Tag: Material Handling

How to Tell If Your Workers Are at Risk

We’ve been talking about the high cost of ignoring ergonomics in the workplace (see our Aug. 29 and Sept. 1 posts). Manual material handling tasks that are performed repeatedly or over long periods of time can lead to physical and mental fatigue and injury. So how do you tell if your workers are at risk from repetitive-stress injuries? The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) recommends looking for the following risk factors:

  • Repeated motions including frequent reaching, lifting or carrying
  • Awkward postures such as bending, twisting or stretching to reach materials
  • Static postures where the same position must be maintained for a long period of time
  • Pressure points including handholds, footholds and any point where workers contact the load to grasp, push, pull or lean against a hard or sharp surface
  • Forceful exertions such as carrying or lifting heavy loads

Over time, repeated exposure to any of these risk factors can cause fatigue, pain and eventual injury, particularly to the back, shoulders, hands and wrists. Muscles, tendons, ligaments, nerves and blood vessels can be damaged by repetitive-stress injuries. Continuing to perform the same tasks with such musculoskeletal disorders can cause permanent physical damage.

Reducing the risk of musculoskeletal disorders, or MSDs, in your workplace must involve both engineering and administrative improvements.

Engineering improvements. Work spaces and task procedures may need to be reordered, modified or redesigned. Environmental conditions such as heat, cold, noise and lighting which can contribute to worker duress may need to be addressed. Ergonomically designed equipment or tools may need to be purchased. For example, motorized carts can be used to carry loads and even move heavy machinery and equipment without physical strain. Scissors lifts can be used to elevate loads without physical effort. Adjustable cargo beds can be used to position loads at optimal lift heights for manual loading and unloading. Powered equipment can eliminate the push/pull forces that can lead to serious back and shoulder injuries.

Administrative improvements. Workers come in all shapes and sizes. Repetitive-stress injuries often occur when workers are forced to use equipment or perform tasks that are not tailored to their individual physique. They must engage in injury-risking bending, stretching and pushing to do their job. Ergonomics strives to mold the task or equipment to the worker to avoid such overexertion. Administrative initiatives can also reduce worker exposure to risk factors. For example, repetitive-stress injury risk can be reduced by rotating workers through jobs that use different muscle groups, alternating heavy and light tasks, providing task variety, adjusting work schedules and pace, and providing rest breaks.  

For help in finding ergonomic solutions to your material handling needs, visit the DJ Products website.

Trailer Mover Is RV, Boat Storage Workhorse

Summer is winding down and we’ve already felt the first breath of fall in our neck of the woods. Still time for a few more weekends at the lake, but it won’t be long before folks are hauling their boats out of the water and cleaning out their RVs for winter storage. Getting these expensive mega toys tucked in for the winter used to be a herculean task. All decked out with the latest features, these babies are heavy. It required a couple of burly guys and a lot of muscle and straining to push and pull these vehicles around the storage lot or boat yard and maneuver them into their winter berths. Then the recreational industry discovered DJ Products’ versatile TrailerCaddy trailer mover. 

Originally designed to maneuver large, heavy cargo trailers and trailered equipment short distances around factory lots and storage facilities, DJ Products’ versatile TrailerCaddy trailer mover has found a new fan base in the recreational vehicle and boating industries. Using DJ Products’ motorized trailer mover, a single operator can easily move hefty RVs and boats into place in RV storage lots and boat yards. Tricky maneuvering in tight spaces is effortless with the compact, ergonomically-designed TrailerCaddy. Move forward or backward smoothly from a full stop to 3 mph with a turn of the handy twist-grip control handle. Maximum operator control and compact size minimize potential damage to surrounding vehicles, even in tightly confined areas like stacked storage facilities, dealer showrooms, repair bays and trade show displays. Ergonomic design minimizes the risk of potential muscle strain, making it possible for a single employee of any size, strength or gender to move vehicles with equal ease.

Click here for complete information about DJ Products’ versatile TrailerCaddy trailer mover and to watch a video of the trailer move in action.

MHEDA Convention For 2014 What To Expect?

What qualities does it take to provide SUPERHERO LEADERSHIP in today’s material handling industry? Get the answers to this question and many more at the 2014 MHEDA Convention being held at Loews Portofino Bay Hotel in Orlando, FL from May 3-7.

