Tag: Material Handling

Learning to Think Sustainably

Supply Chain Sustainability and Green Sustainable Supply Chain are the coming watchwords in the material handling and logistics industries (see our July 7 post). A green sustainable supply chain is the process of using environmentally friendly resources to create products that when used — and also when eventually discarded at the end of their life cycle — break down into components that either benefit the environment or can be recycled to create new products without harming the environment. 

“The whole idea of a sustainable supply chain is to reduce costs while helping the environment,” explained Patrick Penfield of the Whitman School of Management at Syracuse University in a 2007 article for MHIA’s publication On the Mhove. To gauge the cost savings of a sustainable supply chain requires that businesses think in terms of the life cycle costs of a part, piece of equipment or process. It’s merely the next step in the evolution of cost analysis, argues Penfield. “In the past,” he says, “most companies were focused on reducing unit costs. Many companies later evolved into looking at total landed costs with the onset of global trade. Companies also started looking at the usage costs with a piece of equipment.” Figuring costs based on the total life cycle of a part, piece of equipment or process is simply taking an even broader view of cost analysis.

Approaching business and industry from the broad outlook of sustainability “could be a tremendous weapon for companies to reduce costs,” Penfield believes. “There are many facets of the supply chain that could be improved by looking at it from a sustainability standpoint.” Today, companies worldwide are reviewing design and production processes and redesigning those processes to use fewer resources and less energy. In one example, Interface Corporation, a leading maker of materials for commercial interiors, decreased the horsepower requirements of a pump system by 92% simply by using shorter, fatter pipes than originally called for. Their engineer’s redesigned system “cost less to build, involved no new technology and worked better in all respects,” Penfield points out.

Next time: Using sustainability to create a competitive edge

What You Can Do to Attract Workers to Material Handling

By the end of this decade — that’s only two short years away — industry experts are predicting a 50% shortfall of material handling workers. Worker shortages are already being felt in manufacturing, logistics, transportation, warehousing and fulfillment venues; and it’s only going to get worse (see our November 3 post). The Material Handling Industry of America (MHIA) and other industry leaders are spearheading initiatives to build awareness of material handling job opportunities in America’s high schools and colleges, but they can’t do it alone. Each of us must work to change public opinion and entice young people into our industry if we are to survive.

In building awareness of job opportunity in the material handling industry, we will need to update our image with school counselors, students and the public at large. Our efforts to attract new workers are burdened by the outdated perception of material handling workers as unskilled manual laborers lagging at the bottom of the payment and benefit scale. Times have changed. Material handling jobs offer good pay, good benefits and a growth industry, an appealing triumvirate, particularly during the current economic downturn that is forcing many industries to lay off workers.

Of added benefit is the ability of material handling to offer jobs across the educational spectrum. While college grads and MBAs increasingly populate our industry, there is still great appreciation for the individual who moves right into the workforce out of high school, determined to work hard and make something of his life. It’s how many of today’s leaders in the material handling industry got their start, and we haven’t forgotten. The increasing emphasis on automation and system integration in our industry should appeal to the computer-savvy teens and 20-somethings poised to enter the workforce. Material handling jobs can offer young people the opportunity to reap immediate reward from their prodigious self-taught computer skills. And many employers will help workers increase and improve both their technical and business skills through educational assistance programs. The “you learn while you earn” approach can be particularly appealing during a tough economy.

So how can you help get the word out? Visit guidance counselors at local high schools, tech schools and community colleges. Let them know what material handling has to offer their students and leave some brochures they can pass out to students. Volunteer to speak at career day programs. This is a great opportunity to talk directly to students. Invite vocational high school or community college classes on a tour of your facilities and explain job opportunities. Offer summer internships or initiate a co-op (work/study) program through local high schools, community colleges or universities.  This is time-honored way to give interested students a taste of the real work world, and many co-op students become full-time employees.

Attracting future workers to the material handling industry is everyone’s job. Get out there in your community and start spreading the word. Our future depends on it.

Building the Workforce of the Future

Even before the economy took a dive, material handling industry experts were warning of coming changes to America’s workforce that could have far-reaching implications for U.S. businesses. America’s population is aging. By 2015, the over 65 population will increase by more than 20%. At the same time, the number of people getting started in the workplace, those 25 to 39, will grow by only 6%. And even more alarming, the population group that has traditionally formed the core of America’s workforce, those aged 40 to 54, will shrink by 5%. Businesses need to prepare now to deal with a younger, smaller U.S. workforce.

