New developments in wireless communication and data collection will soon allow industrial fleets to go where no forklift has gone before. Two years ago, DC Velocity published an article titled "Could a lift truck become the ‘brain’ of your DC operation?" In it, Crown Equipment Corp.’s Jim Gaskell, who oversees the forklift maker’s fleet optimization products, posited that lift trucks would one day function as mobile data hubs, connecting to systems and devices beyond warehouse management systems (WMS). It could soon be possible, he said, to use the resulting data to better manage the warehouse as a whole. That day has arrived. Lift truck telematics—the transmission of data to and from industrial trucks—and the technologies used for collecting, sharing, and analyzing lift truck-related data have made great strides since that article was published. These developments have enabled the once-humble forklift to become a full-fledged member of the Internet of Things (IoT), which the McKinsey Global Institute defines as devices that can "monitor their environment, report their status, receive instructions, and even take action based on the information they receive." With the right technology on board, lift trucks can do all that and more, opening the way for them to function as the data hubs envisioned several years ago. But it doesn’t end there. Engineers and software developers are thinking up additional ways to apply lift truck telematics and data technologies. If their ideas become reality, then the forklift of the future could be more akin to something from "Star Trek" or "The Jetsons" than to the basic material handling tool of the past. SO WHAT’S NEW? Communication terminals that integrate with a truck’s on-board electronics to collect and wirelessly send and receive data have been available for some time now from both lift truck makers and independent providers. These […]