productivity - Page 2 of 3

Always be Prepared

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration, also known simply as OSHA, is responsible for setting and enforcing the standards of safety in the workplace. The main goal of OSHA is to reduce on the job injuries and fatalities by assuring that workers are performing their jobs in the safest environments possible. Since it’s inception at the end of 1970, OSHA has dramatically reduced the incidents of accidents in the workplace and they continue to inspect facilities and enforce their policies in an effort to make working people even safer.

Between the federal and state run divisions of OSHA, more than 100,000 facilities are inspected each year and those not meeting the standards could receive heavy fines depending upon their infractions. The number one violation cited by OSHA has to do with forklift operation. This should serve as a warning to all warehouse and distribution environments that if they are operating outdated and unreliable equipment or if they haven’t properly trained their employees on correct usage procedures of equipment that they could suffer citations and heavy fines from OSHA.

There is much more at stake though than a fine, operating your facility with under trained employees or old and unreliable equipment could make your facility run poorly, inefficiently and it can put the health of your employees in jeopardy. In order to have the safest facility possible you need to be running equipment that was designed for the tasks that your employees perform and you need to properly train your workers to operate that equipment.

Electric lifts and carts from DJ Products are designed with safety and performance in mind – they are easy to operate, ergonomically designed and can last for an entire shift on a single charge. Properly using the right equipment is the first step to a safer, more effective and more efficient workplace – and it will eliminate the most cited infraction of the standards set by OSHA and keep you one step closer to compliance.

Downsizing without Alienating Customers

In this economy, where it’s been exceedingly tough to generate more income due to the fact that fewer individuals and businesses are spending quite as freely as they were once capable, reducing overhead has been the easiest way for warehousing and logistics companies to maintain profitability. Usually the two largest areas of expense lay in employees and in rent, and since it’s impossible to run a material handling business without employees, many companies are doing what they can to reduce the amount of money they spend per month on rent.

The biggest problem with shrinking your operating space is the risk of not being able to fully serve your customers – the only way reducing overhead works to maintain profitability is if it doesn’t cause the loss of some of your sales. This means that a warehousing or distribution company needs to carry as much inventory and maintain the very same fluidity of operation, but they need to do so in a smaller space.

Though this may not sound very realistic, with the right employees and the right equipment it is very possible. Lifts and carts from DJ Products are consistently reliable and easy to maneuver in even the tightest of spaces. These quiet and ergonomic carts are among the safest in the business for warehousing employees to operate and they allow just one user to move a multitude of smaller items or a few heavy items without enlisting anyone’s help.

A few well trained employees who have access to the best material handling equipment can perform a task much more efficiently than a full crew trying to operate outdated equipment that could be prone to failure. When an incoming shipment can be received and appropriately stationed to go into stock or to go out for an order, then either put away or shipped more quickly and efficiently – a warehouse is able to successfully operate in a potentially much smaller environment.

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.

Power Tuggers Can Prevent Injury and Increase Productivity

If your employees need to transport heavy items over short distances, your workplace could definitely benefit from using industrial tuggers.

According to Safetycommunity.com:

“At a major food processing plant, workers had to manually push heavy meat carts to maneuver them between processing stations. Concerned about injury risk and worker safety, plant executives turned to DJ Products for ergonomic solutions to their material handling problem.”

The experts at DJ Products recommended the CartCaddyShorty power tugger, a motorized cart mover designed to push, pull and maneuver carts that require turning.

Safetycommunity.com highlighted the importance of finding ergonomic solutions when workers need to transport goods. An employer may think that obtaining a regular cart with wheels will solve the issue, but if that cart has not been specifically designed to help a worker maneuver without twisting the body in harmful ways, this could cause even more problems.

In addition to meat, these tuggers can carry a variety of items such as a bin full of washers, a flat bed of steel or a cart full of cookie dough.

The CartCaddy Shorty was engineered so that an employee carrying a heavy load would be able to move, turn, and maneuver it in tight spaces, such as those in a meat processing plant. Not only does this help prevent injuries, it also helps to ensure that the food being processed gets transported between stations without having a cart tip over. This tugger is the smallest, most maneuverable tug available on the market, and still has plenty of power to handle most push or pull applications.

A tugger can also increase overall productivity. A single employee can now negotiate heavy carts, which may have previously required multiple operators to maneuver. As a result, the operators eliminated from these tasks are available to take on other responsibilities.

Why Are Ergonomics Important?

We’ve been getting back to basics in our last couple of posts on the history of ergonomics and ergonomic terms, reviewing what ergonomics is for those new to our blog. But why are ergonomics so important in the workplace? Three reasons:

Ergonomics improves worker health and safety.
Ergonomics increases productivity and work quality.
Ergonomics saves money.

