From Chain Hoist To Computer Chips

Warehouse and Operations as a Career the podcast. Marty T Hawkins here. We need to get to a lot of questions being sent in regarding several of the positions we’ve been speaking on so I’ll try and get something put together in the next couple of weeks. I had to charge our equipment over at the distribution training center this week, so I thought of today's battery changers and how different the position is today, so let's talk about that for a few minutes.  

For electric powered industrial equipment, the battery changer keeps the heartbeat steady. Uptime, safety, and battery life all flow through this role. Over the past two decades, the job has shifted from heavy, manual swaps in a back room to a data-driven, safety-critical function that touches maintenance, EHS, and operations. Today’s battery changer is part equipment handler, part technician, and a lot of times, part systems operator. 

Twenty years ago, and thirty years ago for me, many facilities still used chain hoists and hooks to lift and place those 1,500–4,000 lb lead-acid batteries. A battery beam, In my humble opinion, in today's world, they should never be used! And the charging areas! Hydrogen gas from charging required ventilation, but controls were simpler, logging was paper-based; rotation was whoever grabs the next charged battery. Everyone required designated charging areas with ventilation, spill-neutralization supplies, and fire protection, but execution, well simply put it varied quite a bit. 

Later on came the, what we called, the push pull. Mobile and pallet-jack-mounted battery carriages with magnet or vacuum extraction reduced manual handling and sped change-outs to just a few minutes. Standard fit battery racks made working with the heavy batteries much easier and safer.   

Today the room is smarter. Battery room management systems (BRMS) and networked chargers track state of charge, temperature, rotation, and cool-down; visual cues tell operators which battery to take, protecting life cycles and eliminating guesswork. High-frequency (HF) chargers improve energy efficiency and support opportunity charging, reshaping shift patterns. In some fleets, lithium-ion packs and fast charging units can reduce or eliminate mid-shift swaps.  

I always felt like the beams were so dangerous to work with, and the push/pull attachment was efficient for its time but, well, with each of us equipment operators changing our own equipment I’ve got to be honest, we weren't really concerned with maintaining proper charging protocols. We wanted a hot battery and took one. Probably shortening the life of the battery by half many times!  

Back then it was a whooping. We’d have to align the truck, sling the battery, control that swing, mind your fingers and toes, and stick the landing perfectly. And that chain hoist, those slow gears.  

Today we can use a battery extractor/carriage, often mounted on a powered pallet jack, with a magnet or vacuum that grips and can push and pull the battery. Transfer happens across roller beds with stops at each point. Skilled placement is still needed, but the machine does the moving and muscle part. Newer extractors can get a battery changed in 3 to 4 minutes in the larger facilities 

Back then: we were supposed to use paper charts, what we charged and what we used. That was a pretty thin book! And an Equalize charge! I had a maintenance man who’d ask how my second shift could function without equalizing a charge.  

Now, BRMS/IoT displays indicate the one battery that’s fully charged and ready to be used and enforce the rotation. Computers and monitors flag missed equalize cycles and bad batteries, cells, or misreading units. And for maintenance & housekeeping! 

We used to wipe the tops, check all the cables, and keep the eyewash station from getting dusty. 

Today the battery changer monitors ventilation, the eyewash and spill kits, rack condition, and charger leads. He or she performs basic inspections, and issues or defects, reporting them immediately to the maintenance department.   

Back in the day I’d report that we did 20 changes last night. 

Now, KPIs include change-out time, wrong batteries used, charger utilization, battery temps, watering compliance, equalize usage, and preventative maintenance reporting. Today's systems make all this possible.  

And now you’ll see High-frequency chargers & opportunity charging.  

High frequency chargers deliver better electrical efficiency than the older type units and support opportunity charging during breaks, keeping trucks in service longer and reducing change events per shift. That maintenance guy I spoke about earlier would throw a fit if we ever plugged our pallet jack in at break or lunch! It used to be so bad on the batteries, but that was 20 and 30 years ago!  

There are some amazing systems out there now. Computerized racking, dashboards, data analysis on each battery, its charge and change history. Pretty much anything you’d ever want to know about it, and, how your associates are following your charging protocols.  

In many facilities, lithium-ion packs and batteries are being used. Less maintenance, no watering, and utilizing partial charging as well.  

Designated charging areas with ventilation, spill neutralization, fire protection, and protection for charging units are modern today.  

Eyewash/showers & neutralization stations are maintained well, and Lockout/Tagout or LOTO programs are built in, structured, and part of the programs. 

And then there's training beyond just PIT awareness, today’s changer needs training on chemical hazards, electrical safety around chargers, LOTO, and use of the room’s specific systems, those BRMS dashboards, HF chargers, extractor equipment.  

A few of the more important things considered today that may not have been considered several years ago that we now consider for the rooms and the position.  Gosh, lets see, where do I start. The room layout & flow I guess. We want marked, dedicated aisles and striped parking lanes and where charger leads can be kept tidy and off the floor. Running over a charge terminal is the quickest way to upset that maintenance guy! We need to install roller stands at consistent heights, and an easy way to document any components like magnets and vacuums, or terminals, maybe something linked to our warehouse management systems. And of course, ventilation in the room that keeps any gases low during charge and equalize cycles.  

I think all the new systems are great in helping to Take-the-right-battery every time by being system directed. No more I’m taking this one! The maintenance guy loves how they help Equalize on a proper schedule that the BRMS or charger system directs and records our compliance! 

The battery changer handles all the maintenance basics too. Watering programs, keeping the tops and vents clean, all the corrosion control 

And then they oversee the metrics, things like, Change-out cycles, battery/charger utilization; temperatures, oh and the room 5S scores; incident/near-miss rate opportunities in his or her charging room 

The job has moved from a no skill or training position that all associates may have performed to a more skilled and trained position, with responsibility and accountability. 

We have Hands-on skills, equipment operation, alignment and transfer procedures, connector etiquette, hose and vent cap checks, housekeeping. And reading charger displays, understanding BRMS, and all the alarms, and we’ll learn and use basic data entry. 

And of course, safety. Using the correct PPE’s, acid handling, spill response, eyewash usage and procedures, our LOTO rules, and proper and required ventilation.   

Where can this position take us? Senior battery technician, maintenance tech, energy/charging program lead, EHS coordinator, or facilities or operations roles. As fleets digitize, the best battery changers become the room experts, people who speak the language of both uptime and safety. 

The battery changer’s work is still about getting the right power pack into the right truck at the right time and safely. What’s different now is our toolkit, the engineered extractors, roller racks, HF chargers, and the workflow with system driven results, and the responsibility of owning a safety-critical, analytics driven assisted processes.  

Imagine what the next 5 to 10 years are going to bring us! 

We’ll theres a bit on the battery changer position. Please send us a message through our Facebook or X feeds using @whseops or comment on instagram at waocpodcast, even go old school and send me an email to [e-mail]. 

If you have a position you’d like to know more about, ask away, and I’ll find someone to help us learn about it. 

Until next week, be productive and be safe in all you do, on the job and at home.