Hyster honored for excellence in forklift innovation with 2023 Edison Award win

Hyster Company has been selected as the silver recipient of a 2023 Edison Award for its innovative solution, Hyster Reaction™, a first-of-its-kind forklift operator assistance system. Each year, the Edison Awards honor some of the most innovative products and business leaders in the world, with this year’s win placing Hyster among the company of past recipients such as Steve Jobs, Elon Musk and globally-renowned companies including Coca-Cola and IBM.

The winning solution, Hyster Reaction, supports forklift operating best practices to help limit risk of incidents such as crashes or tip overs. It can enhance operator and pedestrian situational awareness and reaction time by providing dynamic alerts and automatically adjusting truck performance like speed or lift based on truck stability, facility rules and proximity to obstacles, people and other trucks. The solution is now available on an expansive lineup of forklifts, including a variety of sit-down, counterbalanced electric models.

Acknowledgement with an Edison Award demonstrates the company’s ability to provide powerful, working solutions capable of real-world impact. “Using Hyster Reaction helps employers and employees raise the bar, supporting them as they safely navigate busy indoor environments like those in general manufacturing and paper and packaging operations,” says Jennifer Meyers, Brand Manager, Hyster. “Since initial availability on five models, based on customer demand, the system is now offered on a total of 18 Hyster lift trucks, including 11 counterbalanced forklift models, so customers in more industries and applications can take advantage of this unique operator assist solution.”

Hyster Reaction was developed to support a customer’s safety initiative and is the result of an investment of more than 40,000 hours of research and development by Hyster-Yale Group, parent company to Hyster. The solution is commercially deployed on 4,750 lift truck units, and won Edison Award recognition in the improved location sensing category.

“One of the things that really sets Hyster Reaction apart is that it can actually automatically apply performance limitations,” says Steven LaFevers, Vice President of Emerging Technologies, Hyster. “Whereas most other systems will only trigger a flashing light or alarm when they detect obstacles, compromised stability or other hazards, Hyster Reaction goes a step further. The solution will actually impose slow-downs and other controls, like an inability to raise forks in locations where the operator does not have clearance. This more active approach also allows operators to feel what’s happening as the system intervenes, providing an additional layer of feedback to help improve operator performance.”