Tag: Safety and Ergonomics

Ergonomically Designed Equipment Can Help Employees Work More Efficiently

As we advance into the 21st century there will be more and more talk of how machines can replace people. Certainly, there are a number of professions in which fewer people can find work because machines are being used more often, but there is still a lot of work that requires the human touch. And if your company has jobs that require human effort, why not take good care of your workers? When you use the right equipment, such as a battery powered tug from DJ Products, you can prevent your employees from becoming injured.

DJ Products’ warehouse tugs like the RiderCaddy can increase overall productivity. If your company had carts that required several operators, a RiderCaddy would allow them to be moved by just one operator. The operators eliminated from this responsibility would then be available for other tasks.

Last year, a Forbes.com article made this very point. Instead of giving in to the fear that machines will take over, individuals and companies can find tasks that make better use of an employee’s time. “We mechanize a task, get it done by machines, which frees up humans to go and do something else. Possibly a more interesting something else.”

Your employees could get more done and do it safely when they have equipment that is ergonomically designed. All of our products are battery powered “walk-behind” units, that allow the operator to have increased control, even in tight, difficult spaces. Because of this operating flexibility, our extremely efficient electric cart movers can be used in more applications than standard material handling equipment.

Casinos: Don’t Gamble with Employee Safety–Get Motorized Carts

If you own a resort and casino, don’t take a chance that your employees are able to transport heavy loads with regular carts. Get motorized power carts so that your workers can move linens and supplies as necessary without injury or strain.

A Powered Housekeeping Cart or a Motorized Linen Cart can haul loads of up to 700 pounds with variable speed twist grips that allow the operator to travel at speeds between 0 and 3 mph. These carts can eliminate the strain and injury that can result from manually pushing supplies and linens with carts, especially where carpeting makes it difficult to push.

While the people out front like dealers and food service staff keep things going where the customers can see, you also need to make sure that your behind-the-scenes operations are also running smoothly. You don’t what repetitive injuries to get in the way of efficiency because your guests are relying on you to provide seamless service.

You may also find that a Motorized Dump Hopper, which is a heavy-duty battery powered tilt truck designed to haul up to 2000 pounds of trash or debris, can be of great assistance. Again, you rely on the people out front as well as the people who keep your facilities clean to stay in business. You want to give them the equipment they need to get the job done without injury.

For more information about applications and environments conducive to using our heavy cart mover application, call DJ Products at 1-800-686-2651. When you call, you can also ask about how our products can be customized to fit your specific needs.

A Muti-purpose Powered Trailer Dolly

Do you need to move a trailer that requires lifting one end before moving? If so, you can use the CartCaddy HD Chain Drive Extreme, a Powered Trailer Dolly manufactured by DJ Products. And before you become concerned about buying a dolly to just move one thing, you should know that the TrailerCaddyHD Extreme is also capable of pushing and pulling boats, RVs, horse trailers, toy haulers and equipment trailers. In other words, this is valuable multi-purpose unit that you will be able to use for several tasks.

What gives the TrailerCaddyHD Extreme all of its power? First, it has a heavy-duty steel frame and a 2000 lb. Differential/Transaxle. We make our ergonomic powered pushers and pullers so that you can control them with ease and not strain your muscles. The TrailerCaddyHD Extreme has a high tech sped controller, neutral throttle braking, adjustable acceleration and braking, variable speed twist grip as well as a safety stop switch. Trying to push trailers on your own or using a makeshift dolly can lead to muscle pain and strain or perhaps even injury and you don’t want that.

If you want to learn more about this powered trailer dolly, please call 800-686-2651 and talk with one of our Sales Engineers. They can help you assess just what kind of powered mover will be best for you and advise you on customizing one to fit your needs. The basic TrailerCaddyHD Extreme comes with great features but you may wash to add optional features such as a ball hitch and steel mounting bracket, air brake release kit, safety horn, or a flashing light and pole. You can also upgrade to add 18″ Star Wheels.

Why Do We Need Material Handling Solutions?

If you are new to an industry in which your employees labor in plants and warehouses, you may not be fully aware of the need for material handling solutions to assist with transporting goods. You may think that if you are supplying your employees with carts or trolleys that they should not need more than that to move products or raw materials around. What you may not realize is just how difficult and possibly dangerous it can be to just use a cart in certain situations.