This year marks the 59th occasion of the annual event, which brings hundreds of industry professionals together for four days of education and networking opportunities. The theme for this event is uncovering your own Superhero Leadership qualities in order to strengthen your people management skills.

The convention officially opens on Monday with a keynote address by Medal of Honor winner Sal Giunta, who will illustrate The Importance of Teamwork, Sacrifice and Leadership with stories of his experience as a patrol leader in Afghanistan. Activities for the rest of the day includes an exhibitors’ showcase and a series of roundtable discussions centered on the most compelling challenges and opportunities facing the industry today.

Tuesday’s schedule is jam-packed with a variety of workshops offering real-world strategies and tips to address your most pressing concerns. Topics range from Best-in-Class Contractor Management to Revenue Drivers to Increase Your Profitability. You won’t want to miss Rebooting Leadership: Managing Employees in the New Workplace which ties in perfectly with the convention’s main theme.

It won’t be all work and no play during this event. Saturday and Sunday will feature a variety of social activities for both you and your spouse. Enjoy the attractions of the Orlando area while getting a valuable chance to network.

DJ Products is proud to be part of this vital and energetic industry. Contact our Sales Engineers at 800.686.2651 to learn more about our quality material handling solutions.

Cart Puller Improves Worker Attitude in Hospital Laundry

In a cost-benefit analysis of ergonomics in hospital laundries, musculoskeletal injuries decreased and “88% of the workers felt the changes made their work better,” according to the report conducted by the School of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. When you’re watching every dollar in a tight economy, cutting workplace injury and it associated hefty healthcare and insurance costs can give your bottom line a real boost.Implementing ergonomic solutions like DJ Products’ cart puller to workplace problems provides the added advantage of increasing employee morale. When employees are happy, productivity, efficiency, quality and customer service improve right along with employee satisfaction. You benefit, and equally important, your customers benefit. It’s the ultimate win-win scenario.In the two-year Canadian study of three laundries, both laundries that implemented ergonomic improvements and trained employees in ergonomic practices enjoyed a marked decrease in worker injury and unexpected escalation in employee job satisfaction. No changes in injury rate or employee psychosocial factors were noted in the control laundry which made no changes. The benefit-to-cost ratios for the two test laundries were 0.97 and 1.5, “demonstrating a one-year or less payback on ergonomic improvements,” the study reported.In addition to medical/insurance savings, the greatest returns on investment were reported “in productivity and savings in overtime, turnover and return-to-work costs,” study authors noted. The incidence of medical costs and lost man-hours dropped from 48.8% to just 18.6% over the two-year study. The boon to workers was even more extraordinary. Questionnaires asked  employees to assess how implemented ergonomic improvements had impacted their jobs:

  • 70% reported that ergonomic improvements made their jobs less physically demanding
  • 69% said they were less tired
  • 75% noted less muscle soreness
  • 75% said their job was now more interesting and more varied
  • 93% said they felt happier and more satisfied about their job

DJ Products’ highly maneuverable motorized cart pushers and cart pullers are specifically designed to meet the needs of hospitals and healthcare facilities. The CartCaddyShorty electric cart puller can maneuver heavy laundry carts, food trays or diagnostic equipment from 3,000 to 20,000 pounds. Our flatbed powered cart puller allows easy movement of materials, parts or machinery by a single operator.Our smallest caddies are designed for lighter loads and exceptional maneuverability in challenging settings. The CartCaddyLite electric cart puller can manage loads up to 1,000 pounds and is easy to manipulate when maneuvering in constrained spaces like equipment-filled hospital rooms. Excellent response from easy to handle ergonomic controls also assures instant response when negotiating heavily-trafficked hospital corridors.For complete information about DJ Products’ ergonomically designed cart pullers and pusher for hospitals and the healthcare industry, visit our website.

MHEDA Debuts Material Handling Wiki Web Resource

MHEDA, the Material Handling Equipment Distributors Association, has just launched wikiMHEDA, an excellent online resource for those of us who work in material handling, our customers and people who want to learn more about the material handling industry. Think of it as Wikipedia for the material handling industry. Just like the famous online encyclopedia, wikiMHEDA is an interactive Web resource written and edited by its readers, in this case people active in the material handling industry. However, unlike Wikipedia’s broad “every subject under the sun” scope, wikiMHEDA focuses solely on the subject of material handling.

