christopher Harper, Author at DJ Products

Caterpillar Invests in Robotics Firm to Offer Material Handling Innovation

Funding for OTTO Motors

A handful of investors, including General Electric and Caterpillar, have provided $30 million to Clearpath Robotics, which will be used to expand their industrial division, OTTO motors. This division is in charge of developing automated, self-driving vehicles that will be used as material-handling equipment in factories and warehouses. The capital-led investment is targeted toward development of new, cutting-edge self-driving software for the vehicles.

Explosive Growth

Co-founder of Clearpath, Matt Rendall, declared that self-driving vehicles will see a market growth of $80 billion over the next two decades, while self-driving material-handling vehicles will also increase in demand. This funding gives Clearpath a solid start for development of the new technology, which will be used to make further strides towards safer and more efficient self-driving software.

The company expects that a predicted a labor shortage in the coming decade will greatly increase demand for their vehicles. OTTO Motors’ products are already used by top-tier companies in the field of manufacturing, which includes GE, John Deere, and several others.

Factories as Small Cities

Rendall further described the operation of factories in the future as on the scale of small indoor cities with all the accompanying infrastructure, including roads, intersections, and pedestrians. The factory setting has an advantage in terms of having a controlled layout that’s perfect for using self-driving vehicles.

Whether you’re making use of self-driving vehicles or thinking about improvements in operations, your factory can be made a lot safer by using the right material-handling equipment from DJ Products. Go to http://www.djproducts.com/industry/ and check out our full selection of warehouse equipment!

Diverse Materials Being Used for Warehouse Pallets

One of the most dependable mainstays of the warehouse world, pallets have a bright future even as material changes lie ahead.

A survey conducted by Modern Materials Handling shows that while 96% of companies are sticking with wood pallets, but more than 40% are also using plastic or metal pallets. A strong 18% of businesses are reporting plans to begin pallet pool programs.

Warehouses can count on their material handling equipment supplier to help maintain pallet use as the convenient, efficient, cost-effective, and traditional solution. Even businesses that may be switching over from stringer pallets to block pallets can benefit from continuing to use their fork lifts and cart tuggers to maneuver those pallet loads.

New Pallet Materials and Innovation

The Modern report also highlights the fact that 42% of companies are using more wood pallets than they were a year earlier. Regarding plastic pallets, 88% will maintain or increase their usage in the next year. Metal pallets are primarily used for heavy international shipping, and even its usage is ticking up slightly.

These increases come despite the fact that some companies are experiencing pallet shortages or price increases. Making up for these difficulties, in part, is the pallet pooling movement. This helps businesses to essentially outsource and scale, using the pool service as a material handling equipment supplier that takes care of sourcing and storage.

Are you switching to block pallets or changing your approach to warehouse pallets? Let us know what you need from your material handling equipment supplier, and check out our cart pushers and tugs for an even easier solution for moving pallets.

Tips for Maintaining Your Dumpster Enclosure

This Waste Caddy Will Make Your Job So Much Easier!

Tenants judge their landlord and property management staff based largely on how well the crew takes care of the little day-to-day things like trash removal. When dumpster enclosures are messy or hazardous, a negative tenant attitude builds steam.

As one janitorial service puts it, it’s critical to maintain a clean and efficient dumpster enclosure for the sake of your reputation as well as the health and safety of your staff.

• Regular staff does a better, more efficient job compared to a high turnover situation.

• Tenants do a better job of cleaning up after themselves when the grounds are kept tidy.

• Loose trash can lead to city fines, negative online reviews, and tenant complaints.

Efficient Ways to Keep Dumpsters Clean

Good trash solutions start with good equipment. Consider what your staff must do to wheel dumpsters around the property for collection. Are you asking valued employees to risk back injuries and muscle pulls by pushing tons of garbage?

One of our clients says her waste caddy has essentially given her an extra employee. “I used to have two guys tied up four hours a day,” she said. Now that the job can be done by one employee, “the other guy is available to do more important things, like respond to resident requests 8 or more hours every week.”

Ultimately, motorized equipment that moves dumpsters, like our lineup of Waste Caddies, enables your staff to work safely and efficiently while also improving tenant morale and retention.

Do yourself a favor and reduce the risk of heavy equipment injuries while taking better care of your waste management with waste caddies from DJ Products.

Highlighting One of Our Top Selling Products the TrailerCaddy Extreme

Moving heavy trailers? Whether it’s down an assembly line or across a dealer’s lot, it’s a cumbersome process requiring time and effort. The TrailerCaddy Extreme, a heavy duty trailer dolly from DJ Products, is so efficient that a single employee can move loads up to 50,000 pounds.

Save Time and Reduce Expenses

As a trailer moves farther along an assembly line, its increasing size makes it difficult to move. Either several employees have to do it manually, or they end up improvising with pallet jacks and other equipment that can damage the trailer.