While a cart or trolley may be equipped with casters, this does not mean it is equipped to handle all of the spaces and surfaces where your employees work. Slight inclines and tight corners may make it difficult to maneuver some types of wheeled equipment that would otherwise move with ease.

A tug from DJ Products can help ease possible muscle strain that could occur when an employee attempts to push or pull carts, especially ones with heavy loads. You can use our industrial tuggers to help transport carts with casters, carts that use 4-swivel casters or a wagon-wheel style of turning, and carts in a straight line. Not only can you avoid employee injury, you can also avoid collisions and accidents that might damage valuable raw materials or products.

It is our goal to provide solutions for material handling situations that are ergonomically correct, safe and cost effective. You can feel free to call us at 800-686-2651 if you are unsure as to which material handling solution will work best for you. Our Sales Engineers can provide recommendations. The will also be happy to explore custom applications where our base products match primary criteria.

Get Ergonomic Material Handling Solutions and Retain Older Workers

Some older workers, particularly those who work in jobs that require them to use a certain amount of physical strength, are feeling nervous these days. They worry that if it seems like they cannot handle their work, they may see themselves replaced by younger workers. This fear may cause some older workers to attempt too much in order to prove their value to an organization. They may injure themselves not because they are too old, but because they strain themselves to prove their worth.

Today’s organizations need people of various ages to work together. Older workers have experience and know-how that younger workers do not have; young workers have fresh perspectives that can energize operations. Rather than lose older workers, you can see to it that all of your employees have ergonomic material handling equipment that prevents fatigue, muscle strain, and other injuries. You are probably well aware that it is costly to recruit, hire, and train a slew of new employees, so why not invest in making sure the ones you already have remain on the job?

A DJ Products Power Puller can maneuver in extremely tight spaces and ease the work of transporting hospital carts, laundry carts, maintenance carts and parts carts. These types of carts typically are less than 1500 lbs. and are generally maneuvered manually. Due to the nature of these carts’ uses, some organizations mainly assign elderly employees to maneuver them but our power pullers can also help younger employees as well. If our battery power puller is used, risks of fatigue and injury to valuable workers can be reduced.

Use a Tow Tugger to Transport Carts Safely

DJ Products offers tow tugs like the CartCaddy Shorty that are designed to help workers move heavy carts and equipment efficiently and safely. Our motorized cart movers increase productivity by reducing the number of operators needed to move a heavy cart since tuggers like the CartCaddy Shorty can be operated by one employee.

One employee can move heavy carts and equipment safely with the CartCaddy Shorty because it attaches to the swivel-castered end of a cart and provides the pushing and pulling power necessary for easy turning and intricate maneuvering. It has a variable speed twist grip for forward and reverse directions and can be operated at speeds from from 0 to 3 mph. This means that it can keep up with the operator so he or she will not become frustrated or need to try to yank it or force it to move. Operator frustration such as that can cause problems and our equipment was designed to avoid those kinds of situation.

Another important feature of the CartCaddy Shorty is the safety stop. When the safety stop is activated, the machine stops immediately to prevent any possible injury. We design our equipment to be as safe as possible and to prevent strain, however there are situations that we cannot foresee. This is why an operator has the option of stopping the tugger immediately if necessary.
Sufficient power can also be a safety concern since you do not want to buy equipment that stops working in the middle of the job. The CartCaddyShorty Power Tugger can be operated continuously for 16 hours before you need to recharge it.

Moved Wheeled Equipment Safely with Powered Movers

Have wheels, will travel? This phrase may apply to people with cars but it does not necessarily apply to carts used in industrial and warehouse settings. Sometimes moving even well designed wheeled equipment and machinery is no simple task. This is where a power tugger or cart mover from DJ Products can make a big difference. Our material handling solutions make it possible for one operator to move heavy-duty wheeled equipment with a reduced risk of injury.

With carts that are heavy but don’t seem ridiculously heavy, there is the temptation to go ahead and push or pull it—just get a couple of workers and the job will be done, right? Well, maybe. The job might be done…but your employees may experience damaging muscle strain afterwards.

