Tag: Material Handling

Lessons to be Learned from the Auto Industry Meltdown

The plight of the American automobile industry should serve as a cautionary tale for all U.S. manufacturers and businesses. To survive in today’s global marketplace, you must be flexible, embrace change, and constantly re-shape your business to meet future trends. Survival is as much about preparing your business for the future as it is about being competitive today.

Detroit’s problems are complex and have been exacerbated by a 15% sales drop as the economy has worsened, but at their core is the failure of U.S. auto executives to acknowledge the trend toward more fuel-efficient cars and to innovate. Rather than meeting the challenge posed by rising well-made, fuel-efficient Asian competition, Detroit continued business as usual, putting its efforts into advertising and Congressional lobbying to support bigger, better, fuel-guzzling cars. And until the rising cost of gas bit us in the wallet, the American public played along.

The sad thing is that back in 2000 Detroit did flirt with a program to push fuel-efficient vehicles but abandoned the effort as too expensive and unnecessary. It makes you wonder if the auto industry would be in cardiac arrest today if industry leaders had had the foresight to imagine the future and the courage to make the hard decisions necessary to prepare for it.

In the material handling industry, DJ Products faced this dilemma successfully. With the vision to spot new trends and the flexibility to act, DJ Products was one of the early responders to need for ergonomic material handling equipment. Well before the high price of repetitive stress injuries became a national cause, DJ Products saw a need to design material handling equipment that would reduce the potential for musculoskeletal injuries and improve the health and safety of workers.

DJ Products manufactures ergonomically-designed motorized carts and powered cart, equipment and vehicle movers that eliminate the pain and strain of manually pushing and pulling heavy carts and wheeled equipment. Our products are less costly, smaller, more maneuverable and more versatile than traditional material handling equipment used to move carts and equipment, such as forklift trucks, walkies and riding tugs. Forward-thinking business owners are revitalizing their operations and positioning themselves for the future by turning to ergonomic equipment to meet their material handling needs.

With an Obama administration expected to increase ergonomic standards and requirements in the next year, a proactive approach toward worker health and safety is a  smart business move. And it’s a decision that will have a positive impact on your bottom line. The cost of most ergonomic equipment purchases are recouped in the first year in savings on medical costs, insurance, workers’ compensation and lost work days. A move to ergonomic equipment also provides a substantial benefit in improved worker morale and increased productivity.

To find out how ergonomically-designed material handling equipment can help prepare your business to meet the challenges of the future, contact the ergonomic experts at DJ Products.

Preventing Overexertion Injuries

Pushing, pulling and lifting are the three tasks most frequently performed by American workers. Overexertion during the execution of these tasks is responsible for 25% of all workplace injuries in the U.S., according to the National Safety Council. In fact, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) reports that one in every 200 workers suffers an overexertion injury. Annually, these musculoskeletal injuries cost U.S. business over $1 billion in direct compensation costs and more than 12 million lost workdays.

Repeated studies have proven that ergonomically-designed equipment can significantly decrease costly musculoskeletal injuries in the workplace. Ergonomics is the science of adjusting the equipment to the size and capabilities of the worker. Ergonomics emphasizes worker safety and comfort with the goal of reducing worker fatigue, discomfort and injury. The use of ergonomic equipment allows businesses to maximize the efficiency and productivity of their workforce while protecting workers’ health and safety.

The consequences of neglecting ergonomics are staggering. Workplace injury and illness cost U.S. businesses $171 billion annually, more than cancer or heart disease, the country’s two biggest killers. According to the American Medical Association, more than 13.2 million workers a year suffer a non-fatal workplace injury, many of them preventable musculoskeletal injuries.

Statistics compiled by the U.S. Department of Labor reveal that workers’ compensation claims cost U.S. businesses $60 billion a year. More than 50% of those claims are for back injuries caused by pulling, pushing or lifting, tasks, according to the National Council on Compensation Insurance. One in five disabling workplace injuries affects the lower back. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, more than 1.75 million U.S. workers each year succumb to a back injury that involves lengthy and costly medical and rehabilitation treatment, in addition to a considerable number of lost workdays.

