The new plant manager wants to replace the LP gas lift trucks with electric ones, making your lift truck fleet go from 20% electric to 100%. His reason is the electrics are quiet and don’t emit exhaust.
The operations managers oppose this move. They say the electrics are unreliable. Operators leave drained units all over the plant and maintenance has to replace the dead battery with a charged one.
The plant manager wants you to determine the correct charge time and install timers. Where do you start?
Possibly, the lift truck operators aren’t returning the trucks at shift’s end; that can be administratively fixed. Probably, the batteries get deep cycled regularly and their capacity is severely diminished; try a few new batteries and compare performance.
Charging time depends upon the battery capacity and charger rate. But charging adjustments probably won’t enable the plant manager’s goal.
LP gas trucks can get around the operational limits of similar-sized electrics, because they have the same lifting and driving power all day long until fuel runs out. Upsizing the electrics to suit all plant conditions might not be practical or affordable.