A DJ Products CartCaddyShorty power tugger is a motorized cart mover manufactured to help transport carts or equipment that require turning and that can typically be pushed or pulled with one or two people. Perhaps if workers pushed or pulled these loads once or twice they’d be okay. But when a few workers repeatedly strain to transport heavy loads at work, this can take its toll on their musculoskeletal system.

Our CartCaddyHD cart mover can be used to maneuver carts or equipment of up to 50,000 pounds forwards or backwards as needed. It has a mover arm that can be used for a variety of carts and equipment so your employees won’t need to spend time trying to fashion different attachments.

Call us at 1-800-686-2651 to talk to a Sales Engineer about these and other material handling solutions for your business.

Safely Move Stalled Vehicles with a Car Pusher

Bigger does not always equal better and you can find surprising strength in small machines. Such is the case with a DJ Products car pusher. You might imagine that you need something as big as or bigger than a vehicle to move that vehicle, but you do not. Check out this video that shows how one person can push a stalled SUV into a garage using our CarCaddy car pusher.

Our CarCaddy car and vehicle pusher is battery operated and designed to push vehicles that have pneumatic tires, such as cars, trucks, campers, and buses. It can push cars and trucks up to 20,000 pounds on flat ground and up to 10,000 pounds on 3% grade. And if that is not enough, you can opt for a Heavy Duty Motor/Transaxle Power Upgrade so you can push cars and trucks that weigh up to 50,000 pounds. You can also opt to add foam filled tires, snow and ice tires, a safety horn or a flashing light.

But for now, during the heat of summer, you and your employees will be glad to have the CarCaddy to help move a stalled vehicle quickly and safely. The CarCaddy can minimize damage to the body (including back and shoulder strain) and lessen the time one has to spend in the sun moving a vehicle. This time of year it is important to lessen the chances of overexertion and heatstroke.

Whether a car or a larger vehicle needs to be pushed off the road, along a highway or across a parking lot into a service center, you can count on the CarCaddy.

Get Powered Carts for Aging Healthcare Workers

As workers get older, the wear and tear of age, combined with a lifetime of labor can contribute to them slowing down. This does not mean that older workers should be cast aside, however. It does mean that employers need to recognize that retaining older workers may require some adjustments.

A Department of Labor newsletter article entitled, “The Aging Workforce: Challenges for the Healthcare Industry Workforce” outlined a growing concern for employers in healthcare and other industries. It said that “By 2050, the U.S. Census predicts that 19.6 million American workers will be 65 years or older, roughly 19 percent of the total U.S. workforce” and that by 2020 almost half of all registered workers will be eligible to retire. Not only will these workers be aging themselves, they will be called on to assist patients who are even older than they are,

In some instances, these workers will stay on the job because of financial need or a desire to remain active. In other cases, employers will want to keep these workers on because of their knowledge and experience. Either way, employers will need to think of ways to make work tasks adaptable to aging physiques.

Providing ergonomic material handling carts such as an electric cart puller or powered cart from out CartCaddy line of products can make a difference. These are our smallest and most maneuverable caddies, designed for lighter loads and areas with lots of pedestrian traffic. These applications usually have a space constraint, and these products tend to look less industrial in nature than some of our more heavy-duty material handling solutions.

Powered Carts Allow You to Consider More Job Candidates

A powered cart is one of the many material handling solutions that DJ Products offers that can help ensure that your employees don’t become injured as they try to transport boxes filled with products or medication, equipment, and other heavy items.

You may have already known that a DJ Products powered cart is can go a long way towards preventing strain and musculoskeletal injuries but did you also know that using our material handling solutions might change your hiring process? The powered cart allows your workforce to be more productive and human resources to be less selective when hiring personnel for a position that may require some physical labor. Instead of passing over a reliable candidate because you imagine that he or she will not be able to handle some of the physical labor required, you can widen your prospects to include people you may not have considered before.

Sometime hiring decisions can be tough: if you have turned down people in the past because you didn’t think they had to physique or have had highly-qualified candidates reconsider accepting a job offer when they find out about some of the physical labor involved, a DJ Products powered cart can change your hiring process. A candidate can’t change her or her physique but you can see to it that a variety of people can do the heavy lifting, even if they can’t do it with just their own strength.

Want to discuss specific applications for our products in your workplace? Call us at 1-800-686-2651 to speak with one of our Sales Engineers.