Utilizing ergonomically-designed motorized carts and powered movers to assist workers with pushing, pulling and lifting tasks can save a business thousands of dollars — $4 for every dollar invested, according to a 2008 study reported in the New Hampshire Business Review — in decreased medical, insurance and disability costs resulting from musculoskeletal injuries. DJ Products, a national leader in the manufacture of ergonomically-designed electric carts and movers, specializes in providing affordable ergonomic solutions to material handling applications. For more information, visit the DJ Products website.

Welcome to the DJ Products, Inc. Blog

Welcome to the DJ Products, Inc. blog! We specialize in ergonomic material handling products geared to take the pain and strain out of moving heavy carts, equipment and materials. We pride ourselves in providing material handling solutions that are maneuverable, safe and cost effective. Our goal is to minimize the wear and tear on your personnel, your product AND your bottom line.

Our products are used in manufacturing and distribution settings including heavy and light industry, warehouses, fulfillment centers, the automotive industry pushing stalled vehicles with our Car Pusher and more. Our products can be used to pull RV’s, trailers, boats, generators, wheeled equipment — anything with a ball coupler or pintle hitch tongue called our Trailer Mover. You’ll also find our products in use at car dealerships, hospitals, the hospitality industry, groceries, big box stores and the retail industry.

DJ Products cart pusher, cart mover, caddies and lifts offer superior operating flexibility, allowing them to be used in a greater number of applications than standard material handling equipment. Our products are battery powered “walk-behind” units that provide maximum operator control, even in tight, difficult spaces. Our ergonomically designed products reduce employee injuries, promote easy and frequent use, and eliminate the use of more costly and cumbersome equipment ill-suited to the task.

Join us in this space for news, discussion and insight on topics that impact your business, including:

  • How you can improve the ergonomics and safety of your workplace when moving products and materials.
  • New products and trends in material handling.
  • OSHA regulations and how they impact your business and employees.
  • Innovative material handling solutions to common problems.
  • New ergonomic findings and trends in material handling.
  • Pallets vs. carts: parameters for making an informed decision.
  • Benefits and information on implementing an ergonomic health and safety program.
  • Safety tips for manually moving objects.
  • Evaluation of market products including carts, casters, caddies, etc.

If you’re looking for up-to-date, useful information on material handling solutions, bookmark the DJ Products blog and check our new posts frequently. DJ Products: Changing the way you move materials and equipment.

Use ETO Manufacturing to Differentiate Yourself from Competitors

Customer manufacturing may be a way for U.S. manufacturers to hold on to and even increase their marketshare and margin, Thomas Cutler wrote in a recent issue of Manufacturing & Technology eJournal. The ability to meet your customer’s engineer-to-order (ETO), build-to-order (BTO) and assemble-to-order (ATO) demands is one way to differentiate yourself from your competition. By building or redesigning products to meet customer specifications, you create a niche for yourself in today’s challenging industrial market and build customer relationships that can’t be easily transferred to competitors.

“Standard products are the easiest targets for competitors to attack,” Dennis Parass of Burlington, Ontario’s Questica told Cutler. “If the client feels that there are a number of alternatives, there is a devaluation of the supplier and profit margins fall.”

Clients value and are often willing to pay more for the problem-solving skills needed to redesign standard products to meet specific needs. “Successful ETO or customer manufacturing companies develop relationships with their clients who value the expertise they bring to a project,” Parass told Cutler. “They differentiate competitors and force the client to weigh more than just the ‘economics’ in making a choice. The margins are better. Reputations are built on successful projects with happy clients and the value of references cannot be overemphasized.”

Industry experts predict an increase in ETO manufacturing in coming months. DJ Products has long recognized the advantages and necessity of offering ETO services to our customers. We’re experienced at working with our customers to design solutions that meet their specific needs. Many of our ergonomically-designed carts, movers and tugs are adaptable to a variety of specific needs. Our innovative designs are engineered to help our customers get the greatest and most flexible use from their equipment. Recently, we came out with a motorized retrofit cart kit that allows you to instantly power all your carts with a simple, easy-to-install kit.

