There is an agenda item for the 11/17/15 BOD meeting as follows:
Sell Forklift (Brooks Scharff)
Problem: The battery-powered forklift is a large piece of equipment and only two members are authorized to use it. This equipment is very rarely used, yet takes up valuable floor space.
Solution: Require the Machine Shop Committee to sell their forklift, with the funds going to General Fund.
I am against this, and offer my counter arguments here.
Committee chairs have traditionally enjoyed authority over their areas. I am not aware of the board ever having dictated what DMS equipment could or could not be kept in a committee’s space.
The forklift is a uniquely useful piece of equipment. While it may not be needed often, when it is needed it is the only piece of equipment we have that is capable of performing the task. It has been used to transport the vacuum former, cabinets and various other pieces of machinery in the machine shop (the purpose for which it was acquired). It has also been used to load and unload equipment on or off of vehicles for transport. While we do have a gantry crane, that only has 2/3 the capacity of the forklift, does not have the height, and is simply not suitable to lift some objects. Also, it is so large that it cannot go places that the forklift can.
The forklift is not “large”. At 22.2 ft² it is smaller than the vacuum former (39 ft²), the kilns (collectively, 22.9 ft²), the HAAS (48 ft²), the freeze dryer (24 ft²), and the PlasmaCAM (26 ft²), to name a few other pieces of seldom used equipment.
While it is true that only 2 members are authorized to use the forklift, this is because only 2 members chose to attend the mandatory safety training/certification course. The course was scheduled and advertised weeks in advance, and was open to all members. It can be offered again, if there are members who want to take it and are willing to split the $250 fee among themselves.
The forklift was acquired and is maintained with machine shop committee funds. If it is sold, the funds should go to the machine shop committee.
If the forklift is sold, the board should allocate funds to acquire a device capable of lifting at least 3000 pounds. Preferably another forklift, or a quality adjustable height gantry crane and hoist capable of spanning a standard flatbed trailer and stake bed truck, and lifting more than 5000 pounds (which is what we needed to lift the heaviest piece of equipment I’m aware of coming through DMS, other than the HAAS).
Agreed that the forklift does occasionally meet a need… but it needs to be stored inside of the committee area. It is currently stored in the pallet storage area, and the large charger for it is stored between the dock doors.
The current forklift is designed for Amazon type warehouses, where the operator needs to be near the load for pick lists, etc. The problems with this design is that the required “headache” rack moves with the forks. That severely limits the height that we can lift. We can not use the current forklift for loading things on the storage shelves
We need to replace the current forklift with a different design. Perhaps something smaller like a powered pallet jack or at least something that can be used to lift things higher than a couple of feet inside the shop.
Downfall of not having a forklift is loosing the ability to take pallets of material (potentially) up the ramp into the space. While it can be done with a pallet jack, that presents its own danger of pushing/pulling heavy objects up the ramp. I can see the need to have a forklift. Am I mistaken that the one we have is the stand up style? It may not be the right style to fit our needs.
I disagree that the area the forklift resides in is not part of the machine shop. I’ll happily put down tape, if that’s necessary. If the charger being set next to the electrical outlet is an issue, it can be kept in the machine shop and only moved out when needed. However, it doesn’t seem to be in the way of anything where it is.
I do agree that it’s not an optimal design, but it’s what we have. I’m very willing to trade up to a more useful forklift.
Honestly, the current forklift may not be able to travel up the ramp with a load. It barely makes it up on it’s own. It is an “order picker”, like the model you posted, and is really only good for use on level ground. A traditional forklift would be better, but we’re making do.
The forks are in the way and are a trip hazard. Since the general theme has of late is to get rid of things or groups because of a space issue and non usage, of course this would have come up. You cant complain about the quality of the water and pee in it too.
If the forks are an issue, then we can address that (by storing it in a location where the forks are not “in the way”).
I don’t believe I’ve ever complained about space or non-use issues, or advocated getting rid of things or groups (which seems to be your insinuation).
So, to summarize, this forklift is not very useful for the things we would want to use a forklift for, & as a result it is rarely used, but takes up just as much space as a forklift which could be used weekly or more often — but we have nothing else which can do the job which it (unsatisfactorily) does, which has to be done on very infrequent occasions.
Seems as though either replacing it with a device which can actually do the kinds of jobs which DMS has for such a tool, or ditching it & renting the necessary tool on the rare occasions it’s unequivocally needed, would be the appropriate measures to take, but just letting it absorb space is scarcely a happy medium.
I doubt you can rent an electric forklift. Which means that we’d be spewing fumes into DMS.
Selecting the closest location I saw in a cursory search, it would cost $200 to rent a forklift. No idea how long delivery would take, or if it could be set up on moment’s notice (I doubt it). BTW - It is cheaper to deliver freight if you have a forklift on-site. This has saved the machine shop money on several occasions.
Our order picker does not take up as much space as a traditional forklift.
It’s the machine shop’s space to allocate. If we were asking to expand our area, there might be an argument for forcing it’s sale. However, I think that if an objective study of space/equipment were made, the machine shop would come out as one of the more efficient areas of the DMS workshop. We’re pretty darn compact; too much so, in truth.
The machine shop’s space is ours to allocate; that’s a red herring. If the forks are deemed to be a hazard it could easily be stored where they were underneath another piece of equipment. Our workbench most readily springs to mind. Or we could simply put up caution tape to direct the absent minded around the “danger zone”.
I don’t remember the machine shop ever going past the pillar, the space to the west of the pillar has always been pallet storage, except for the parts washer that was put in over there because you were out of space.
