Tag: Business Tips

Bootstraps Still in Fashion for Budding Entrepreneurs

It’s heartening to hear that entrepreneurship is alive and well in America despite the dismal economy. A new business organization is growing in the heart of the American Midwest where it seems that bootstraps are still in fashion! The International Bootstrapping Association held its inaugural meeting in Columbus, Ohio this week. Its goal is to give budding entrepreneurs, known as bootstrappers, a leg up, help them get started, and teach them to survive on self-funding while the economy fights its way back to full recovery.  

“A bootstrapping entrepreneur has to solve problems with creativity and perseverance because they can’t buy the answer,” association co-founder Bill Troy told Margaret Harding of The Columbus Dispatch in an article that appeared on April 10, 2009. “They have to come up with some creative solution that doesn’t cost money.”

Most entrepreneurs don’t have the luxury of investment funding, particularly in the current economy. To keep American entrepreneurship alive, successful Ohio entrepreneurs have pooled their talent and resources to create a self-help organization by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs. The organization provides an opportunity for would-be entrepreneurs to learn from the start-up experiences of their already successful, experienced counterparts. The group hopes to create a model that could spark similar chapters nationwide.

The first meeting debuted with a panel discussion followed by work groups. “We really focus on experience, not advice,” Troy, president and founder of Troy Research, told the Dispatch. The group takes a real-life approach to problem solving during its discussions. “It’s what people have really tried and done in the situation, not people telling you what you should do,” Troy explained.

Concerned about the pitfalls of investor-driven business, as all too clearly elucidated by recent events, the Ohio group aims to give entrepreneurs the tools to survive on their own. Troy believes that to survive U.S. entrepreneurship needs to return to the perseverance and scrappiness that defined its early pioneers.

As innovators in the field of ergonomically-designed, battery-powered material handling equipment, DJ Products understands the challenges faced by today’s budding entrepreneurs and salutes the launch of the International Bootstrapping Association. 

Business Survival Requires Effort on Multiple Fronts

Survival is the name of the game these days. Savvy companies large and small are tightening up their production and accounting procedures, taking care of their customers and working to expand their customer and product base. As we’ve discussed this week, some companies are improving their market share through consolidation mergers. Last week we talked about the importance of innovation, flexibility and customer service in surviving in today’s highly competitive market. We’ve also discussed the need to broaden your reach by finding new market opportunities for your products and services. The bottom line is survival in a recessionary economy requires businesses to make a constant effort on multiple fronts. Survival requires continuous effort to maintain current excellence and constant innovation to explore and pursue new opportunities.

Through economic highs and lows DJ Products has maintained its standing as a national leader in the manufacture of ergonomically-designed motorized carts and powered cart movers by blending the old with the new. We have always maintained the highest quality production standards in the manufacture of material handling equipment, but we’ve introduced new, innovation, ergonomic designs to material handling that allow our customers to meet future challenges. Early on, DJ Products identified the growing concern about worker health and safety and the growing expense of ignoring musculoskeletal injuries. We predicted the increasing importance of these issues to employers and their workers as well as government and potential customers and worked to design innovative products that would meet growing demand.

Understanding the value of a satisfied customer, DJ Products has provided superior customer service. But we also understand that customer needs change as business changes. Our material handling products are designed with versatility and flexibility in mind so that they’ll be able to perform multiple functions to keep up with the changing demands of our customers. Lift kits and retrofit kits provide even more innovative flexibility to serve our customer’s needs. DJ Products also has the ability to offer our customers engineer-to-order material handling products to meet their specific needs.

DJ Products has been diligent in finding new uses for our ergonomically-designed material handling equipment. CartCaddies that were originally designed for manufacturing environments are now employed regularly in the healthcare, hospitality and retail industries. Our auto pushers are also being used at truck depots, RV sales lots and boat marinas. Working with our customers, DJ Products is constantly searching for and finding new uses and new markets for our innovative products.

Tips to Having Truly Efficient Warehouse Operation

Depositphotos_33849809_xs
Warehouse Efficiency

Warehouses greatly benefit from a “work smarter, not harder” mentality. Better processes can lead to far greater results than any amount of elbow grease.

Here are some key ways to improve warehouse efficiency:

All Employees Should Use the Same Methods

Warehouse employees often develop personal methods that work best for them, but everybody should be following the same general operations. The process can’t vary depending on who is on shift. Develop a system that works well dependably, so you can enjoy consistency and efficiency even after turnover.

Don’t Bury and Forget Suggestions & Improvements

Do you have an employee suggestion box and conduct regular meetings? And more importantly, do items on the agenda tend to get buried?

These should be sources of improvement, not thoughts on the back burner. Set aside time to take action. Use a plan of action sheet, set reminders for follow-up, and actively test new solutions to gauge efficiency improvements.

Automate Repetitive, Labor-Intensive Tasks

Warehouses don’t just lose efficiency when workers go down with injuries. Your employees slow down and take more breaks when sore and tired from repetitive tasks. Motorized industrial tugs reduce the impact of pushing and pulling heavy loads — one of the most common sources of warehouse injuries and inefficiencies.