Our RaceCarCaddy, a redesign of our popular vehicle pusher, is manufactured to meet the specific needs of the race car industry. Our CartCaddyShorty Power Tugger features a spring hitch option and customized tugger attachment that eliminates the need to fabricate multiple attachments on each of your carts or equipment. We’ve created a variety of specialized attachments that allow instant customization of our standard products. But we also regularly design specific custom applications where our base products don’t match customer criteria. Call DJ Products’ sales engineer to discuss your ETO needs.

Military-grade Material Handling Solutions

Our material handling solutions are used in a variety of settings, including hospitals, hotels, warehouses, factories, and construction sites. But did you know that you might also be able to spot our products at military installations?

Military and DOD (GSA) processes have a very broad requirement for a material handling solutions. The military needs reliable equipment to help them move materials efficiently. They cannot afford to be without someone because they were injured transporting materials. Plus, they require material handling solutions that make the most use of each person available; instead of using a number of people to transport goods, many of the solutions in our Caddy line can be operated by just one person, freeing up other soldiers to complete other tasks.

Here are a few examples of how our material handling solutions are being used to solve the needs of the Military and DOD handling processes:

• Our CarCaddy Military Truck Pusher can be used to push Humvees and heavy military trucks.

• Trailers and wheeled equipment that needs to be lifted at one end before being moved can be transported using our TrailerCaddy.

• Members of the military can move machinery and materials from location to location using a WagonCaddy Powered Cart without having to carry it or push a wheeled cart.

If our material handling solutions can make the grade for the military, then you can also use them in your business. All of our products are battery powered “walk-behind” units, allowing better control by the operator, even in tight, difficult spaces.

Call us at 800-686-2651 to learn more.

Anatomy of Push-Pull Tasks: Placing the Body at Risk

Pushing and pulling tasks are daily life occurrences, particularly, in the workplace. Because of the extreme stress these two forces exert on the body and the frequency with which push-pull tasks must be performed, pushing and pulling result in an extraordinarily high number of musculoskeletal injuries each year. These injuries, which cost U.S. businesses tens of billions of dollars annually, are largely preventable when ergonomic practices and ergonomically-designed equipment are introduced into the workplace.

Surprisingly, it’s not the weight of the load that makes push-pull tasks so physically demanding, it’s the horizontal push force needed to initiate and sustain movement that places the greatest strain on the human body. In order to overcome natural inertia, tremendous force must be applied to initiate motion of a cart or piece of heavy equipment. As the operator strains against inertia, he must exert extraordinary force to start the cart or piece of equipment moving. In his exertions, the operator places unusual strain on the muscles and tendons of his legs, back, shoulders, arms and wrists. Pressure decreases as the load begins rolling as less force is needed to keep a moving load in motion. However, every time the operator must stop and restart motion, for example to onload or offload parts at a workstation or turn a corner or maneuver through a tight space, he must again exert the extraordinary force necessary to overcome inertia, risking serious musculoskeletal injury each time.

Of the two methods used to move carts and pieces of heavy equipment, pushing is always preferable to pulling. Pulling places greater strain on the body than pushing. It forces the worker to assume positions that minimize the application of force and increase the risk of injury. There are two ways to pull a load: using one hand and facing the direction of travel or using two hands but walking backward and facing away from the direction of travel. Both are problematic and increase the risk of operator injury. Next time we’ll talk about the specific risks involved in each type of pulling task.

The severe strain placed on the body when pulling and maneuvering heavy loads or heavy equipment is eliminated with the use of DJ Products’ ergonomically-designed, motorized carts, tugs and movers. DJ Products’ motorized carts and movers allow operators to safely and without effort move and maneuver carts and equipment with just one hand. DJ Products’ walk-behind design guarantees maximum operator control and safety with full view of the path ahead. Visit the DJ Products’ website for more information about our full line of ergonomically-designed carts, tug and movers.