But that’s only part of the problem, said Gary Forger, Senior VP of Professional Development for the Material Handling Industry of America (MHIA), in his keynote address at ProMat 2009 earlier this month. The fast pace of technological change and the need for constant learning and retraining may present the biggest challenge. Where it used to take 12 to 15 years for skill sets to before becoming obsolete, it now takes less than 3 years. “It is estimated that 39% of the current workforce and 26% of new hires will have basic skill deficiencies,” Forger said. Unfortunately, America’s future workforce may not have the “live to work” ethic of their predecessors. Tomorrow’s worker will be seeking a better work-life balance, placing higher value on “work to live.”

While coming changes in workforce demographics will present significant challenges for U.S. businesses, Forger said it will also present unique opportunities to improve productivity and performance for companies able to exercise flexibility. Forger suggested that those opportunities are likely to be found in unexpected places. Companies may find it productive to pair old and new workers, he said. New workers would bring advanced technological skills to the table; older workers, knowledge and experience. Automation is expected to increase to allow smaller workforces to maintain production. The need to accommodate aging workers will place increased emphasis on ergonomic equipment.

As the number of U.S. workers dwindles, the material handling industry should prepare for an increasingly multi-cultural and multi-lingual workforce. Forger said recruiters may need to target new work groups, such as “Hispanic women reentering the workforce.” Retention efforts may need to become more flexible and more creative, offering different incentives to differently-motivated groups. In the future, advancement, employee satisfaction and responsibilities may provide better retention results than basic pay. How companies address work-life balance issues is also expected to play a key role in employee retention.

Speed is Crucial, but Not At the Cost of Safety

Your business depends on your employees’ ability to receive and then distribute your product to your customers.  The quicker and more accurately this can be done, the better – unless of course it puts those valuable employees at an increased risk of injury.

In order for your warehouse or distribution center to operate as smoothly and efficiently as possible, your equipment needs to be just as safe as it is fast or you actually run the risk of slowing the order filling process while you deal with the circumstances surrounding the injury.  Losing one of your valued employees to injury can seriously hamper your efforts even if you are a reasonable large company – in a very small environment where each person is critical to operations, that loss of one person can be crippling.

Forklifts, reach trucks and electric jacks all come with a very long list of warnings because material handling can be a very dangerous job if safety guidelines aren’t properly followed.  Employees are required to travel reasonably long distances with loads of product that often weigh thousands of pounds – attempting this on a machine that isn’t designed for safety can lead to very serious injuries or even death.

The lifts and carts from DJ Products are designed to be the safest material handling equipment that your employees can use.  Built in design features ensure that every employee, regardless of height or size can move and lift material in such a way that any chance of injury is dramatically decreased when compared to manual material handling

It just so happens that the safest material handling equipment available also happens to be among the most efficient.  DJ Products equipment is capable of transporting heavy loads quickly, quietly and safely regardless of the distance between the loading dock and the storage rack – and you’ll be able to use your electric cart for a full eight hour shift on a single charge, so there is no need to worry about equipment failure.  Remember that the fastest equipment isn’t always the most efficient, and when it comes to fulfilling orders and keeping your business competitive efficiency trumps speed every time.

Are Robots in the Future for Your Warehouse?

Robots have become integrated into many operations as a material handling solution. Until now, their use has revolved primarily around safety issues. Worker safety has been improved in areas where robots have handled the heavy lifting. As technology improves, robots are becoming sophisticated enough to assist with more specialized tasks.

As manufacturers try to meet demands for faster service and higher productivity, robots are becoming more important for their ability to move and store both large and small items. They enable the ability for quick turnarounds, with only a settings change required to accommodate different products and shifting quotas.

Whereas robots that handle large loads need heavier arms and grippers, the key to moving smaller items is to incorporate grippers with more flexibility and a lighter touch. Companies that deal with more fragile items such as electronic components have turned to delta robots. This style uses a parallel link rather than serial to allow for faster, more precise movements.

Food handling might sound like an insurmountable task, but the USDA has actually certified certain grippers to touch raw food. The FDA has followed suit by certifying grippers for biotech applications such as handling blood and plasma samples.

Our comprehensive line of tugs and pushers from DJ Products have also made major contributions in the area of worker safety. Their powerful battery-operated motors and ergonomic design enable a single person to handle loads of up to 50.000 pounds with ease. Please call our Sales Engineers at 800.686.2651 or use our convenient online chat feature to find the perfect solution for your application.

