Tag: Material Handling

Material Handling Job Site Launched to Attract Workers

NA 2008 recently wrapped up in Cleveland. One of the more interesting developments to come out of the annual trade show sponsored by the Material Handling Industry of America (MHIA) was increased industry interest in worker assist devices. “We’re finding a renewed interest in looking at the worker rather than just the workplace,” said MHIA Vice President Tom Carbott. “Companies that can find talent want to keep their employees safe and productive in the workplace.” Carbott said he expects more exhibitors to mirror this interest at next year’s show in Chicago.

In a related development, in response to industry concerns about attracting workers to careers in material handling, the first job posting website dedicated solely to recruiting students to the material handling industry was introduced. Designed and launched as a cooperative effort by the Material Handling Equipment Distributors Association (MHEDA), MHIA and the College-Industry Council on Material Handling Education the website is meant to serve as a bridge or gateway between students and industry professionals. Dubbed by MHEDA the Gateway Program, the website is located at www.mheda.org.

“The website was developed to attract and recruit students seeking employment in the industry, as well as to strengthen relationships between academia and industry,” explained MHEDA Executive Vice President Liz Richards. “We encourage all professionals in the industry to take full advantage of the resources on the Gateway site, as it is meant for industry-wide use.”

The site targets three groups: students, advisors and industry professionals, providing customized resources and publications of specific interest to each group. Free searchable databases allow users to review resumes and job postings. The site can be used by students and industry professionals to find/fill internships, co-op work opportunities and full-time employment. Employers can also indicate their availability for guest lectures and site visits.

Using Ergonomic Equipment to Reduce Injury Rates

In our last post we talked about the challenges of managing a multicultural workforce in material handling, logistics, warehousing, fulfillment and other businesses. OSHA has reported higher than normal injury and on-the-job death rates for foreign-born Hispanic workers who comprise a growing segment of America’s hourly workforce. While language and cultural differences appear to be at the root of the problem, injury and death rates can be cut by using intuitive, ergonomically-designed, powered equipment to meet your material handling needs.

When communication is an issue, equipment that is easy to operate can improve training speed and reduce potential worker operation errors that can lead to injury. When controls are intuitively designed, communication gaps are narrowed further. What might not be grasped or fully remembered in verbal communication can be intuited by gesture or familiarity with similar equipment. This is not to say that a thorough training and safety program is not necessary, only that easy-to-operate equipment shortens the time between initial training and competent operation. Ergonomically-designed equipment is built around the worker, not the task, making it extremely user-friendly and an excellent choice in multicultural work environments.

Ergonomic material handling equipment that is electric or battery powered can further reduce injury and workplace death rates. In material handling situations, most injuries come from pulling, pushing or lifting loads and are the result of over-stretching or over-straining muscles. Powered equipment removes most of the need for heavy physical exertion from pulling, pushing and lifting tasks. By allowing the equipment to do the heavy lifting, so to speak, fewer situations are presented during the workday that might place workers at risk of injury.

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

New Marketing Strategies Needed to Survive Lean Years Ahead

With the economic prognosis dim for 2009, U.S. manufacturers and businessmen need to rethink basic marketing strategies. Gone are the comfortable days of order backlog that manufacturers have enjoyed since the post-WWII. Everyone is scrambling to find new customers and new markets for their products. As Doug Gregory of Diamond Group Marketing pointed out in a February 9, 2009 article on Manufacturing & Technology eJournal, “you can’t cut and save your way to survival and profitability.”

To survive the next few lean years, you’re going to have to take excellent care of your current customers and work hard to find new ones. Gregory recommends a number of marketing strategies proven during previous downturns to help companies survive and even thrive. We’ve added some comments based on the benefit of our own experience here at DJ Products in building a successful material handling company with a national reputation for innovation, quality products and superior customer service.

  • Aggressive marketing. Many companies cut back on marketing efforts during a downturn. Survivors will buck the tide and increase marketing across the board. During tough economic times, potential customers do more shopping around looking for the best bargains. Getting your company name out there where they’re looking gives you a better chance to snag the sale.
  • Customer service. Without your customers you won’t have a business. Keeping customers happy must always be a top priority. During economic downturns competition heats up and you have to work even harder to keep your customers from jumping ship and going with the competition. Keep in regular contact with your customers so you’re right there to meet their needs as they arise. In a downturn, companies typically decrease inventories to cut expenses. You’ll benefit if you can provide customers with fast order turnaround and guaranteed delivery dates.
  • Strategic diversification. A tight economy forces you to expand and diversify your customer list, but make sure you don’t lose your core focus. You don’t want to dilute the expertise that sets you apart from your competitors and draws customers to you in the first place. Look for new customers with needs similar to those you now serve. Take a look at your current customers’ competition. With the same needs as your present customers, they present a ready market for your products.

