce quality processes that fully satisfy customer demands. Connect directly with your entire fleet. While optimizing an operation, it is important to implement processes and telematics solutions that will provide measurable data and to consistently track fleet utilization, operator performance and scheduled maintenance. Collecting data and implementing intelligent warehouse solutions can help connect your entire fleet and identify potential issues, such as hidden costs or areas of congestion. Analyze data to establish operational baseline efficiencies. Telematics data can reveal inefficiencies to guide future decisions about what solutions to implement. Data reports offer operations detailed information as to what workers are doing, their productivity, the age of your equipment and batteries, and projected business growth while creating more space for product and improving workforce productivity and overall efficiency. Determine appropriate automation solutions. Be diligent in evaluating new technologies. It is not always necessary to jump into full automation. […]