According to website information, MHEDA intends its new wiki site to:

  • serve as an educational resource for and about the industry
  • provide an encyclopedia of material handling industry terms
  • provide a news outlet for industry events, activities and developments
  • be a resource for material handling product specification sheets
  • serve as a library and distribution center for industry white papers
  • provide a video library of material handling equipment and accessories
  • provide a directory of firms that manufacture and distribute material handling equipment and accessories

We found searching for information about the material handling industry and its players easy on the new site, but — and we’re sure this is because it has just launched — information is sketchy in some areas and distributor lists are far less than comprehensive. For example, a search for “ergonomics” brought up an abbreviated definition with a cursory overview of OSHA activity, all generally related to the manufacturing industry. Because it is a wiki site, the new site does allow users to add content, and the process is fairly simple. Creation of an account and website registration are required before editing. 

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.

What to Look for in Ergonomic Design

You can’t squash a square peg into a round hole. In effect, that’s the idea behind ergonomic design. Instead of trying to contort human bodies to work tasks, ergonomic design seeks to fit products, tasks and environments to the people who use them. The result is increased productivity, decreased expense and greater worker safety. Definitely a win-win scenario for business and workers.

Ergonomics factors the human element into work tasks by taking into consideration physical capabilities such as force, posture and repetition. The psychological aspects of a task may also be considered, including mental loading and decision making. Ergonomic design may call upon the expertise of engineers, safety professionals, industrial hygienists, physical therapists, occupational therapists, nurse practitioners, chiropractors, physicians and the workers themselves.

In creating ergonomically designed equipment, both typical tasks and work sites are evaluated. By identifying potential risk factors and conditions, equipment can be engineered to reduce those risks. Ergonomic design must account not only for a range of work site conditions, but also for an even broader range of potential workers. After all, workers come in all body types. Height, weight, physical condition, physical and mental ability, age and sex must all be considered in designing ergonomic equipment. Ergonomic design generally allows equipment to be adjusted to allow for individual differences. 

DJ Products manufactures quality ergonomically designed electric and motorized carts. On our website, you’ll find a handy Ergonomic Load Calculator you can use to estimate the amount of horizontal force necessary to move loads in your particular business environment. The experienced staff at DJ Products can assist you in selecting ergonomically designed equipment that meets the needs of your business. Contact a DJ Products ergonomic design specialist today.

Specialized Carts Designed for Hospital Use

Any nurse, therapist, aide or worker will tell you that working in hospitals, nursing homes and similar settings is back-breaking work. Workers are on their feet all day long and constantly on the move. There’s a lot of bending, stretching, reaching, pushing and pulling involved — all activities that can strain and stress muscles, tendons, ligaments and joints and lead to potentially debilitating musculoskeletal injuries.

Most hospital workers, who typically work 12-hour shifts, will tell you that workloads are already heavy. No one appreciates the extra burden imposed when a fellow worker calls in sick with a strained back. Musculoskeletal injuries aren’t a quick 24-hour fix. They entail days to weeks and sometimes even months of treatment and physical therapy. Returning workers must often be assigned to light duty jobs or face re-injury if they attempt their former activities. The lost man-hours, reassignment and rescheduling needs can create significant problems, both for administrators and fellow workers. The high costs of medical treatment, insurance and workers’ compensation make the elimination of musculoskeletal injury risk a high priority for hospitals, nursing homes and similar facilities.

The heavy pedestrian traffic, narrow corridors and constrained spaces typical of hospital settings present a unique challenge in designing ergonomic equipment to take the physical burden off medical workers. That’s why so many tasks in these settings are still performed manually, despite the risk of injury. To answer the unique needs of hospital settings, DJ Products has created a specially designed line of motorized cart pushers. We have produced a line of small, extremely maneuverable caddies that are designed to carry lighter loads. The quick and easy maneuverability of these carts makes them ideal for use in confined spaces and in areas with high pedestrian traffic.