Next time: Where to look for new marketing opportunities.

Peering Into Business’ Future

If America’s future workforce is going to be “more flexible, more freelance, more collaborative and far less secure,” as Time magazine prophesizes in its May 13, 2009 issue, it indicates that the American business paradigm as we know it is going to go through some major upheavals in the coming decade or two. Time suggests that American business is teetering on the cusp of major change. Powerful social forces have pushed us toward this edge, and the current economic disaster appears ready to tip us over and send us careening in new directions.

What’s driving the coming changes?

  • The Baby Boomer generation has been an unstoppable force since its inception. Sheer numbers have changed the focus of society each time Boomers have entered a new life phase. Now poised to enter retirement, America’s most populous demographic will again shift the country’s emphasis, this time to health care and aging issues. By 2030, one-fifth of American citizens will be over the age of 65, with the greatest growth in the over 85 demographic. As they have from the beginning, Boomers will drive the country’s business, social and political agendas. Expect growth in health care, pharmaceuticals, medical aids and equipment, security and alert services, home care, transportation and mobility, shop-at-home opportunities and travel. But don’t count Boomers down and out yet. The last of the Boomers won’t retire for another 20 years and many plan to and will be able to work into their 80s. With far fewer workers moving up to replace them, American business owners need to prepare for a grayer workforce.
  • The new generation of managers entering the business world seems to have been plugged in since birth. Quick to embrace new technology, they’re more comfortable in front of a computer checking their email and Facebook accounts or texting and twittering than they are communicating face-to-face. Expect business communication and social interaction to change to reflect the fast-paced, multi-tasking, solitary preferences of the tech-savvy earbud generation. This is the generation that will take integrated technology to new levels not yet even imagined. Business has already begun to lose its brick and mortar walls as more people work remotely. Expect the next generation to blow them away. The days of the cubicle are numbered!

More on Monday

Pushing vs Pulling Manual Carts

Pushing and pulling are the two most frequent actions workers execute in the course of doing their jobs. So in maneuvering manual carts, which is easier for the worker and creates less risk of injury — pushing or pulling?

Experts say pushing is preferable to pulling for a number of reasons. Research has demonstrated that people are able to exert higher push forces than pull forces. Given that horizontal push force, not the weight of the load or equipment, is the most significant factor in determining the effort required to move a load, that’s a significant consideration in selecting equipment.

Think of what happens to the body when you push something. Your entire body is used to create push force. In pushing an object, your body is more centered which allows you to concentrate force. Limbs are generally held closer to the body, limiting the possibility of extension injuries.

Pulling on the other hand, creates tremendous stress on individual body parts. When you pull an object and you are facing the direction of travel, one arm is stretched behind your body. This places the shoulder and back in awkward postures, increasing the potential for painful injury through overextension or awkward twisting. If you use two hands to pull an object you must have your back to the direction of travel. Walking backwards without a clear view of your path is an invitation to an accident. On an incline momentum can increase unexpectedly and the cart can careen into the worker or “run over” his feet.

There are times when pulling is the only way to maneuver a manual cart into the proper position, but at all other times pulling should be avoided. Pushing is the safer, more ergonomic way to move a manual cart.

Integration of Material Handling Components Lags

To the frustration of many, the material handling industry stills seems a long way from achieving the plug and play capabilities of common home electronics. The day when all material handling components will interface with each other still appears to be in the distant future. Material handling manufacturers remain focused on producing dedicated components that require purchase of their particular system. The goal of integrated components that can be easily and quickly installed and used in any setting with any material handling system lags far behind the profit-driven motives of the current marketplace. 

While integration isn’t the bug-a-bear it was a decade ago, it still “typically takes between 8 and 12 weeks to install a piece of material handling equipment in a distribution center,” said Steve Martyn, CEO of GRSI, a systems integrator. Even products that bill themselves as “plug and play” generally require that specific coding instructions be written for at least 40% of the integration before successful installation can be completed.