If your workers manually push wheeled carts or heavy equipment, industrial tugs speed things up and keep them working efficiently day in and day out. Our industrial tugs can be efficiently maneuvered at up to 3 mph by one worker, even in tight spaces.

Need to boost warehouse efficiency? Browse industrial tugs and cart pushers at DJProducts.com and follow our blog for more advice.

Powered Carts Allow You to Consider More Job Candidates

A powered cart is one of the many material handling solutions that DJ Products offers that can help ensure that your employees don’t become injured as they try to transport boxes filled with products or medication, equipment, and other heavy items.

You may have already known that a DJ Products powered cart is can go a long way towards preventing strain and musculoskeletal injuries but did you also know that using our material handling solutions might change your hiring process? The powered cart allows your workforce to be more productive and human resources to be less selective when hiring personnel for a position that may require some physical labor. Instead of passing over a reliable candidate because you imagine that he or she will not be able to handle some of the physical labor required, you can widen your prospects to include people you may not have considered before.

Sometime hiring decisions can be tough: if you have turned down people in the past because you didn’t think they had to physique or have had highly-qualified candidates reconsider accepting a job offer when they find out about some of the physical labor involved, a DJ Products powered cart can change your hiring process. A candidate can’t change her or her physique but you can see to it that a variety of people can do the heavy lifting, even if they can’t do it with just their own strength.

Want to discuss specific applications for our products in your workplace? Call us at 1-800-686-2651 to speak with one of our Sales Engineers.

Material Handing Solutions Make Light Work of Heavy Loads

Investing in material handling solutions is a way to boost morale among current employees and show prospective employees that you are a forward-thinking employer that gives workers what they need to get the job done.

A number of our material handling solutions have been designed so your employees do not injure themselves pushing or pulling loads that seem simple but will really strain them more than they imagine. We also have material handling solutions for loads that are clearly too cumbersome for someone to move using his or her own strength. Although these loads do require mechanical assistance, any old machine will not do. Please call our Sales Engineers at 800-686-2651 for a recommendation on your proper solution.

For example, the CartCaddyHD cart mover chain drive is a heavy-duty battery powered mover designed to push or pull equipment up to 50,000 pounds. It works well on carts with casters or carts on rails that go straight forward or backwards. Also, heavy trailers with lots of tongue weight can easily be lifted and moved with the CartCaddyHD Cart Mover. Check out this video where two people are moving a trailer using two CartCaddyHD Cart Mover chain drives.

We also offer the RiderCaddy battery powered tug so that a worker can push, pull, or maneuver carts and heavy trailers–either sitting or standing to pull the load. Another advantage of the RiderCaddy is that it allows you to consolidate tasks; carts that previously required the effort of more than one person can now be moved using just one person, freeing up the other workers for other tasks.

Get Ergonomic Material Handling Solutions and Retain Older Workers

Some older workers, particularly those who work in jobs that require them to use a certain amount of physical strength, are feeling nervous these days. They worry that if it seems like they cannot handle their work, they may see themselves replaced by younger workers. This fear may cause some older workers to attempt too much in order to prove their value to an organization. They may injure themselves not because they are too old, but because they strain themselves to prove their worth.

Today’s organizations need people of various ages to work together. Older workers have experience and know-how that younger workers do not have; young workers have fresh perspectives that can energize operations. Rather than lose older workers, you can see to it that all of your employees have ergonomic material handling equipment that prevents fatigue, muscle strain, and other injuries. You are probably well aware that it is costly to recruit, hire, and train a slew of new employees, so why not invest in making sure the ones you already have remain on the job?

A DJ Products Power Puller can maneuver in extremely tight spaces and ease the work of transporting hospital carts, laundry carts, maintenance carts and parts carts. These types of carts typically are less than 1500 lbs. and are generally maneuvered manually. Due to the nature of these carts’ uses, some organizations mainly assign elderly employees to maneuver them but our power pullers can also help younger employees as well. If our battery power puller is used, risks of fatigue and injury to valuable workers can be reduced.

Ergonomic Equipment Benefits Aging Workforce

America’s workforce is aging. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, employment of workers aged 65 and older increased 101% from 1977 to 2007, nearly twice the rate for total employment — and that doesn’t even reflect the aging Baby Boomer population, the first wave of which is just hitting 65 this year. Slightly more than 50% of older workers now work full-time. From 2006 to 2016, the Bureau of Labor Statistics expects older workers aged 55 to 64 to increase by 36% and workers over the age of 65 to increase by 80%.

The graying of America’s workforce means that business and industry will increasingly need to accommodate the physical strength and endurance limitations of older bodies. Ergonomic equipment and practices will become increasingly important, both to protect workers’ health and welfare and to enable workers of variable abilities to perform the same job. Ergonomics allows businesses to fit the job to the person — no matter the worker’s size, age, gender or physical abilities — instead of forcing the worker to torque his body into unnatural and uncomfortable positions to make the equipment work or get the job done.

