Product category:
Batteries, chargers and circuit protection
News Release from: EnerSys Motive Power | Subject: Battery management services
Edited by the Engineeringtalk Editorial
Team on 25 October 2002
Land Rover outsources battery management
Land Rover has appointed Hawker Traction to take responsibility for all the batteries in the 500-plus lift and tow trucks operating at its Solihull plant.
Land Rover has appointed Hawker Traction to take responsibility for all the batteries in the 500-plus lift and tow trucks operating at its Solihull plant Hawker's battery management regime has enabled Land Rover to reduce the number of batteries required for the lift truck fleet, slash annual battery repair costs by almost 90%, and cut battery change times by more than half
This article was originally published on Engineeringtalk on 15 Feb 2008 at 8.00am (UK)
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Hawker high frequency (HF) high-speed chargers from EnerSys Motive Power are designed to refresh battery charge while trucks are parked during drivers' short rest break.
The adoption of Hawker's energy efficient high frequency battery chargers is also expected to save Land Rover more than GBP 800,000 in electricity costs over a five-year period, particularly with the introduction of off-peak charging.
Land Rover has now demanded that its lift truck supplier fits Hawker batteries on all new models delivered to the plant.
Most of the lift and tow trucks on the Solihull site are used to supply components, on a just-in-time basis, to the Land Rover assembly lines where the Defender, Discovery, Freelander and Range Rover models are produced.
Any stoppage on the production lines due to lack of components would lose the company thousands of pounds in just minutes, so truck uptime is critical.
The Hawker battery management system has now helped Land Rover to achieve uptime in excess of 98%.
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Battery management used to be the responsibility of Land Rover's truck drivers.
"These people were not battery experts", explains Land Rover's Transport Co-ordinator Rob Harley, "and we were experiencing problems with batteries not being charged properly or used in the right sequence.
As a result we had to have more trucks, and more batteries, than was strictly necessary to keep the production lines supplied; rising production volumes at the plant was exacerbating the problem.
There was also a health and safety issue with non-expert staff involved in handling batteries".
"By appointing Hawker as a directly-accountable First Tier Supplier we have effectively delegated the responsibility for battery management - and solved the problems".
With the tight management of charging procedures, routine preventative maintenance and efficient rotation of batteries to ensure fully charged units are always to hand, Hawker has reduced the batteries required for the Land Rover fleet by 15% - from two per truck to 1.7, while still being able to support full round-the-clock operations.
Hawker has a service manager and a ten-strong team of operators permanently on site, enabling Land Rover to deploy their own workforce more productively.
Five dedicated battery charging/changing areas have been created at strategic points, close to production lines, around the plant.
Each is equipped with automatic single watering point systems, and Hawker high frequency chargers - either the Powertech or Life Plus models, depending on the battery type.
A major advantage of these high frequency chargers - there are around 500 on site - is their compact dimensions; they can be wall mounted, out of harm's way, which has enabled Hawker to make optimum use of the space available.
Overhead gantry cranes are used for battery changing, operated by Hawker technicians.
Battery change times have now been reduced from around 17min to 8min.
The LifePlus charger is remarkably energy-efficient.
It provides a full charge to the battery with a low charging factor, making much more cost-effective use of mains power.
As much as 90% of the electricity put through LifePlus goes directly to charging the battery.
With this system, particularly when taking advantage of off-peak electricity tariffs, Land Rover predicts that over a five year period it will save more than GBP 800,000 in the cost of mains electricity for the battery chargers.
Battery repair costs have also tumbled.
It was costing Land Rover around GBP 100,000 a year to rectify faulty units but with the care and maintenance procedures instituted within Hawker's battery management programme - particularly the strict discipline of regularly applying equalisation charges - these costs have plummeted by 88% to GBP 12,000 per year, and annual saving of GBP 88,000.
All replacement batteries, chargers and spare parts are supplied direct by Hawker.
"The main point about subcontracting to Hawker is that we no longer have to worry about batteries", explains Rob Harley.
"Hawker are the experts, and they understand the automotive industry inside out.
So they appreciate that in this business the production line is god, and that all operations have to be geared to keeping it running to full capacity".
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