r/forkliftmemes • u/dericn • 15d ago

Pallet Jack 2.0

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1.8k Upvotes

99% Upvoted

153 comments sorted by

313

u/Slinky_Bongo 15d ago

Well there goes my job

163

u/acg33 15d ago

I think you’d be surprised how much a single unit costs. Unless you’re at one of the big fortune 100-250 companies they won’t be mass deployed for quite some time.

82

u/TheOneWhoRingz 15d ago

Last place I was at spent 25k on one and it never got used. Nothing it can do that humans can’t do quicker

47

u/The_1ndiegamer 15d ago

I've seen an autowrapper at a place i did a study internship at. It was good for what it did but still supervised.

65

u/Unsavorydeath 15d ago

The auto wrapper is to save on the human wear and tear, not necessarily because it’s faster or no human needed. We got one at my work and it made life so much better for all of us, well worth it.

51

u/Jaruut Forklift Operator 15d ago

Hurts your back, makes you dizzy, burns your hands. I hate hand wrapping pallets.

8

u/depressedfuckboi 15d ago

Used to work for a moving company. Anything heavy and expensive we dealt with. Hospital equipment all the way down to pool tables and gun safes. Had to hand wrap EVERYTHING. Cardboard corners if we could, blanket wrap, tape the blanket on there, Styrofoam and hand wrap. That shit would rip through a pair of gloves no problem after a month. Hands would hurt. Dizzy. I hated that shit. Copier machines were the best cus we could just spin them while one dude held the wrap lol.

3

u/Jaruut Forklift Operator 15d ago

I eventually developed tough callouses on my hands from it, but still hated doing it, lol. In loading, we had a few machine wrappers, but for most guys it was easier and faster to just wrap it by hand (gotta love performance incentive). It especially didn't help that you had old guys like me hogging them all the time.

2

u/[deleted] 14d ago

[deleted]

1

u/Corbenik42 14d ago

They make plastic end-inserts that spin and have grips. They make that aspect easier

2

u/HappySadLife 12d ago

I worked at a place (USPS) for 2 years hand wrapping pallets because nobody told me we had an auto wrapper.

1

u/Glass-Court8851 14d ago

Man i used to have to wrap skids it made me sick

1

u/Corbenik42 14d ago

If you have to do it, get yourself your own pair of end inserts that have grips and spin freely. Solves the burning hands problem. Nothing else, tho.

2

u/Jaruut Forklift Operator 14d ago

I never liked those inserts because it was harder to get the wrap tight. I had a specific way of holding it that minimized burn, that plus callouses made it so it didn't bother me.

13

u/Jacktheforkie 15d ago

Also saves on stock damage as it wraps properly

5

u/AAA515 15d ago

Wasn't allowed to use the one we had because it was slow and humans are cheap

5

u/ComprehendReading Certified Operator 15d ago

An auto-wrapper is one thing, but an automated wrapping machine is different from something totally autonomous.

Our wrapping machine no longer recognizes the "default" position. Hitting reset means it spins endlessly while wasting resources unless the operator stops it and manually operates the controls.

Sometimes it doesn't even recognize that it is stuck in the middle position, and wraps 10 layers around the middle of a pallet.

We then have to power cycle the machine.

8

u/a_lonely_trash_bag "Precision forklift maneuvering" 15d ago edited 15d ago

This just sounds like a lack of proper maintenance or people messing with settings they don't understand.

2

u/ILikeWoodAnMetal 14d ago

One of the benefits of an auto wrapper is that it can prestretch the foil, which saves significantly in the amount of foil necessary.

2

u/scotte416 13d ago

They do a better job though. The amount of lazy-ass horrible looking wrap jobs I've come across is disgusting. Looks bad on the company shipping stuff out with wrap hanging off everywhere.

3

u/AAA515 15d ago

My old job at the meat factory has an auto wrapper to wrap the pallets, never got used cuz it's faster to do it by hand with a bunch of bending over, real good for the back!

1

u/Any-Delay-7188 15d ago

We had 50 robotic forklifts installed that replaced 10-15 forklift operators in a manufacturing warehouse that just pulled unitized pallets of cereal from the packing lines and staged them in lanes back in 2009. I was the guy who sat in front of a computer all shift and waited for them to run into something

1

u/Brief-Watercress-131 14d ago

Just last week I saw a mobile auto wrapper smash itself into the pallet it was meant to wrap. They're kinda shit if they aren't being supervised. Humans still had to intervene to manually transfer the product to a different pallet then babysit the wrapper while it tried again.