  • The CartCaddyLite is the smallest, most maneuverable tug available on the market today. This battery-powered electric tug can push or pull up to 1,000 pounds and is versatile enough to handle a variety of cart types, including dollies, hand trucks, laundry carts, hospital carts, maintenance carts and hospital beds. Click here for CartCaddyLite specifications and a video demonstration of this versatile cart puller/pusher.
  • The CartCaddyShorty has enough power to handle carts and equipment that weigh 3,000 to 20,000 pounds. This battery-powered electric tug is a powerful workhorse that can transport heavy equipment, food carts, laundry bins, x-ray machines, respiratory equipment, dialysis equipment, oxygen canisters, wheelchairs, IV poles, even bags of garbage. Click here for CartCaddyShorty specifications.

For more information on these and other DJ Products’ carts, tugs and caddies designed for the hospital industry, visit the DJ Products website.

5 Eco-Friendly Tips to Help Your Facility Go Green

“Going green” isn’t simply a trendy buzzword. Eco-awareness should be an integral part of everyone’s lifestyle. Your carbon footprint, no matter how great or small, is part of the overall environment that affects the health of our planet and its population.

Due to their significant consumption of resources, warehouses and manufacturing facilities present numerous opportunities for conservation. Here are five tips you can implement that pay major dividends in energy and material savings.

  1. Reuse items like boxes and packing material wherever possible. These types of items have long been considered disposable, but they’re usually good for several uses before they become worn out.
  2. If it can’t be reused, recycle it. Make it easy for your employees by providing several well-labeled stations with generously sized containers. Don’t forget about offices, lunchrooms and break rooms as well.
  3. Reevaluate your lighting system. Wherever possible, replace older light bulbs with newer LED models. You may even want to consider installing skylights to take advantage of natural lighting.
  4. Check the condition of your facility’s doors. Poor insulation may be causing your heating and cooling system to work harder. Remote-controlled and motion-sensor doors are available that limit the amount of heat that escapes when they’re opened.
  5. Switch from propane or diesel forklifts to battery-powered equipment tugs. Not only do they conserve energy, they’re safer and more efficient to use.

Whatever your material handling needs are, you can find an eco-friendly solution from DJ Products. Please contact us at 800.686.2651 for more information on our CartCaddy5WP and other models from our full line of equipment tugs. 

Shopping Cart Retriever Allows Retailers to Focus on Customers

During the holidays, they’re particularly noticeable. The bundled up teens sloshing through the slush in search of errant shopping carts left stranded by harried holiday shoppers. They struggle to push them into long, snaking lines and over ruts of ice and snow, muscling them from side to side as they push them toward the store where shoppers wait impatiently to grab one and hit the aisles.

Shopping cart retrieval is a perennial problem for retailers across the country, but especially during the busy holiday shopping season. Each moment you keep your customers waiting for a cart adds to their frustration, not exactly the feeling of good will you’re trying to promote during the make-or-break holidays. You want your customers pushing their cart through the aisles of your store, filling it will all kinds of holiday goodies.

And the more staff you have to task to collecting shopping carts, the fewer staff available to wait on anxious customers and ring up their purchases. During your busiest hours when you need your full staff complement working on the floor, sending two or three (and in bad weather, often four or six) employees out to retrieve needed shopping carts can put an unfortunate dent in your ability to serve your customers quickly and effectively. With the poor economy forcing most businesses to cut back on staff, delegating employees to shopping cart retrieval puts an even bigger burden on your staff and taxes the patience of your customers.

DJ Products’ powered shopping cart retriever takes the strain out of gathering shopping carts and delivering them back to the store. A single employee can quickly and easily maneuver up to 50 shopping carts around a parking lot and in the door without assistance, even through parking lots rutted with frozen snow and ice. The ergonomic design of our shopping cart retriever system eliminates the pushing and straining that often causes muscle injury and back strain when employees are forced to maneuver a line of carts manually. Your employees will thank you for making an onerous job easy. Your customers will thank you for keeping maximum staff on the floor to make their shopping experience more pleasant. And your accountant will commend you for finding a cost-effective way to improve efficiency and productivity. It’s a win-win-win scenario. Visit the  DJ Products website to find out more about our shopping cart retrieval system.