Using Sustainability to Create a Competitive Edge

Being eco-friendly is increasingly considered a social, political and economic advantage in U.S. business and industry — and, therefore, a competitive edge. Forward-thinking companies are using environmental initiatives and dedication to sustainability to create advantageous public opinion. Cutting edge, eco-friendly solutions gain customers. The extreme, sometimes almost rabid, level of dedicated customer loyalty, despite sometimes higher consumer costs, has been an unexpected benefit. An increasing number of ecologically-concerned Americans are willing to pay more for products and services that protect or sustain the environment. Interestingly, consumers view this as a way of partnering with industry to save the environment.

More industries are pursuing sustainability to reduce the life-cycle costs of parts, equipment and processes (see our July 9 post). “Anything not in a product is considered a cost; it’s a sign of poor quality,” say the authors of Green to Gold in explaining 3M’s Pollution Prevention Pays program. “As 3M execs see it, everything coming out of a plant is either product, by-product (which can be reused or sold), or waste. Why then should there be any waste?” As the authors point out, 3M views waste as unrecouped expenses and something to be avoided. The company’s goal is 100% sustainability.

Sustainability is not limited to the direct costs of business and industry. Savings can also be realized in indirect costs such as packing, transportation and other logistics considerations. Eco-friendly smart packages that reduce cardboard and filler save resources and money. Replacing gas-guzzling forklifts with energy-smart electric and motorized carts and tugs is another environmentally smart way to cut costs. Optimizing shipping loads and delivery strategies can result in significant cost savings given skyrocketing fuel prices.

Implementing a sustainable supply chain also eliminates or reduces the amount of money spent on disposal of harmful by-products, scrap and adherence to regulatory issues. In many instances, by-products previously disposed of as waste are now generating viable revenue sources for environmentally-conscious companies. Sustainability is already being used to competitive advantage by many companies who have found it a profitable way to grow market share in their industry.

Ergonomic Scissors Lift Adjusts to Workers’ Heights

Bending, twisting and reaching all day long can have workers reaching for the Tylenol well before the day is over. These muscle-torquing activities lead to aches, strains and sprains that slow workers down and can eventually cause musculoskeletal injuries that entail multiple doctor’s visits, costly physical therapy and time off from work, placing an added burden on fellow workers who have to pick up the slack.

This was the problem being experienced by an Ohio manufacturer of aftermarket exhaust systems. Management noticed a high level of sprains and strains reported by workers. Investigation found the culprit to be the awkward positions workers assumed while performing production and packing tasks.

Workers come in different shapes and sizes but, as is true in most facilities, materials were delivered to work stations at a single, stationary height. Since few workers fit the “ideal” height around which equipment and tasks were designed, this meant that most workers, being either shorter or taller than the “ideal” height, were forced to bend, stretch, and strain to perform their work tasks. In the process, they overtaxed and injured muscles.

Company management sought a solution in ergonomics. Ergonomics is the science of fitting equipment and tasks to the capabilities of the worker to eliminate strain on the human body. Ergonomic design allows equipment that will be used by multiple workers to be adjusted to fit the size and capability of each individual. 

In the case of the Ohio exhaust manufacturer, the perfect solution proved to be an ergonomically-designed, portable scissor lift. The portable scissor lift allowed relatively heavy parts (120 lbs.) to be quickly moved from one station to the next. The power scissor feature permitted each worker to quickly and easily adjust the lift bed to the optimal height for his size. The result was virtual elimination of musculoskeletal injuries, an increase in productivity from 65% to 88%, and increased on-time delivery.

The problems experienced by this Ohio company are common to many industries, including manufacturing, fulfillment, packing, logistics, shipping and warehousing. DJ Products’ PWP2000 Cart Puller mobile electric lift table could be the perfect solution for your facility. Our ergonomically-designed, self-propelled electric scissor lift is available in a variety of shapes and sizes for various applications. Our lift tables deliver work items to the appropriate height every time. Combine our lift table with our PartsCaddy mobile platform truck and workers can easily move fully-loaded lift tables from one station to the next without physical strain. With 16 hours of battery life, DJ Products’ electric movers can stay in continuous operation through two shifts with ease. 

Benefits of Ergonomic Design in Material Handling Equipment

Life lessons come in all kinds of packages and often from unusual sources. Astute businessmen are quick to take lessons learned in other industries and apply them to their own operations. That’s why we’ve been talking this week about a three-year study of musculoskeletal injury risk factors in the trucking industry (see our April 27 and 29 posts). Any time workers are forced to work in uncomfortable positions for long periods of time or repeat uncomfortable actions over time, undue strain is placed on the body’s sensitive musculoskeletal system, increasing the risk of serious injury. The result is the same whether you drive a long-haul truck across country or spend your shift moving material back and forth across a factory floor. The trucking industry study only serves to remind us that material handling operators face the same physically-challenging, musculoskeletal risk factors, just in a different setting.