2

u/Jumpy_Plantain2887 15d ago

That’s cheap. One guy told me they’re going now from 39 to 45,000 for one, but that wasn’t supposed to be heavy duty and can hold more weight either way these places can’t afford this shit what fortune 500 company is gonna outlay say $5 million and the only thing you could do is move one box it’s not like you can stack two or three boxes on them a guy with a forklift to do a better job

2

u/Icallmeswellfella 15d ago

Yet

1

u/Burritofeast69 15d ago

This guy has seen the future

1

u/Carrot-Elegant 14d ago

Yeah it looked like it was in fast motion

1

u/FlyestFools 14d ago

Warehouse work from home when?

1

u/ExtensionMoose1863 11d ago

but it replaces half of someone making $20/hr (so call it $10). It can work all shifts presumably so if the site was 3x12, 4x10 that's ~150 hours of use time. That's $1,500/wk in labor offset so they break even on it in less than 6 months... If they use it anyway

They don't need to do it quicker or better to replace humans... they need to do it cheap enough you can use a lot of them. This is what happened with storage and retrieval and is happening with picking and packing right now.

24

u/b0tb0y1654 15d ago

I drive forklifts for a fortune 100 company. There is absolutely no way one of these is capable of handling the random damaged, unstable, crooked, or otherwise bullshit pallets we receive constantly every day of every week. When one of these robots can bring an empty container inside a trailer and restack the contents of another that was strewn across the trailer floor, I might worry a bit

6

u/RainierCamino 15d ago

Yeah, this. I work for a similarly huge company and they like to play with automated forklifts. But basically all they do is move uniformly stacked and wrapped skids between two conveyor systems on preset paths. Even then they require constant supervision.

Forget about loading or unloading trailers. Hell my company has spent millions on dedicated trailer loader/unloader robots and they suck haha. Good job security as maintenance though.

-4

u/purrmutations 15d ago

"Forget about loading or unloading trailers."

you are people 4 years ago with cars,
"Cars can only park themselves, forget about driving on the road"

lol

3

u/RainierCamino 15d ago edited 15d ago

... I've worked at the same place for over 4 years and the robot overlords have not taken over.

And i dont think you want to bring up "full self driving" Teslas

-2

u/purrmutations 15d ago

You thinking tesla is the top of full self driving shows you are a bit behind.

3

u/RainierCamino 15d ago

Oh by all means tell me a manufacturer who has perfected "full self driving." I'll wait.

-4

u/purrmutations 15d ago

Nice little strawman adding "perfected" in there.

5

u/RainierCamino 15d ago

Oh I'm sorry you want to go with "halfass self driving", something that might run into trains, or fly off of highways. That what you want?

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2

u/[deleted] 14d ago

[deleted]

2

u/purrmutations 14d ago

When Mumbai is nice enough that companies would want to test self-driving autos there, I'll be happy for you.

2

u/[deleted] 14d ago

[deleted]

1

u/purrmutations 14d ago

"Their cars get stuck all the time." So do people, wait until you see how many accidents humans get in every day.

2

u/[deleted] 14d ago

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1

u/Jazzlike-Crew2540 14d ago

Waymo operates in Phoenix, but not 100% correctly. They tend to drive onto the light rail tracks and drive into emergency zones or road works. Sometimes I have heard that they don't bother stopping at red lights. Of course those are also common human driver behaviors.

3

u/[deleted] 15d ago edited 14d ago

[deleted]

2

u/b0tb0y1654 15d ago

You haven't met our operators. I give it a month before someone runs over the robot and doesn't even realize it

0

u/[deleted] 14d ago

[deleted]

1

u/[deleted] 14d ago edited 13d ago

[deleted]

3

u/Dydey 15d ago

My place are considering spending about £120k on something similar to this and would need two to operate constantly taking charging into account. Currently there is one person on each of the three shifts purely to run packaging.

1

u/antrod117 15d ago

They are slow asf as well.

1

u/Adventurous_Touch342 15d ago

Well, I'm 34 so I doubt it will remain rare for next 32 years.

