christopher Harper, Author at DJ Products

Hotels and Hospitals: Powered Carts Can Increase Efficiency & Reduce Strain

Employees in the hospitality industry as well as those working in actual hospitals can benefit by using a motorized powered cart to transport items like linens and cleaning supplies. If your employees are currently using carts that they push manually, consider the strain they may be under and consider switching to powered carts from DJ Products, such as a Powered Housekeeping Cart or a Motorized Clean Linen Wire Cart.

The Powered Housekeeping Cart and the Motorized Clean Linen Wire Cart can haul loads up to 700 lbs. The variable speed twist grips allow the operator to travel between 0-3 mph, forward or backward. Both of these carts can be used for an entire shift without re-charging. As long as they are charged, you do not have to worry that an employee will need to take time away from work tasks to wait while a powered cart charges. These carts can also be customized as needed for different environments.

Powered carts will not only help reduce strain and aches from repeated pulling, pushing and tugging–they may also reduce the time it takes for employees to complete their rounds. All of our products are battery powered “walk-behind” units, allowing better control by the operator, even in tight, difficult spaces. Allowing your workers to use ergonomically designed equipment, like motorized carts, can do a lot to reduce injury and the loss of productivity that goes with it. The proactive implementation of ergonomic policies can improve worker morale and make your operations much more efficient.

Be it a hospital or a casino or a hotel, you need to keep things going around the clock—linens need to be changed and rooms need to be cleaned on a continual basis. Powered carts can reduce the time it takes for employees to get this work completed and they will feel less strain as they finish their tasks.

Motorized Clean Linen Carts Help With Increases in Summer Travel

In just a few short months kids will be out of school for the summer and a large percentage of American families will be embarking on week long vacations. During the warm summer months business in the hospitality industry really picks up and the workload of the employees responsible for cleaning and preparing rooms for guests increases dramatically.

Employees in hotels and motels that still use manual carts for transporting linens and supplies during the summer months are at an increased risk of injuries due to the heavier workload. Employees required to push or pull fully loaded carts at an increased rate of speed due to the traffic occurring during summer are highly susceptible for injuries from overexertion.

The chances of these debilitating injuries can be minimized through the use of powered carts like the motorized clean linen cart from DJ Products. The motorized clean linen cart is easy to operate via ergonomic variable speed twist grips and can easily hauls loads of up to seven hundred pounds. The motorized clean linen cart also travels easily over a wide variety of surfaces, including carpeting, which makes it an ideal addition to hotel or motel equipment regardless of flooring.

Dramatic increases in workload can easily result in injuries that will require valuable employees to miss time from work. Many of these injuries could also result in worker’s compensation claims that will ultimately cost employers a substantial amount of money.

In order to minimize the chances for potential injury while keeping up with the increased volume of work employees need access to equipment that will make their jobs safer and easier. Upgrading from manual carts to motorized clean linen carts can help employees complete all necessary duties during even the busiest times of year without increasing the chances of work related injuries.

Ergonomically Correct Powered Movers Decrease Possibility of Injury

Would you prefer that your business spend money to safeguard against injuries or would you prefer to incur the costs and lost productivity that can stem from employee injury?

You cannot prevent employees from being injured off the job, but you can see to it that they have what they need to stay safe at your workplace. DJ Products provides solutions for material handling situations that eliminate the pain and strain of manually pulling and pushing heavy carts or wheeled equipment. Our powered movers and industrial tuggers Southeast Missourian , this fund “which keeps individual businesses from having to pay the injury claims of workers with previous injuries or health conditions who are re-injured on the job, is going broke. ” The additional three percent that Missouri companies add on to their workers’ compensation insurance has not been sufficient to keep the fund going. Although groups that represent employers in that state are trying to find ways to keep the fund going, there are no guarantees.

Whether or not you are required to pay into a second injury fund, you can take a more preventative approach to worker injury. Investing in ergonomically correct powered movers and industrial tuggers could reduce the chances that your workers will become injured and file for workers’ compensation.

ErgoExpo Promotes Value of Ergonomics to Business

With the 15th Annual National Ergonomics Conference and Exposition opening tomorrow in Las Vegas, this seems like a good time to promote the value of ergonomics to creating safe working conditions, safe work environments and saving businesses a considerable amount of money on their bottom line. ErgoExpo will focus on the role of workplace ergonomics in economic recovery with special educational tracks detailing return on investment, impact on America’s aging workforce, potential to reduce health care costs, and impact on improving workplace safety.