The job is no easier at a dealer’s lot. An employee has to hook up the trailer to a yard tractor or pick-up truck that affords little flexibility in maneuvering the load around corners or in small spaces.

With the TrailerCaddy Extreme, your employee simply slides the mover in place under one end of the trailer and it’s ready to go. Not only do you save time and money in manpower, but indirect expenses are reduced thanks to fewer injuries and insurance claims.

Powerful and Eco-Friendly

The TrailerCaddy Extreme runs on a heavy-duty 36-volt motor that generates enough power to lift dolly tongues up to 15,000 pounds and move trailers up to 50,000 pounds. Its compact size and adjustable acceleration and braking make operation simple both indoors and out, while ergonomic features like the variable speed twist grip reduce risk of injuries.

Material Handling Solutions from DJ Products

Whether you’re looking for a heavy duty trailer dolly or a battery-powered dumpster mover, we have the solution for your particular application. Call 800.686.2651 for more information.

The Science Behind Supply Chain Logistics Encourages Interaction from University and Researchers

As the material handling industry continues to grow on a global scale, how does it evolve to satisfy the needs of a sophisticated and tech-savvy customer base? One of the industry leaders is launching a visionary program to analyze material handling trends and develop creative solutions.

A Groundbreaking Initiative

Toyota Material Handling North America, the world’s largest producer of lift trucks, recently announced the TMHNA University Research Program. Its ultimate goal is to develop a synergistic collaboration between TMHNA and the brightest members of the academic community in order to “find innovative solutions and technologies.”

TMHNA kicked off the initiative with a request for proposals from members of the country’s top research universities. Focus topics include forward-thinking material handling trends such as 3D metal printing, predictive maintenance and big data analysis.

Call for proposals closed August 31, and after a thorough review TMHNA will select several proposals to receive inaugural funding. Projects are expected to begin this month, and based on results, selected faculties may be invited to renew their contracts for up to three years.

In Search of Constant Improvement

Inspiration for the program came from Toyota’s practice of a process known as Kaisen, which means “constant improvement.” Brett Wood, president and CEO of TMHNA, believes the program will produce “breakthroughs that will elevate the entire industry.”

State-of-the-Art Material Handling Solutions from DJ Products

Our comprehensive line of battery-powered tugs and movers checks many of the boxes for material handling trends, including worker safety and increased productivity. Use our convenient online chat feature and let our friendly sales engineers assist you with selecting the right mover for your application.

The Business Case for Investing in Equipment that Prevents Back Injuries

Data from an older article stated that on average, nearly 50 workers are injured during any given minute of the work week. The American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE) published a 2002 report that workplace safety programs benefit both your company and your employees. Fast-forward to today. This data makes a good business case that using WasteCaddy dumpster movers to prevent back injuries is a wise investment.

Safety by the Numbers

In that article, workplace injuries resulted in $128 billion in losses in 1996, which equated to 25 percent of pre-tax net profits. Even in today’s business environment, indirect costs can inflate direct costs by a factor of 20. Some of these include:

• Hiring, training and paying replacement labor

• Reduced productivity

• Investigation time and implementation of corrective measures

• Absenteeism and low employee morale

• Poor reputation in the community and industry

Many of these costs can continue long after the actual occurrence of the injury.

Raising Safety Awareness

The report cited a survey showing that employers buy into the importance of heightened safety practices regarding business and human costs. The top two reasons given were the cost of workers’ compensation insurance and the “right thing to do.”

There is real-life data to support the cost-effectiveness of safety programs:

• Companies have seen a return of up to $6 for every $1 spent on workplace safety.

• After investing in their safety program, a West Virginia coal mining company saw its workers’ compensation rate drop to $1.28 per $100 in payroll, compared to a competitor’s rate of $13.78.

Reduce Back Injuries with Electric Tugs from DJ Products

Our WasteCaddy dumpster mover enables a single employee to safely and easily handle one of the more labor-intensive tasks in the workplace. Call 800.686.2651 to learn more.

The Internet of Things Comes to Warehousing and Logistics

The Internet of Things(IoT) has quickly proven its value in the world of business. Companies are integrating IoT within the framework of their operations to make the entire production process more efficient and transparent. This integration is also being extended towards the warehousing and logistics framework of companies for finding new material handling trends and their solutions.

At DJ Products, we have made enormous progress in adopting IoT solutions for product warehousing and logistics. Various types of sensors and RFID tags have been incorporated into the material handling equipment. This has resulted in a number of advantages:

1. Faster Movement

The speed of the entire operation has increased greatly, thanks to instantaneous information being relayed across the various teams involved in the operation. No more lag time between individual steps of the operation that can bottleneck the overall process.

