Over the last few years, the global e-commerce industry has nearly doubled in size, reaching approximately $7 Trillion. Almost every consumer product company has an e-commerce platform, providing customers with the benefit of convenience, personalization, and direct delivery. This has inevitably transformed modern warehouses into a battlefield of efficiency. Forklifts, the foot soldiers of every warehouse, are no longer seen merely as a vehicle, they are now a pivotal player in building a highly efficient warehouse logistics system.

Building intelligent forklifts is the need of the hour, so the OEMs have embarked on a journey to equip forklifts with devices and software that can make them smart (Material Handling Equipment Telematics Market is set to grow from USD 7.2 billion (2024) to USD 33.7 billion (2034) at a 16.7% CAGR, according to Market.us). Every forklift that leaves the production line is getting digitalized to create a real-world footprint.

In this post, I will explain how forklift digitalization is achieved, how it is transforming the material handling industry, and outline the future roadmap.

The first step in digitalization is creating a digital twin of the forklift, which makes it visible and accessible globally. Internet of Things (IoT) sensors fitted onto the trucks enable them to transmit telematics data such as usage, location, operator behavior, and maintenance needs (The forklift IoT market is valued at approximately $10.8 Billion in 2024, according to Credence Research). This data is continuously streamed, collected, stored, and utilized from a central location – typically in a cloud-based environment.

In addition to sensors monitoring forklift’s operational metrics, there are other types of sensors used for real-time location tracking, object/obstacle detection, driver behavior monitoring – from a tracking and safety perspective. Automated forklifts are advanced level machines which combine the sensor data, robotics, and AI.

Implementation considerations must be taken into account before you onboard this digitalization journey. One of the most important factors is the cost of implementation. A few major changes which will contribute to the cost are – hardware and required firmware development (typically telematics hardware can range from $50 to $800), forklift structural design changes to accommodate the fitting of hardware and the peripheral components, cloud-based platform development and infrastructure, network service provider setup for bi-directional communication with the forklift, and setting up an implementation team to help in field roll out and operator training.

With such kind of upgradation to your warehouse, Smart forklifts should be viewed as a source of significant and tangible benefits. Some of the key transformative benefits of the forklift digitalization include:

•  Improved Operational efficiency:
  • Historical data collected on key hours, travel hours, and lift hours help in identifying effective utilization and provide objective data to identify optimal number of forklifts required in the warehouse (typically 30% reduction in costs are realized through fleet optimization).
  • Traffic heatmap and route patterns provide greater visibility into the congested routes, warehouse layout, and bottleneck areas. This allows for data-driven route optimization and layout alterations, leading to significant productivity improvement of forklifts.
• Enhanced Safety:
  • LiDAR and camera-based sensors enable a reliable collision avoidance system, which helps in avoiding accidents involving other vehicles, objects, and pedestrians (Roughly 20% of forklift accidents involve a pedestrian, but 36% of forklift-related deaths do, according to OSHA ( Occupational Safety and Health Administration)).
  • Camera-based operator monitoring sensors help in detecting the operator’s behavior including fatigue, distraction, and unsafe driving. This data helps in detecting inefficient practices and provides targeted training for the operators.
  • Digital checklists enforce the operator to ensure that all the safety inspections are completed before operating a forklift, and in case of non-compliance, locks the forklift, making it inoperable until it’s compliant. Also, it creates a digital trail from an audit perspective.
  • Tracking of Impact events helps the operator to be cautious when driving around certain areas of the warehouse. This data, along with the impact threshold-based speed limiting, restricts the forklift from being further damaged by continuous operation.
• Operational Agility:
  • Autonomous forklifts can seamlessly integrate with Enterprise Resource Planning system, Warehouse Management System , Labor Management System , and other digitally enabled equipment in the warehouse. This enables real-time resource tracking and data-driven decisions to rapidly respond to changing demands.
  • Predictive maintenance is a significant advantage, which can avoid downtime and unexpected operational disruptions, resulting in 24/7 available and scalable fleet.

While autonomous forklifts are in use now, technological advancement promises many more innovations to come, listing a few below,

• Swarm robotics: Forklift fleet operating inside a warehouse will work as interconnected units which can share the data between themselves and coordinate their movements effectively to improve efficiency without manual intervention. This allows even more agility for the warehouse operations. For example, Amazon uses swarm robotics in their warehouses for the movement of packages (Interesting fact: Amazon has released a new robot named Vulcan which has touch sensitivity and can apply the right amount of pressure when grabbing and moving packages).
• AI and ML Based Environment Learning: AI-powered camera systems are on the rise and when they are fitted onto the forklifts, they can help in understanding the operating environment by learning about the objects around it; scanning digital identifiers like barcodes, digital tags; capturing the incidents for detailed offline analysis.
• Augmented Reality (AR) based guidance: AR headsets can guide the operator through the warehouse and navigate the forklift through optimal route, help them in lifting and placing the objects in a safe and effective way.

Forklifts are no longer considered to be a steel frame assembly running on an engine and moving things, they are intelligent assets which can redefine the logistics system of a warehouse. The material handling industry has embraced this digitalization and is getting ready to adopt advanced technologies like AI, AR etc. to build a more resilient warehouse.