Health & safety. People come in all shapes and sizes, but until the advent of ergonomics, material handling equipment was one size fits all. Except the problem was that it didn’t fit all people. Workers taller or shorter than the fictional “average man” to whose size and shape equipment was designed had to reach and stretch or hunch and bend to reach and manipulate equipment controls, to load and off-load product or materials, or to push and pull carts from one work station to another. All that stretching and scrunching around puts stress on the body’s muscles, joints and tendons. Backs become sore, arms and legs tire more quickly, and neck and shoulder muscles start to ache. At first the body heals itself, repairing minor muscle tears, but repetitive stress simply doesn’t allow enough time between exertions for the body to heal. Muscles, tendons and joints can be damaged. Called musculoskeletal injury, this damage can become permanent over time, resulting in permanent disability.

Ergonomics addresses this problem through flexible, adjustable design that allows equipment to be adjusted to the size of each individual worker, ensuring ideal positioning and maximum operator comfort during work tasks for every worker. A national leader in the manufacture of ergonomically-designed motorized carts, DJ Products incorporates a host of important ergonomic features into its material handling products, including:

Heavy-duty, battery-operated motors easily move loads up to 50,000 pounds, removing the need to physically push and pull carts.
Scissor lifts quickly position materials at the proper height for each individual worker.
Well-positioned ergonomic twist-grip hand controls prevent carpal tunnel syndrome by minimizing wrist movement.
A variable-speed feature incorporated into the twist grip allows operators to safely control cart speed between 0 and 3 mph while moving either forwards or backwards.
A conveniently placed safety stop switch permits instant stops in case of emergency.
Added weight over the drive tires creates greater traction, allowing the handling of heavier loads.
A specially designed connecting arm allows loads to pivot a full 180 degrees, ensuring safe turning without jackknifing.
Walk- or ride-behind equipment construction provides clear sight lines for safe operator control.

Coming up: How ergonomics increases productivity & quality and
Financial rewards reaped by employing ergonomics

How Ergonomics Increases Productivity and Quality

In our last post we talked about how ergonomically designed material handling equipment improves worker health and safety by reducing expensive and potentially debilitating musculoskeletal injury. Business owners also realize measurable increases in worker productivity and product quality when ergonomic equipment and procedures are introduced into the workplace.

Most industrial equipment and work procedures were originally designed for occasional use, not the high-pressured, repetitive, long shifts found in the modern work place. By designing equipment that adjusts to the physical size and capabilities of each individual worker and by structuring work procedures to eliminate uncomfortable body positions during task performance, ergonomics decreases fatigue on muscles while increasing worker comfort. This enables workers to continue working comfortably without the frequent breaks they would otherwise need to stretch and rest tired muscles. Workers remain fresh and energized and can work comfortably through an entire shift. The result is decreased injury, better worker morale and increased worker productivity resulting in improved product quality. Ergonomics produces a win-win scenario for business owners and their employees.

Implementation of an effective ergonomic plan requires a three-pronged approach that involves engineering, administration and work practice modifications.

Engineering modifications may include changes in equipment and tools used, workstation modifications and changes in the way tasks are performed. Because engineering modifications produce the greatest reduction or elimination of physical risk, they also result in the greatest cost savings. Reduced physical risk reduces the medical, insurance, disability and lost man-hour costs of potentially debilitating musculoskeletal injury. On its website, DJ Products provides an invaluable Ergonomic Load Calculator that can be used to estimate the force needed to move loads in a variety of workplace environments and recommend ergonomic solutions to your material handling problems.
Administration modifications involve alterations to the work organization and/or workplace culture. While less expensive to implement, results are also less reliable in that they depend entirely on human compliance. Administrative modifications may include education and training in ergonomic procedures, restructuring job responsibilities to minimize repetitive tasks, worker/task rotation, increasing the frequency or duration of break periods for certain tasks, improving workers’ physical conditioning and developing oversight programs.
Work practice modifications include the development of ergonomic procedures for the performance of each individual task, worker training and oversight.

The initial investment in ergonomics may seem to be considerable, but the benefits — and long-term savings — far outweigh the costs and continue long after the initial investment is recouped.

Monday: How ergonomics saves money

What’s Stress Got to Do with It?

When we think about work stress we tend to focus on its impact on our daily job: cost overruns that threaten to push our project over budget, smoothing the ruffled feathers of a fellow employee, meeting sales projections, etc. But stress comes from multiple sources. There’s mental stress from trying to accomplish a goal, emotional stress from interacting with fellow workers, and physical stress resulting from overexertion. We’re human which means that stress is a daily occurrence, particularly in this economy. The problem is that chronic stress can affect performance — both mental and physical, decreasing effectiveness and productivity.

A new study published in the July issue of the journal Science shows that chronic stress actually rearranges the wiring in our brain. In a study with rats conducted jointly by the U.S. National Institutes of Health and researchers at the University of Minho in Portugal, stressed rats lost the ability to make effective decisions. Effective decision making, whether in the performance of mental or physical tasks, requires humans to choose the most productive option from a field of choices. When stress is unrelieved, people are more likely to make poor decisions. In the study, the portion of the brain associated with goal-directed behavior shrank while the area that controlled habit formation grew. Under perpetual stress, people, just like the rats in the study, lose the ability to make smart decisions and fall back on old habits.