Next time: Risk factors in pulling tasks

Ergonomics Should Drive Injury-Reduction Plan

Today we continue our September 15 post on developing a proactive plan to reduce costly workplace injuries.

2. Set priorities.

After you have determined activities and areas that carry a high risk of injury, set priorities for initiating improvements. Activities resulting in the most severe and most frequent injuries should receive the highest priority, followed by those garnering the highest incidence of worker complaint. Other factors to be considered include technical and financial resources at your disposal and the difficulty in implementing improvements. Be sure to include worker ideas in your plan. Develop a timeframe for making improvements. Communicate the plan and timeline to managers and workers.

3. Implement improvements

Ergonomics — improving the fit between worker tasks and worker capabilities — should drive implementation of your injury-reduction plan. Manual handling of materials and products should be reduced or eliminated wherever possible. Operations and processes can often be combined or restructured to reduce manual tasks. Task procedures can be modified to reduce the strain of unavoidable manual tasks. Ergonomically-designed equipment can eliminate or dramatically decrease the need for physical effort. Don’t neglect proper training for new equipment, procedures, processes, etc.

4. Follow up.

After implementation of each improvement and after allowing for a reasonable adjustment period, it is important to follow up with an evaluation of effectiveness. Review reports and data for signs that injuries, fatigue, discomfort, complaints and risk factors have been reduced or eliminated. Talk to workers to see whether improvements have been accepted and assimilated, that training has been sufficient, and whether there are new complaints. Look for new problems that may have been resulted from the changes made. Refine your plan and made additional improvements as necessary. 

The technical specialists at DJ Products can assist you in evaluating the ergonomic needs of your business. DJ Products manufactures a wide range of ergonomically designed carts, pushers and tugs designed to eliminate and reduce worker injuries. Contact a DJ Products specialist today to find out how you can use ergonomic equipment to reduce injuries in your workplace.

Practical Benefits of Ergonomics

For American industry and business, the practical benefits of ergonomics are multi-fold. Upgrading your business with ergonomically-designed power mover decreases both the frequency and severity of workplace injuries. This decreases medical costs, disability insurance payments and absenteeism related to injury and recovery time. But there are significant benefits to choosing ergonomic equipment that go beyond the more obvious concerns with your bottom line.

By recognizing the importance of your employees’ health, safety and comfort through the installation of ergonomically-designed equipment, you place an emphasis on the quality of their worklife. The result is an increase in productivity, increase in morale and decrease in absenteeism that will improve both your profitability and ability to compete. Here’s how:

  • A company that shows it values its workers engenders good morale. Where morale is high, absenteeism is low. A satisfied workforce gives a company a significant competitive edge. When a company demonstrates concern for their employees’ well being, employees return the favor.

  • As tough economic conditions force many businesses to downsize and function with smaller staffs, the contribution of each individual worker becomes more valuable. Absenteeism puts an unfair burden on your entire workforce. Ergonomic equipment decreases absenteeism from injury and recovery, increasing productivity.

  • In an 8-hour shift, the average worker spends about 1.5 to 2.5 hours on breaks and non-job activities. Equipment that is frustrating or fatiguing to use results in more frequent breaks. Adaptable, easy-to-operate ergonomic equipment improves comfort and reduces fatigue. This allows workers to comfortably stay on the job longer, decreasing downtime. In a workforce of 100 employees averaging $12 per hour, just 5 more minutes of productive time per worker per day can add up to $50,000 annually (not considering overhead).

By recognizing the importance of ergonomics in the workplace, businesses can build worker morale, leading to an increase in efficiency, productivity and profitability.

Applying Six Sigma to Ergonomics Drives Production Gains

Businesses that practice Six Sigma recognize the roll ergonomics can play in creating and sustaining productivity gains. Adoption of a comprehensive ergonomics program that combines implementation of ergonomic practices with use of ergonomically-designed equipment can lead to significant production gains, both immediate and sustainable in the long term. This is in addition to the obvious benefits ergonomics offers in improved workplace safety and reduced injury levels and their attendant costs.