The application of ergonomics to workplace processes and equipment has been proven time and again to increase productivity and profitability while improving health, safety and morale. Implementing an ergonomic plan and utilizing ergonomic equipment in your place of business is a win-win proposition — for business owners and their employees.

Ergonomic procedures eliminate painful movements that can stretch and pull muscles causing injury, particularly with repetition or over time.
Utilizing ergonomically-designed material handling equipment eliminates the strain and risk of injury from transporting and positioning materials or equipment.
Implementing an ergonomic program creates a safer environment in the workplace.
Ergonomic equipment allows workers to stay on the job longer and take fewer and shorter breaks, increasing productivity.
A safer work environment means fewer injuries and fewer lost man-hours, increasing worker productivity.
Fewer injuries decrease direct medical and physical therapy costs as well as the expense of insurance and disability claims, improving your bottom line.
When work is less physically taxing, workers are happier and workplace morale goes up.
When injuries go down and morale goes up, absenteeism goes down and productivity goes up!

To find out more about ergonomically-designed material handling equipment, visit the DJ Products’ website today.

Get Things Moving with DJ Products’ Vehicle and Heavy Equipment Pushers

DJ Products makes ergonomic equipment to help transport a variety of heavy loads—even if that load is something that is also used in transport.
If your cart, car, or piece of equipment has all straight wheels or is on a rail, then the there are ergonomic products that can help solve material handling applications where no turning is required, or an operator will turn the wheels while a CarCaddy pushes from behind, as in the case of pushing a bus down an assembly line.

Car and Vehicle Pusher: While our car pushers have industrial applications, they can also be used to move a stalled vehicle. The front push pad of the vehicle pusher can help preserve the paint and the look of stalled vehicle.

Trailer Mover, Puller or Pusher: Our powered trailer movers are not as bulky as traditional puller products. They can push or pull RVs, campers, boats or equipment trailers. This is a perfect solution when a trailer is being moved down an assembly line, in a show room or at a trade show.

Paper Roll Pusher, Spool Pusher: This can help you move large rolls of paper, fabric or rubber. It is designed to move heavy objects that roll.

Equipment Pusher, Equipment Puller: These can eliminate the stress and strain associated with moving heavy equipment. One of our cart movers can push or pull cars up to 50,000 lbs., while a powered trailer dolly can lift tongue up to 15,000 lbs.

You can take the time to find a specific electric cart pusher on our website, or call our Sales Engineers for a recommendation on your proper solution.

Hospital and Nursing Home Workers Have High Rates of Work-Related Injuries

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has initiated a new program to help people who work as nurses and at residential care facilities. Last year, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that nurses and residential care workers had “one of the highest rates of lost workdays due to injuries and illnesses of all major American industries.” So while people in these industries are caring for others, they are not always taking care of themselves.

According to OSHA, “Nursing aides, orderlies, and attendants had the highest rates of musculoskeletal disorders of all occupations in 2010.” OSHA’s National Emphasis Program for Nursing and Residential Care Facilities was created to help change that. After all, it is difficult to be a caretaker when you are injured. And the high proportion of people in this field who get injured means that their colleagues who aren’t injured have to pick up the slack. This can lower the morale and physical fitness of non-injured employees and increase the chances that they too will get injured.

While some of the illness among those who work in the nursing and caretaking professions can be linked to exposure to hazardous materials and disease, “The data further indicate that an overwhelming proportion of the injuries within this sector were attributed to overexertion as well as to slips, trips and falls.”

Employers can invest in powered movers such as the motorized hospital cart mover from DJ Products to help lessen the risk of employee injury. Motorized carts like these help employees move linen and other goods throughout the hospital and DJ Products offers motorized cart pullers and motorized cart pushers, depending on your need.

Avoid Strain and Lost Productivity with Ergonomic Material Handling Equipment

On the topic of musculoskeletal disorders, the Centers for Disease Control says, “…employers often find themselves paying the bill, either directly or through workers’ compensation insurance, at the same time they must cope with the loss of the full capacity of their workers.”

While some injuries are beyond your control, there is plenty that employers can do to prevent muscle strain that results from attempting to transport heavy loads. DJ Products make Ergonomic Material Handling Equipment, including motorized carts, equipment pushers, trailer movers and shopping cart retrievers. You don’t have to deal with the loss in productivity that can occur when employees are injured.

You also don’t have to go through the experience of leaning too heavily on healthy employees because of employee injury. Planning ahead and looking for material handling solutions in advance can save you from lost revenue and morale.