Manual material handling injuries account for approximately 35% of workers’ compensation claims. Injuries to the back and upper extremities caused by reaching, lifting and carrying result in an estimated 44% of all lost time injuries. As workers age, the risk of injury increases. The bottom line is that without ergonomically-designed equipment and the institution of ergonomic practices at workstations, you can expect your injury rate — and medical/disability costs — to increase as the age of your workforce goes up. However, ergonomic equipment can level the playing field.

Ergonomic equipment that helps to lift, position and move materials and finished products takes the burden off workers, insures worker safety, and increases worker productivity. Ergonomic equipment improves worker safety and productivity when bending, twisting and reaching are required. Ergonomic design can also allow the height and tilt of containers to be adjusted for easier access. Ideally, you should utilize ergonomic principles in every aspect of your workplace operations to promote worker safety and productivity. As a bonus, you’ll build good morale and save money.

DJ Products is the national leader in ergonomically-designed motorized and battery-operated material handling carts and cart movers. We offer a complete line of powerful, compact, ergonomically-designed material handling products for every application. Contact us today for personalized help meeting your material handling needs.

Working in the Crowd

Some positions require material handling equipment that is powerful enough to tackle heavy loads reliably, but that is small and easily maneuvered to where it can weave in and out of tight corners among crowded areas.

Consider feeding times in places like hospitals, nursing homes and institutions – many of the residents of these environments are incapable of visiting a cafeteria so there food must be delivered.  In buildings that have potentially thousands of residents who are on a tight schedule, feeding time can be a very busy time.  Individually carrying meals to the residents is completely impractical, but large manual carts could be too cumbersome to move throughout hallways where there will be residents/patients and other members of the staff constantly moving.

These aren’t atmospheres where the hallways can be tied up for extended periods of time for food service; meals need to be delivered on schedule, quickly and without blocking access to other areas of the unit.

This is where equipment like the Parts CaddyLite from DJ Products becomes a necessity.  This super efficient, quiet and powerful little cart is easy enough to maneuver that even crowded hospital hallways are easily navigated.  Food and supplies can be easily delivered without interfering with other necessary operations and without causing any excess noise that could potentially disrupt residents or patients.

The Parts CaddyLite is easy to use and designed with both efficiency and safety in mind.  With a variable speed adjustment, the job can be completed as quickly as is necessary, but without putting anyone’s safety at risk and the battery is capable of lasting for two whole shifts on a single charge – so reliability will never be an issue.  If your business requires that your employees be capable of delivering goods on time, without fail in an environment that has close quarters and crowds – the Parts CaddyLite will deliver every time.

Save Money with a Shopping Cart Retriever

We see shopping carts everywhere and think little of them but if you are a retailer who offers them to customers they are one of the many items that you must account for. A DJ Products Shopping Cart Retriever can save you money on to separate fronts:

Reduce Employee Injury
Shopping cart retrievers are great labor-saving devices. Employees that have to round up shopping arts risk possible injury from the physical labor and must deal with weather conditions such as extreme heat and cold, rain, snow and hail. Providing your employees with this mechanical assistance means you lessen the chances that one of them gets injured retrieving carts or calls in sick because of heat exhaustion. And since cart retrieval tends to be the kind of task assigned to new or low-ranking employees, you may not make these employees excited to do this work but you can make this work easier because retaining employees you have trained also saves you money.

Lose Fewer Shopping Carts
The other way that a shopping cart retriever can save you money is pretty simple: The faster you get cart rounded up, the less likely it is that stray carts will be removed from your property. You may lose some carts here and there, but overall you do not want to see a number of your shopping carts either abandoned or being pushed around other parts of town. Retailers have been used to absorbing the loss of shopping carts but you can be proactive and see to it that your carts remain on your property for your customers to use.

Call 800-686-2651 to speak with one of our Sales Engineers about cart retrievers and other material handling solutions.

A Heavy Duty Cart Mover Gets the Job Done Safely

You would think that a cart itself would be enough to transport loads that a person cannot carry on his or her own, but when it comes to industry, sometimes even the carts need a little help. This is when a cart mover can come in very handy. The CartCaddyHD from DJ Products has been designed to push, pull, or maneuver carts or equipment up to 50,000 pounds.

If you’re wondering just why someone would load something up with that much weight, think about how long it would take if you were to break that 50,000 pounds in to smaller, more manageable loads—the kind that one person could carry comfortably. It would take a very long time to transport the kind of load or move a very heavy piece of equipment that has been broken down in that way. Sometimes transporting goods and machinery in these large quantities just makes sense.

So while many warehouses, factories and other places have seen the logic in having weighty loads to make things more efficient, they haven’t examined another factor in efficiency and that’s human capacity. There will be times when it is necessary to transport loads that are quite heavy for efficiency’s sake but you do not want to overburden workers. Have an uninjured workforce is also a key component in keeping things running smoothly and you don’t want workers with overtaxed musculoskeletal systems continuing to work until they become injured.

Try the CartCaddyHD—this battery powered cart mover offers a variable speed twist grip that allowed the cart to move forwards and backwards, allowing smooth movement and protecting the operator from carpel tunnel syndrome.