In our last post, we began discussing how Six Sigma’s disciplined, process-oriented, five-step approach to problem solving can be applied to development of a comprehensive ergonomics program. We covered defining problem areas and goals, measuring existing stressors, and analyzing collected data to identify root problems and potential risks. Today, we continue our discussion of Six Sigma’s five-step process and its application to creation of a comprehensive ergonomics program.

Improve. Develop solutions to address the identified root causes of production area problems, set performance standards, and define responsibilities of both workers and managers. Remember to talk to the workers who actually perform the tasks and use the equipment. They can provide valuable input and often offer useful, practical solutions to production problems. Implement your improvement action plan, including necessary staff and management training.

Control. To ensure that productivity gains are sustained over the long term and that they continue to improve, it is important to monitor the established ergonomics program to ensure that performance standards and personnel responsibilities are being maintained. Measurement data should be regularly collected and analyzed to ensure that productivity improvement goals are sustained.

Too often ergonomics programs fail because they are not fully supported by top level management. Particularly now, when manufacturers and other businesses, beset by myriad economic concerns, are forced to run lean, many have shunted plans to implement an ergonomics program to the future. There is general lack of understanding of the significant productivity gains that accrue with implementation of an ergonomics program. By increasing productivity, ergonomic processes and ergonomically-designed equipment can improve your bottom line noticeably. And that is in addition to the proven savings realized from the immediate decrease in workplace injuries and accompanying decrease in medical, insurance, workers’ compensation and lost man-hour costs when ergonomics are employed. Making a comprehensive ergonomics program part of your company’s Six Sigma strategy guarantees it the credibility and top level management support necessary for success and sustainability.  

For information on ergonomic equipment designed to solve your material handling problems, contact the ergonomic engineers at DJ Products.

Motorized Dump Hopper Solves Waste Hauling Problems

Need a smart, safe, easy way to haul trash, waste and debris around your facility? DJ Products’ motorized dump hopper is the perfect solution. This heavy-duty, battery-powered tilt truck is designed to haul 2,000 pounds of trash or debris. Eliminating the manual pushing and pulling of heavy trash carts that can cause debilitating and costly musculoskeletal injuries in your work force, DJ Products’ motorized dump hopper is ergonomically designed to allow a single operator to effortlessly transport and relocate trash and waste materials. Easily operated via a conveniently-placed, ergonomically-designed twist handle grip, this battery-powered tilt truck does all the work, taking the load off your workers and preventing the risk of musculoskeletal injury.

Popular with a diverse group of our customers, DJ Products’ ergonomically-designed powered dump hopper is being used to haul heavy trash and debris in factories, schools, distribution facilities, convention centers, hospitals and warehouses effectively and efficiently. Even filled with heavy trash, our dump hopper is designed for safe and easy turning and maneuvering in tight and narrow spaces by workers of any size or physical ability. Ergonomic design insures that the cart, not your workers, carries the burden, removing risk of injury to sensitive arm, shoulder, back, and leg muscles.

When material handling equipment forces a worker to contort his body to push, pull, maneuver tooperate it, muscle fatigue sets in. Workers take more breaks to alleviate sore muscles, decreasing work efficiency and production. Repeated muscle strain most often leads to potentially debilitating musculoskeletal injuries and the high medical bills, insurance costs, worker’s compensation and lost man-hour expenses such injuries entail. Ergonomically-designed material handling equipment is made to conform to the worker, allowing workers of various sizes and physical abilities to comfortably and easily perform the same task using the same equipment. Ergonomic equipment improves worker efficiency, productivity and morale.

A heavy-duty, 24-volt motor easily moves heavy loads up to 2,000 pounds. The ergonomic variable-speed twist grip allows operators to quickly maneuver forwards or backwards at speeds from 0 to 3 mph without risking carpal tunnel injury. Powered by two 12-volt batteries, this powered tilt truck can perform for an entire 8-hour shift without recharging, ensuring efficient waste hauling for the duration of the shift. DJ Products’ highly versatile dump hopper is available in a variety of sizes and can be customized to any application or environment. Click here for more information and to view a video of DJ Products’ motorized dump hopper in action.