The problem, say experts, appears to be a lack of interest in creating industry-wide data-exchange standards that would allow for instant interface of varied material handling components. “The only way to have true plug and play is if you have a body of industry leaders that define a standard,” explained Daniel Ahrens, client support manager at Fortna, Inc., a material handling consulting firm. That would require that hundreds of companies come to agreement as the electronics industry did in choosing the USB as the standard interface device — a difficult, but not impossible, task. “The trouble with standards is you have to get hundreds of companies to agree,” said material handling consultant Sam Flanders, president of 2wmc.com. “You have to have a driving force to make this happen. And nobody thinks it will result in extra revenue.”

At present there’s no pressure on the industry for anyone to step up to the plate; however, that’s expected to change as small providers of warehouse management software fall to the giants like SAP and Oracle. “The big ERP (enterprise resource planning) guys probably will eventually set standards,” said Martyn. Until they do, beware the material handling supplier that advertises “plug and play” components — they probably won’t be what you’re expecting.

Where to Find New Marketing Opportunities

Competition is even tougher than it was before. Most sectors of the economy are expected to post losses through 2009 with little improvement expected until sometime in 2010. The bottom line is that for the next year or two everyone is going to be scrambling for a bite of a much smaller pie. In our last post we shared survival tips from DJ Products’ own experience and from Doug Gregory of Diamond Group Marketing (see his February 9, 2009 article on Manufacturing & Technology eJournal). Aggressive marketing, superior customer service and strategic diversification can help your business survive a bear economy, but to thrive you’re going to have to start searching for new customers.

Gregory and others agree that there are bright spots glimmering amidst the general economic gloom. Certain industries are expected to thrive and grow in the coming few years despite the downturn. Savvy firms will target marketing and sales campaigns to take advantage of expected growth in the following economic sectors:

  • Food industry. As Rally’s, a local burger joint, advertises, “You gotta eat!” The entire food supply chain from farm to table provides multiple opportunities for growing your customer base. Agricultural equipment, fertilizer, transportation, processing, packaging and retailing are just the tip of the food industry pyramid.
  • Pharmaceutical/health care industries. Baby Boomers, the world’s largest population segment, are aging. Demand for pharmaceuticals, health care products and health care services is expected to increase and remain steady over the next three decades.
  • Energy industry. Companies that produce, process or deliver energy products are excellent growth targets. With support from President Obama, increasing federal funds will fuel the development of alternative energy options. However, viable nationwide replacement of current energy sources is years, even decades, in the future. Current oil, gas and coal operations are expected remain strong with increases coming in their development of new, cleaner, more cost efficient applications for their products.
  • Transportation industry. Traditional transportation will still flounder for a while until production volumes and consumer spending improve. But there will be opportunity in infrastructure improvement and rebuilding fueled by federal stimulus spending and job creation. And watch for opportunities in new public transportation options still on the drawing board. Last year public transportation ridership posted a 52-year record high. As America struggles with energy issues and global warming, expect increases in innovative mass transit projects.
  • Look south. Southeast and Gulf Coast states are experiencing a manufacturing boom benefiting in part from post-Katrina spending. Census figures indicate that Americans are moving south, seeking jobs and better weather. Environmentalists are leery about the Southwest, however; which is already experiencing water shortages and some fear believe is on the cusp of long-term, possibly terminal draught.

Forces of Change: What’s Driving New Business Paradigm?

The current economic crisis has created a tipping point for American business. While change is a normal and healthy part of growth, overwhelming economic forces are combining with powerful social forces to force major upheavals in the U.S. business paradigm. Economic necessity has eroded the normal inertia that usually slows change. Economically unviable businesses are failing, the weak are being culled from the competitive pack, and even the strong are struggling, forcing business owners to make hard decisions to ensure their survival. For the first time in decades, labor unions and their members are willing to reconsider compensation and benefit packages to save jobs. Add to this the looming retirement of America’s largest-ever workforce — the Baby Boomer generation — and its replacement with a new generation of tech-savvy workers ready to blow traditional business practices out of the water, and you have a potent climate for change.

Today, we continue our discussion begun last week of the coming forces that will change American business.