We make battery powered “walk-behind” units that allow workers better control, even in tight, difficult spaces. This operating flexibility means that our electric cart movers can be used in more applications that standard material handling equipment.

Not only do our material handling solutions help you prevent injury, they are also versatile, which can save you money in other ways. DJ Products carts and tugs can eliminate the use of a more costly and cumbersome piece of equipment designed for a different material-handling task.

As the CDC notes: “…very often productivity gets an additional and solid shot in the arm when managers and workers take a fresh look at how best to use energy, equipment, and exertion to get the job done in the most efficient, effective, and effortless way possible.”

Stainless Steel Dolly Pushers Enhance Ergonomics and Safety

Although a dolly is used to help transport objects, there are times when even a dolly could use some help. For those times, DJ products makes a small, maneuverable, walk behind battery-powered dolly pusher.

Our dolly pusher has variable speed grips that make it possible to easily maneuver up to 15,000 lb. carts in tight areas. Where else will you find that kind of versatility? You can push a heavy load even when you don’t have a lot of room to play with. The three 12v batteries used to power its 36-volt motor make it possible for this DJ Products dolly pusher to be used without recharging for an entire shift.

A dolly can be a very useful piece of equipment but if the load it too heavy or it’s used improperly, this can cause injury. Even when an employee is not out of work because of an injury, past injuries and the fear of further strain can diminish productivity. Cost conscious ergonomic and safety equipment, like the CartCaddy™ dolly pusher, when used for prevention can easily pay for itself almost immediately.

However, we are aware that moving heavy materials in compact spaces is not your only concern. In some industries this kind of work must be performed in places where certain chemicals, such as the ones found in paints and powders, are prohibited. This is why we have introduced stainless steel versions of our equipment pusher and dolly puller models. These units can be used in a variety of work environments, but they are especially useful for the sterile environments that are necessary for facilities working with food and pharmaceuticals.

Preventing Ergonomic Injuries in the Workplace

DJ Products makes industrial tuggers and powered movers that are designed not only to assist workers who need to transport heavy items and large loads but to also help those workers avoid injury. It takes research and thought to make equipment that can move loads in a way that does not cause the operators to experience muscle strain and injury.

The National Safety Council has a publication called “Injury Facts” and in this year’s edition it noted, “overexertion is the third leading cause of unintentional injuries in the United States, accounting for about 3.2 million emergency department visits. Ergonomic conditions are disorders of the soft tissues often caused by factors such as overexertion while lifting, lowering, pushing, pulling or reaching…”

The council also listed some indicators that someone is in need of an ergonomic intervention. These include: pain, swelling, numbness, tingling, tenderness, clicking and loss of grip strength.

Ergonomic injuries can affect workers on the job and at home and are often preventable. Using equipment that is designed to help the body move without unnecessary strain can help workers avoid injuries that can lead to missed work time and a loss of productivity and decreased morale.

In addition to providing ergonomically designed equipment, DJ Products also offers access to an Ergonomic Load Calculator. Our Ergonomic Load Calculator is designed to assist the Ergonomist, Safety and Health Specialist, and other professionals interested in improving health and safety practices in their workplace. The calculator is designed to estimate the amount of horizontal force necessary to move loads (on wheels) using inputs from particular workplace environments.

Ergonomic Mobile Applications

We recently read about a mobile app that was designed to help improve ergonomics in the workplace. With this app, people can see photos different postures that might lead to injury at work and get information on ways to improve posture as well as learn about exercises they can do at work to reduce injury. This is a great way to increase awareness about the importance of correct posture.

However, before the term “app” was used to refer to programs created for mobile devices, it was part of word “application.” And for some people, a mobile app will not be enough to reduce injury in the workplace but a mobile application that they can use as they complete their work tasks can make all the difference.

A DJ Products Industrial Power Mover can eliminate the strain of manually pulling heavy products, parts carts and wheeled equipment. Our material handling solutions or “mobile apps” can also eliminate bulky, expensive lift trucks.

Our CartCaddy power movers comes in many different shapes and sizes to handle wheeled applications that operate with racks, carts, and casters. They are designed to move with employees so they do not have to overexert themselves to push or pull in ways that can damage the musculoskeletal system.

If you have seen a number of workers who need to go on disability due to injuries that relate to ergonomic issues, isn’t it time to apply a different kind of material handling solution?

Call us at 1-800-686-2651 so we can help you find material handling solutions that fit your workplace.