Physical stress from overexertion, overreaching or cramped work platforms were as debilitating in eroding decision-making ability as emotional or mental stress. Interestingly, physical stress accelerated the erosion of mental abilities faster than other kinds of stress. Pain and discomfort seem to act more quickly on human stress thresholds than mere mental irritation. Utilizing ergonomically-designed material handling equipment is one smart way to decrease employee stress.

ErgoExpo Promotes Value of Ergonomics to Business

With the 15th Annual National Ergonomics Conference and Exposition opening tomorrow in Las Vegas, this seems like a good time to promote the value of ergonomics to creating safe working conditions, safe work environments and saving businesses a considerable amount of money on their bottom line. ErgoExpo will focus on the role of workplace ergonomics in economic recovery with special educational tracks detailing return on investment, impact on America’s aging workforce, potential to reduce health care costs, and impact on improving workplace safety.

The application of ergonomics to workplace processes and equipment has been proven time and again to increase productivity and profitability while improving health, safety and morale. Implementing an ergonomic plan and utilizing ergonomic equipment in your place of business is a win-win proposition — for business owners and their employees.

Ergonomic procedures eliminate painful movements that can stretch and pull muscles causing injury, particularly with repetition or over time.
Utilizing ergonomically-designed material handling equipment eliminates the strain and risk of injury from transporting and positioning materials or equipment.
Implementing an ergonomic program creates a safer environment in the workplace.
Ergonomic equipment allows workers to stay on the job longer and take fewer and shorter breaks, increasing productivity.
A safer work environment means fewer injuries and fewer lost man-hours, increasing worker productivity.
Fewer injuries decrease direct medical and physical therapy costs as well as the expense of insurance and disability claims, improving your bottom line.
When work is less physically taxing, workers are happier and workplace morale goes up.
When injuries go down and morale goes up, absenteeism goes down and productivity goes up!

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

Cart Pushers Get the Job Done With Space Constraints

Some jobs require plenty of travel in tight spaces with material – like collecting laundry and linens in small hotels and motels and food distribution/collection in rehabilitation and medical centers. Moving down narrow hallways and corridors while these carts are empty is a reasonably easy task for one individual – but, take that light and easy to move cart and load it up with dozens of full food trays or a few hundred pounds of soiled linens and suddenly this job becomes a much more difficult task to handle.Due to space and budget constraints, these duties are performed manually by a single employee in many of these environments and with each extra food tray or bed sheet that gets piled in the carts, this job becomes more difficult and more dangerous for that employee to handle. Most motorized cart pushers and pullers are too large and bulky to maneuver these tight corridors, but the Cart CaddyLite cart pusher from DJ Products can handle the biggest jobs in the smallest spaces because its unique design lets a single user move it freely in even the tightest of quarters.The Cart CaddyLite cart pusher can either push or pull loads of up to one thousand pounds that would normally require manual movement – this reduces the stress and strain on employees and greatly reduces the potential instances of workplace injury.These jobs are also customarily performed at whatever speed the employees are capable of performing them, and usually when the cart is fuller and heavier the pace slows. The Cart CaddyLite cart pusher allows any employee to operate quickly and efficiently through the entirety of these tasks, because the material will move as easily when the cart is full as it did when it was empty. The Cart CaddyLite from DJ Products gives users the safety, power and convenience of a large powered cart in a smaller and more versatile package.

Taking the Pain out of Cart Retrieval

Nearly all large retail establishments have a multitude of shopping carts to serve their customers and invariably at several points throughout the day; many of those shopping carts are strewn about the parking lot. This leaves the burden of cart collection on the employees of the establishment, and while its good to have job security, especially in this day and age, this particular duty is probably among the least favorite of many retail employees.

Carts get left in the parking lot regardless of the weather or temperature outside, leaving employees having to go out in the rain, snow, sleet and freezing temperatures to perform this high labor duty. Collecting just a few carts at a time could make the process take far too long, and trying to collect a dozen all at once could lead to an unnecessary injury – manual cart collection, especially in less than favorable weather, is a lose-lose situation.

A cart retriever from DJ Products can take all of the hassle out of collecting shopping carts by removing the stress and strain on the employee and allowing the task to be performed at a much faster pace. DJ Products cart retriever can easily handle a line of up to fifty shopping carts, allowing an entire parking lot to be cleaned of carts in a fraction of the time it would take to perform the collection manually.

The Cart Retriever makes this once dreaded job much safer and much easier and it frees up many more man hours for employees to attack other jobs inside the store to potentially create more revenue. When employees aren’t pre-occupied with cart collection, more product can make its way on to the shelves, more customers can be served and the establishment can be kept organized and clean. Increasing productivity in the workplace without risking employee safety is the best way to increase profitability and the Cart Retriever does just that.