“With lithium-ion, they can do opportunity charging. It’s zero time wasted within our operation from a productivity standpoint,which was huge.”
Shaun Feraco
Senior Vice President of Operations – City Furniture
Increased productivity more than 12% through utilizing opportunity charging.
Gained 500,000 cubic feet of storage space by eliminating lead-acid batteries and dedicated charging and storage space.
Improved operator job satisfaction, with increased productivity and uptime,providing operators the opportunity to earn performance and safety incentives.
Senior Vice President of Operations – City Furniture
City Furniture is a forward-thinking furniture retailer with locations and showrooms that span south and central Florida. The company embraces new technology and environmental responsibility, even combining the two in some of its material-handling and distribution practices. Its delivery fleet, comprised of 100% compressed natural gas trucks, is just one example of its commitment to safe, productive and sustainable operations.
As lithium-ion batteries have emerged as an alternative forklift power source, City Furniture was eager to learn how the technology could extend its “green” initiatives while improving employee health and wellbeing. Company executives also knew that there could be other benefits of the technology, such as reduced battery inventory and maintenance.
City Furniture became an early adopter of lithium-ion batteries, but soon learned the importance of working with a supplier that can provide an integrated system of lift trucks, batteries and chargers as well as responsive, local support, in order to realize all of the desired benefits. Acquiring the technology was one thing but learning how to best utilize it in their application turned out to be quite another. The company needed more guidance and support to implement the process changes necessary for the project to be a success.
As a long-time Crown lift trucks customer, City Furniture turned to Crown for the right technology solutions to its motive power challenges. It adopted Crown’s V-Force® Integrated Lithium-Ion Storage System consisting of one lithium-ion battery per lift truck along with V-Force high-frequency chargers to take advantage of the batteries’ ability to opportunity charge throughout each shift. The elimination of the battery room and extra lead-acid battery inventory allowed the company to recoup a half million cubic feet of essential storage space.
The gains in efficiency and productivity were even more rewarding. With the elimination of battery swapping, and the adoption of opportunity charging, operator productivity increased more than 12 percent. The increased productivity improved operators’ job satisfaction by positioning them to earn performance and safety incentives.