Musculoskeletal injuries in the workplace account for the greatest number of worker’s compensation claims in the U.S. each year, according to the U.S. Department of Labor, which places the annual price tag of such injuries at more than $60 billion. But the true cost of back injuries, tendonitis, carpal tunnel syndrome and other stress and repetitive motion injuries is far greater than the direct medical/insurance cost. Poorly designed material handling equipment that forces workers to stretch and strain decreases productivity, negatively impacts product quality, lowers morale, and increases absenteeism. The true annual price tag for workplace injury and illness is estimated in excess of $171 billion.

A national leader in the design and manufacture of ergonomic solutions to material handling applications, DJ Products specializes in making the finest, most versatile, electric and motorized cart tugs in the industry. Ergonomically designed to take the stress and strain off workers, our products have earned as many kudos from customers for their role in increasing production efficiency as they have for improving worker health and safety. Here are just some of the ergonomic design features that make DJ Products’ material handling equipment stand out from the competition:

  • Exactingly-engineered ergonomic controls place operating controls at the precisely optimal position for easy use and maximum operator control while eliminating carpal tunnel injury.
  • Versatile adjustable tug arms allow carts to securely attach to the bottom of any cart or load, even those loads that overflow the cart bed.
  • Our scissors-lift option allows each worker to raise or lower materials to his personal, optimal work height.
  • Safe, smooth 180-degree pivoting is ensured with our unique tug arm, eliminating the risk of dangerous jackknifing while maneuvering heavy loads.
  • Energy-efficient electric battery-powered operation guarantees safe, quiet, green operation through two full shifts before recharging.

For complete information on the full line of DJ Products’ ergonomically-designed material handling equipment, visit our website today.

Freight Solutions for Small and Medium Sized Warehouses

A forklift is a great asset for moving palletized freight or heavy loads from point a to point b in your facility, but not every plant or warehouse that handles heavy loads has the storage capacity or room to maneuver for a forklift to be a viable option.  In many of these establishments, employees are manually handling these heavy loads and workers are risking injury every single day in order to perform their job.

You don’t need extra wide aisles in order to operate a powered machine that can move heavy equipment or loads from one end of your warehouse to the other; you can get the same power delivered by a full sized fork truck in the smaller and easier to maneuver CartCaddy4SC powered hand truck from DJ Products.

The CartCaddy4SC allows workers to quickly, safely and easily handle loads up 4,500 pounds in situations where a full sized forklift would be too big a piece of equipment.  The CartCaddy4SC can also be an incredible compliment to a full sized forklift in high volume warehouses that require multiple large loads to be handled at the same time but that don’t have the budget, need or space to merit having two forklifts on site.

Just like all of the material handling equipment from DJ Products, this powered hand truck is built with both functionality and safety in mind.  This piece of equipment is easy to use, quiet, ergonomically designed and can run for a full eight hour shift with regular use on a single charge.

Your business can operate much more smoothly and safely with the proper equipment for the job and if you need heavy loads moved in tight quarters or need to safely get heavy equipment or stock from one place to another while your forklift is in use elsewhere – your business could certainly benefit from having a powered hand truck on site.

Improve Warehouse Efficiency With Cart Movers

Moving carts throughout your warehouse, even ones mounted on wheels, is a cumbersome and time-consuming task. Traditional equipment like forklifts no longer fit current material handling needs. Improve efficiency and worker safety with one of the battery-powered movers from DJ Products.

Our selection of CartCaddies includes models that can accommodate loads of up to 50,000 pounds. These units are designed to allow easy operation by a single worker, eliminating the need to devote valuable manpower to the tasks. A customized attachment lets the operator quickly connect to the load. In addition, it transfers weight to the CartCaddy tires, providing needed traction.

Are work-related injuries in your workplace cutting into productivity and reducing the bottom line? Our CartCaddies are ergonomically designed to prevent many of the more common injuries. For example, the variable speed twist grip allows smooth starting and stopping without promoting repetitive-stress injuries such as carpal tunnel.

The electric caddies are powered by three 12-volt batteries which will generally last through two shifts of continuous use before recharging. The units are also compact and can pivot a full 180 degrees under the arm attachment, meaning they can smoothly and safely maneuver through even the tightest quarters in your warehouse.

We have an assortment of movers to provide solutions to a wide variety of applications. Our Sales Engineers are ready to help you find the one that’s right for your needs. Call 800.686.2651 or use our convenient online chat feature and find out why you should be a member of Team Cart Caddy.