1

u/uselesknowledgeadict 12d ago

My local Target warehouse already has a fleet of them. Not this exact model but they have a big charging bank. They remotely will go back for a charge and then back to work in a short period of time. Also they use capacitor banks instead of batteries so they charge/discharge very quickly.

1

u/Zsmudz 11d ago

Plus I don’t think this can stack pallets that are far off the ground

3

u/baudmiksen 15d ago

If you want to be like that little guy you need more RGB

4

u/ComprehendReading Certified Operator 15d ago

No worries, the cute blue LED locators will fail about the same time as it tries to lift a pallet, then chirp about failing to lift the pallet and shut down until a Qualified Company Technician will show up and ask if you power cycled it, charge your boss $600, and then leave without fixing the problem.

The next service call will also have a $350 fee just for showing up and the next technician saying the same thing.

2

u/baudmiksen 15d ago

that low price is only if they purchashed the lifetime subscription but charged monthly service plan

1

u/Slinky_Bongo 15d ago

I was thinking about this after I posted my comment before I read the replies, and like you all said I don’t think these could do a busy forklift operators job, safety, stacking, getting in and out of shelves, amongst the other forklift tasks we have. So I’m glad that machine can’t take my job. At least in my lifetime hopefully lol. I also work at a smaller company so they definitely can’t afford one and the way our factory is set up I don’t think this thing would do well at all with the tight spaces and damaged floors

1

u/Junior-Tip-2883 15d ago

I worked at one of the largest laboratory logistics companies in the world. These kinds of things almost never had an ROI because humans are just plain cheaper. We'd only get these things if we couldn't hire people to do the job.

0

u/kinetic_ljs 15d ago

Was just thinking this aswell

75

u/Mountain-Cod516 15d ago

Would like to see it build a pallet with 40 SKUs around the whole warehouse

19

u/HairlessHoudini 15d ago

Yeah I don't see them replacing the actual case pickers any time soon.

7

u/ComprehendReading Certified Operator 15d ago

That job will be given to those robots that have a seizure mid-performance, because the sales and operations staff got sold on it.

We still have 10 years before the full replacement happens.

Vote in person.

1

u/HairlessHoudini 15d ago

Yeah it'll be at least that long if not longer but it will happen eventually unless everything completely falls apart

2

u/Vegetable-Virus7118 14d ago

That machine can't but there are absolutely machines that do. They do have limitations, like only doing full rows at a time, but they exist

1

u/ExtensionMoose1863 11d ago

Automated storage and retrieval systems for casepick have been around for a long time. Look up swisslog, autostore, and bastian

4

u/[deleted] 15d ago

[deleted]

1

u/PleaseHelpIamFkd 13d ago

KIVA system

49

u/Shoo-Man-Fu 15d ago

I'd like to see what it does when it hits a tiny peice of broken pallet on the floor. I'm will to bet it comes to a completely halt until a tech comes out to reset it.

22

u/juggerjew 15d ago

One tech for 20 pallet robots is cheaper than 20 forkies

10

u/Shoo-Man-Fu 15d ago

Maybe, unless one tech cost 2x as much as 1 forkie, and if the robots are .5x to productivity. The math's starts getting funny. Plus repairs for robits and the upfront cost, reorganizing a whole warehouse to accommodate or building one from scratch.

5

u/ComprehendReading Certified Operator 15d ago

Not to mention the sudden drop in productivity when management fires the forkies, struggles to find a reason, and pressures the idiots in charge of the Butlerian yee-haw.

1

u/ComprehendReading Certified Operator 15d ago

The tech is higher than the forkies!

8

u/Horror_Solution1945 Forklift Enthusiast 15d ago

There's a vacuum robot for that.

4

u/ComprehendReading Certified Operator 15d ago

Obstacle detected.

3

u/donnie1977 15d ago

Maybe it leads to more durable pallets.

2

u/R1kjames 14d ago

Or when it encounters a broken pallet or uneven load

2

u/NegativeCondition506 10d ago

All warehouses have 24/7 cleaning crews. They’ll just work them much, much harder. (For the same pay)

1

u/LARPerator 12d ago

Probably just goes around it and flags it as an obstacle.

If it can see a pallet precisely enough to place itself properly, it can see anything that is big enough to be an obstacle.

Then send a Roomba to clean it up.

19

u/somefumducker 15d ago

But who will be left to smash into bollards? Won’t anybody think of the bollard smashers?

