Fleet Sizing

Post author By John Stewart
Post date August 6, 2024

Use takt time to validate the current fleet and compare alternative solutions. Justify automation and other material handling approaches.

Calculate takt time. Divide shift minute work-time by customer demand. In the example, 200 pallets need to be picked in 420 minutes of shift time. Takt = 2,1.

For the baseline, calculate the minutes needed to pick a pallet. The forklift pick takes eight minutes. Dividing eight by takt time of 2.1 equals four forklifts.

An alternative to use a robot forklift increases the pallet pick time to 10 minutes. Dividing 10 by takt time of 2.1 minutes shows five robots are required.

To make a business case compare the total costs of both scenarios: four forklifts versus five robots.

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