  • Today’s hierarchical management structures will all but disappear. Growing entrepreneurship will shift more tasks to contract workers. Changing priorities about work/life balance are already impacting corporate structure with more workers telecommuting and job sharing. The creative experiments implemented to save jobs and money during the recession — unpaid furloughs, reduced hours, lateral advancement — are likely to be retained, allowing for the more flexible career paths sought by the next generation of workers.
  • Women will finally crash through the glass ceiling and come into their own. Time foresees an 8% growth for women in the workforce, compared to 5% for men, and much of that growth will be at the management level. Backlash from the economic crises of the last two years is creating demand for the female management style. Studies indicate that female managers are more cautious about risk-taking than their male counterparts and are collaborative consensus-builders who practice transformational leadership that engages and motivates. 
  • Rising health care and pension costs are already forcing a major change in corporate benefit packages. The current model of employer as provider has become unsustainable. Employees are already being asked to share the burden of health care and retirement costs with their employers, a trend expected to increase. While this naturally concerns Baby Boomers nearing retirement age, benefits are of far less concern to the next generation of workers. In its May 25, 2009 issue, Time magazine reported that among 18- to-34-year-olds, base pay and career advancement were the top-ranked concerns. To decrease health care costs, both businesses and workers will support wellness initiatives and adoption of ergonomic equipment and practices in the workplace.

Mark Your Calendar: Upcoming Material Handling Shows

It’s spring and time for our industry’s annual material handling shows. Circle the date on your calendar and start making travel plans. Here’s the low-down on what’s planned:

MHIA  —  April 21-24  —  Cleveland, OH

The  Material Handling Industry of America will host its North American exposition, NA 08: Solutions that Make the Supply Chain Work, at the I-X Center in Cleveland, Ohio. Participants will have the opportunity to inspect and operate the latest manufacturing, distribution, material handling and IT solutions designed to increase supply chain productivity and profitability. Exhibits of products and services will be organized into four Solution Centers: manufacturing and assembly, fulfillment and delivery, information technology and knowledge which will showcase educational, benchmarking and research resources.

  • Sustainable, green solutions will receive special emphasis at the show. Andrew Winston, a nationally recognized expert on green business, will present the keynote address on Tuesday morning, April 22. The corporate environmental strategist will speak on Green to Gold: How Smart Companies Use Environmental Strategy to Innovate, Create Value and Build High Performance Supply Chains.
  • More than 70 education sessions will be offered addressing best practices, new equipment developments and leading trends.

MHEDA  —  May 3-7  —  Orlando, Florida

Accelerate in ’08 is the theme of the Material Handling Equipment Distributors Association 53rd annual convention and exhibitors’ showcase. The convention will be held at Loews Portofino Bay Hotel at Universal Orlando in the theme park capital of the world, Orlando, Florida. At the show the emphasis is on education and networking, with ample opportunities to explore new technology and trends, improve business knowledge and skills and network and socialize with material handling peers. Fun activities for spouses and kids are planned for those who want to make this a family affair.

  • An exciting variety of educational presentations, round tables and workshops are planned on innovation, business growth, leadership, sales, marketing, customer service, financial and people management. Among several dynamic speakers will be Brian Beaulieu, an economist with the Institute for Trend Research, speaking on Planning for Change and Steven Little, Senior Consultant with Inc. Magazine, who will speak on Growing Your Business in the 21st Century.
  • At the May 5 Exhibitors Showcase you can check out the latest trends and developments in material handling. Hundreds of manufacturers and consultants from around the world will be on hand to showcase and demonstrate their products and services.
  • A golf tournament and biking tour are among numerous optional tours available for the fun-seeking. Ticket discounts to area theme parks are also available.

Ergonomics Can Significantly Decrease Worker Injuries

Material handlers and laborers suffer more injuries and illnesses than construction workers, truck drivers or, indeed, any other category of workers, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. Material handlers and laborers miss more work days and therefore cost U.S. businesses more money in lost man-hours and higher insurance and healthcare costs than any other worker class.

Numerous studies have proved that ergonomically-designed equipment and systems can significantly decrease worker injury. Many manual tasks necessary during the handling of materials require repetitive motions — pushing, pulling, bending, lifting and carrying — that place undue strain on the human body. These actions can result in sprains, strains, back pain and other musculoskeletal injuries. Back pain is by far the most commonly reported workplace injury in the material handling industry. Treatment is generally lengthy and expensive, gobbling up the lion’s share of healthcare and workers’ compensation costs.

The implementation of an ergonomics program can significantly reduce injuries and their associated costs while improving productivity and worker morale. The Material Handling Industry of America (MHIA) has published a 68-page booklet of tips for improving ergonomics in the material handling industry. Click this link to download MHIA’s free Ergonomic Guidelines for Manual Material Handling. For more information on ergonomically-designed electric and motorized carts, pushers and tuggers, visit the DJ Products website.

Next time we’ll share some of MHIA’s best tips for improving ergonomics in the material handling industry and reducing worker injury and its associated costs.