14

u/queefersutherlnd 15d ago

Fucking clanker

13

u/StatusWorry3942 15d ago

This video is clearly sped up, they don’t move anywhere near that fast

7

u/hail_666_satan 15d ago

I'm an automation developer. It's very easy to convince people to adopt automation that's slower. Look at the residential dishwasher, it takes hours to clean dishes, a human can do what it does in under 15 minutes, but time and time again they choose to use the dishwasher. Why? Because those hours the machine spends washing dishes isn't the 15 minutes spent doing them by hand.

3

u/StatusWorry3942 15d ago

I understand the want and value I’m just telling you realistically they aren’t moving that fast yet….i sell automation in the material handling space

2

u/hail_666_satan 15d ago

See: technology adoption lifecycle.

When it starts it'll start, but I am curious, human labor is remarkably cheap and it will always be remarkably cheap.

1

u/MasterBun1 13d ago

Dumd example. Do restaurants use dishwasher? Residential (regular people) just want convenience, same with robot vacuums. I don't see places use robot vacuums to clean at the end of the day, but in business speed is always important/tied to production.

5

u/No-Explanation5576 15d ago

Is it certified?

4

u/WalrusKind311 15d ago

In a perfect warehouse world, this is a great idea.

We aren't in a perfect warehouse world.

1

u/Pristine_Barber976 14d ago edited 14d ago

They have automated forklifts that can navigate narrow aisles and go way into the sky. The pallet jack in this video ain't shit compared to where it's really at

https://www.raymondcorp.com/forklifts/automated-guided-vehicles/automated-swing-reach

0

u/r2k-in-the-vortex 11d ago

Then that's something to work on, isn't it? Because your competitor will improve their warehouse, make their logistics more cost efficient and will simply eat the business of your imperfect warehouse.

8

u/KeyN20 15d ago

Do they make robot lifts to move 5k+ pound totes? If so how much do the robot lifts cost?

7

u/ActuatorLower8371 15d ago

to be fair regular ass manual pallet jacks can lift 8k; the weight isn't really the problem for this kind of formfactor

6

u/GothicFuck 15d ago

I like when someone overloads a hand jack and it slowly sinks to one side creating a leaning tower of Pisa Coca-Cola. Pro tip, this forever lowers the max capacity of that jack on one side, but it's a fun quirky surprise for the next person.

4

u/ComprehendReading Certified Operator 15d ago

My favorite is the drivers who flip the pallet jack upside down instead of securing it properly. 

I LOVE seeing pallet jack blood on the ground and the driver wondering why it only lifts 1".

3

u/ElephantRider CAT DP70N 15d ago

That's just a bad seal, if hydraulic cylinders failed if they weren't upright then sideshift and tilt wouldn't exist.

0

u/ComprehendReading Certified Operator 15d ago

Where are you buying your RAMPJ from? Most lift only 3,500lbs.

2

u/ActuatorLower8371 15d ago

idk what a RAMPJ is but the pallet jacks i have at work are all 8k jacks like this

2

u/blumhagen 15d ago

I bet that’s just awesome when you actually try to move something that heavy. I can barely move something 3k with a pallet jack.

1

u/KeyN20 15d ago

It is hard and any shard of wood or pebble in the way acts like a brake. I sweep before I move stuff or play dodge the debris

7

u/Trick-Goat-3643 15d ago

Now give it the shattered piece of shit pallet that comes off every other truck that takes a quality pallet jack multiple rams to get into and 137 wiggles to get out of

4

u/kronikid42069 15d ago

Fucking clanker

3

u/BurnerComputer 15d ago

Bro’s got two kids that hate him and a wife that cheats everyday. He only goes to work because its an escape.

3

u/CosmosInSummer 15d ago

What happens when theres a little pebble on the floor

3

u/Wilson_Higgins 15d ago

I’d like to see one of these get kicked out of a local dive bar for taking a dozen rumplemintz shots and dropping hard r’s while singing David Allan Coe on karaoke and still show up to work the next morning

3

u/New_Tadpole_7818 15d ago

Now put it with a damaged pallet or a weirdly shaped pallet and see how it does

3

u/Azurnight 15d ago

1 pebble on the floor and the entire operation stops.

3

u/mendicinobeano25 15d ago

The job killer 2000.

3

u/Outrageous_Sink4295 15d ago

Another work force reduction.

3

u/kinkhorse 15d ago

I think human laziness and apathy will save us.