2. Error Free Process

The addition of sensors and alarms means that the chances of an error occurring in the middle of an operation are virtually eliminated.

3. Around the Clock Monitoring

Thanks to sensors being integrated into vehicles, which carry data back to the control center, we are always aware of exactly what speed the vehicle is traveling at, how much load it’s carrying and the directions it needs to take, making the entire process highly transparent and providing constant material handling trends information.

So the next time you need help with material handling solutions that are safe and cost effective, call on the experts at DJ Products, and we’ll bring you the most cutting edge motorized vehicle solutions that are able to handle the most cumbersome equipment with ease!

Top Tips to Improve Performance and Efficiency in Warehouses

Warehouse management can be a tricky operation, requiring great concentration and skill, and lots of inventory lists that need to be checked and re-checked to make sure all the material that is shifted in and out of the warehouse is the right product and quantity. Here are some warehouse management tips that can make the entire process simpler and more efficient:

1. Confirm Advanced Shipping Notice

An “Electronically transmitted Advanced Shipping Notification” is a cutting-edge shipping solution that many distributors have still not started started to implement. Using the electronic option allows for more efficient planning of the distribution procedure, and reduces delays and disruptions.

2. Employ Bin Locations

Making use of bin locations allows products to be located much faster, since it allows you to locate the product on the basis of sales volume, which means having to do less legwork to retrieve the key items that are sold the most.

3. Transparency of Operation

Work done within the warehouse must be as transparent as possible, with your keeping track of every piece of inventory that is sold or bought. This allows for easy spotting of mistakes and errors, and rapid correction.

4. Have an Emergency Response Plan

Along with the usual warehouse management tips, remember to keep alternative plans in place for potential fires, lockouts, and other hazards that can occur unexpectedly and disrupt work flow.

The next time you have to deal with warehouse inventory, remember to call on DJ Products for all of your moving and packing needs. Our range of vehicle products offer the latest in cutting-edge solutions to make your job and life easier!

UVA Weighs In on Preventing Workplace Injury with Push/Pull/Lift Tips

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, back injuries make up 20 percent of all workplace injuries. Even more significant is the fact that 80 percent of those injuries involve the lower back and material handling duties.

Back injuries often result in chronic pain which can flare up at any time, either with or without re-aggravation. The Environmental Health & Safety Department of the University of Virginia cites the top five risk factors as:

1. Sloppy posture

2. Poor physical condition

3. Lack of proper body mechanics

4. Poor lifting techniques

5. High-energy jobs

UVA Offers Tips to Avoid Back Injuries

• Pushing and sliding are preferable to lifting.

• Don’t lift objects that exceed one-third to one-half of your own body weight.

• Avoid twisting and stretching to reach or move loads.

• Observe the “safe lifting zone” between your shoulders and knees. If an object is lower, bend your knees and lift with your legs. If it’s higher, use a stool or stepladder to reach it.

• Perform a few basic stretches before and after lifting or maneuvering an object, and continue stretching periodically throughout the day to prevent stiffness.

• Clear any obstacles in your path.

• Wear slip-resistant shoes.

• Support your spine by tightening your abdominal muscles.

• Breathe normally throughout the task. If you find yourself holding your breath, get assistance.

• Use appropriate equipment when necessary.

Save Your Back with Dumpster Movers from DJ Products

Our battery-powered dumpster movers have been described by clients as “like having another employee on staff.” Use our convenient online chat feature to talk to our sales engineers about the best dumpster mover for your application.

Tips for Assuring Your Warehouse is Fully Staffed for the 2016 Holiday Period

Despite negative factors like bad weather, holiday sales in 2015 increased by three percent to just over $626 billion. The 2016 holiday season is just around the corner. Will you be ready to meet the demand?

Here are some helpful warehouse management tips to make sure your staff is ready to carry you through the holidays without missing a beat.

1. Hire More Help

Retailers aren’t the only ones who need to ramp up their manpower. Use last year’s numbers to determine how many more employees you need to handle the extra work. A temp agency can save time and money by providing pre-screened applicants.

2. Optimize the Warehouse Layout

Analyze the flow of your current warehouse layout. Will a boost in activity bring everything to a screeching halt? This is the time of year when you need maximum efficiency. Consider these steps to keep operations running smoothly:

• Increase the receiving area

• Designate a separate area for packaging

• Make sure all equipment is in good working order

• Add storage trailers and other resources as necessary

3. Be Prepared for Returns

The flip side of holiday sales is the return of extra products. Have a streamlined return process in place and make sure all employees are up to speed on policies and procedures.

Lighten the Holiday Load with Electric Movers from DJ Products

One of the best warehouse management tips is to provide employees with equipment that helps them perform safely and efficiently. Visit our website to learn more about our extensive selection of battery-powered tugs and pushers that will accommodate any material handling application.