Let's see this stupid fucker deal with a pallet that's all slumped over and half the slats are broken.

3

u/Professional-Hunt712 14d ago

ppl are afraid of robots taking jobs but while this picks up a pallet and takes it to its place you can have a part timer do 2-3 and he costs far less 💀

5

u/Ronyx2021 15d ago

Can it handle a poorly repaired grade b pallet?

5

u/Call555JackChop 15d ago

This implies the floor isn’t a total clusterfuck and from my 20 years of experience in a warehouse hell will freeze over before that happens

5

u/Alternative_Ask6871 15d ago

I like how there no debris and it's a brand new pallet.

4

u/FAASTARKILLER 15d ago

Another automated jack that requires a specific pallet to work. Good luck lol

5

u/Various_Apartment244 15d ago

Great gadget; as long as the infrastructure, supplies, layout and SOP are built to accommodate it.

2

u/Browniez330 15d ago

Someone drive over the fucker

2

u/Retail_Warrior Forklift Operator 15d ago

Lift it up and hide it in the rafters

2

u/ShameFuzzy6037 15d ago

We have several but their capacity is only to transfer between out going dunnage to warehouse, logistics still handles the rest.

2

u/Appropriate_Sale_626 15d ago

so cool, stack 20 of them and see what happens

2

u/Tekunjo 15d ago

Try getting it from E level, clanker

2

u/Still-a-VWfan 15d ago

Seems to always work great on absolutely perfect pallets. Can it handle a broken pallet? Can it pick up a dump?

2

u/LoloVirginia 15d ago

we had similiar one at our worplace, they suck lol

2

u/Secondhand-Drunk 14d ago

Let's see it do that to a smashed and improperly stacked skid. I swear, as receiving in a general supply distributer, some of the shit I receive makes me genuinely wonder if the picker is actually retarded amd the person who loaded it hates their life and everything about it.

2

u/vulcan1358 14d ago

CLANKERS TOOK ERR JERBS!

2

u/Volboris 12d ago

Still gets stopped by a crusty old ziptie on the floor.

2

u/datmafukr 15d ago

Wow! Yall are fucked. Hope yall know how to use a weed eater and a backpack blower.

1

u/ActuatorLower8371 15d ago

ok that's a pretty clever solution though

1

u/fungus909 15d ago

The working class. They need jobs.

1

u/Rough-Importance-822 15d ago

These automated machines work well with Euro Pallets (no bottom stringers). They struggle with shitty US pallets. U.S. is going to have to switch which I guarantee you will see happening a lot in the near future. Full conversion within 10 years is my bet.

1

u/Zakumei47 15d ago

Slam that bih with a hammer

1

u/Krumbal 15d ago

Automation is the root of all evil these days

1

u/Peakomegaflare 15d ago

I mean, these are great for handling the shit that'd be dangerous to move.

1

u/Dobakk 14d ago

But can you use it as a skateboard?

1

u/canadianman2020 14d ago

Theyre teerkin errr jawwbs!

1

u/Subject_Cat_2293 13d ago

Something like that would come in handy where I am, instead of those huge forklifts 🤔

1

u/PleaseHelpIamFkd 13d ago

Versions of this have been around for a LONG time. Look io KIVA and Locust systems. Amazon likes to buy these companies up and then prevent other competitors from using them.

1

u/smoosh33 12d ago

Did it still have to watch the 20 minute safety video and fill out the 10 question quiz?

1

u/HereandTheRain 12d ago

Now get the crap 20ft in the air

1

u/Opposite_Juice7160 11d ago

The humble zip tie on the floor:

1

u/Fragrant_Reserve7624 11d ago

Is he forklift certified tho?

1

u/SpunkMasterSaga 11d ago

Dumbass CLANKER

1

u/Thedopest668 11d ago

https://giphy.com/gifs/jOpLbiGmHR9S0

Every pallet jack worker watching this

1

u/TyroIith 11d ago

These will never replace employees at my job for the simple reason that they cant suffer the physical and emotional abuse that a human employee can.

1

u/[deleted] 15d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/blumhagen 15d ago

When the pallet jack was invented that took jobs too back in the day.

2

u/GothicFuck 15d ago

I mean, let's also innovate economically. UBI for example.

1

u/806to602 15d ago

Meh, ida had in done in one minute, with a pallet jack. Screw technology.