Tag: Warehousing

Five Warehouse Management Tips: Industrial Cart Mover

Warehouse Management Tips
Warehouse Management Tips

Looking to boost warehouse efficiency this quarter with an Industrial Cart Mover? Management can take steps to provide immediate and ongoing benefits. Here are 5 warehouse management tips for faster, safer, smoother operations:

Prioritize Cleaning

In a clean warehouse, workers have a safer and more efficient workplace. Encourage employees to clean spills and messes immediately, and stick to a routine cleaning schedule.

Be Open to Feedback

Some of the best warehouse management tips come from your employees. They may spot inefficient or troublesome aspects of the warehouse that managers may not realize. Good feedback channels include daily or weekly meetings, suggestion boxes, and performance reviews.

Generate Data to Analyze Efficiency

Data can help you spot inefficient employees or specific tasks that are taking too long. When you have the data, you can make adjustments and measure the results. Consider adding more feature-rich warehouse management software that can automatically generate reports.

Speed Up Picking and Moving

Employees on the floor spend the bulk of their time in transit — finding, picking, and moving. To speed up these actions, you can rearrange inventory to prioritize different items. Better yet, add an industrial cart mover to facilitate picking and moving and prevent your workers from getting hurt or slowing down.

Fill Receiving with Experienced Workers

Lastly, pay the receiving position some respect and fill the job with warehouse veterans. Rookie receivers make mistakes that create chain reactions of inefficiencies. Senior employees make the best receivers.

Our motorized cart pushers and pullers like the CartCaddy5WP can make your warehouse run better.  Talk to a Sales Engineer at 1-800-686-2651 for more info and follow our blog for more warehouse management tips.

Tips to Improve Warehouse and Distribution Productivity

There are three key areas to consider in improving productivity at your warehouse, distribution facility or fulfillment center:

  1. Information flow must match physical flow. When the flow of information matches the physical flow of goods, inventories can be better managed and storage, pick-and-pack and retrieval operations can be streamlined, increasing productivity. It is important to realize that optimal inventory does not necessarily mean minimal inventory. To efficiently manage inventory and the flow of goods, look beyond weekly order statistics. Today’s global market demands consideration of complex logistics. If goods must be shipped from distant or multiple locations, maintaining a higher inventory of certain products can enable faster and more efficient customer response. Gathering maximum information about each specific facet of your operation allows you to discern customer and supplier patterns and the interrelationship of the many logistical factors that connect them. Developing a thorough understanding of “the big picture,” puts you in position to more effectively and efficiently direct the flow of goods through your facility.
  2. Know and improve your total operation first. Before implementing new technology, particularly before engaging in the requisite evaluation that precedes a major change in your operation, make certain you have a thorough understanding of every aspect of your present operation. Current processes should be honed and improved to maximum efficiency and productivity before embarking on the time, expense and training involved to implement new technology. A thorough understanding of your total operation will enable you to make optimal use of current processes and pinpoint areas that can best profit most from new technology.
  3. Automate where possible. As labor becomes more expensive and laborers become harder to find, automation is the key to increasing productivity. With the Baby Boomer generation reaching retirement age, the traditional U.S. workforce is beginning to shrink. There are fewer people available to replace the retiring workforce, and fewer young people are seeking jobs in warehousing, distribution and fulfillment. A smaller available workforce will be in a position to demand higher wages. Increased automation and, where automation is not possible, the use of equipment that allows a single worker to accomplish more tasks in less time can decrease necessary workforce and labor costs while increasing efficiency and productivity.

Electric Lift Table Puts Work Materials at Optimal Height

We all know how much faster and easier a job is when all our materials are at optimal height and within easy reach. It’s a minor annoyance when we have to lift a heavy object or stretch for tools when we’re at home doing the weekend warrior bit; but when we have to lift and stretch hour-after-hour on the job, that minor annoyance can quickly become a painful injury. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, overexertion injuries from repetitive lifting and awkward reaching cost employers an average of eight days of workers comp time per injury. That’s a pretty high price to pay for avoidable injuries.

Lifting injuries that cause pain and damage to the lower back are a leading safety issue in manufacturing, assembly, fulfillment, pick and pack, and numerous other industries. Ergonomics is the solution. Ergonomics is the science of designing equipment and tasks to safely accommodate the breadth of variety in the human work force. Ergonomic material handling equipment addresses safety issues created when workers of various sizes must perform the same work tasks. By making the individualization of work platforms possible, ergonomic material handling equipment minimizes the risk of injury from lifting, stretching and straining. DJ Products’ ergonomically-designed lift tables, scissors lifts and adjustable carts and platforms allow each individual worker to position materials at his personally-optimal work height.

Unfortunately, many plant operations were set up before manufacturers realized the importance of ergonomics in protecting workers’ health and safety, increasing productivity and managing costs. Fortunately, DJ Products manufactures a complete line of mobile adjustable lift tables, scissors lifts, carts and platforms. Our compact, battery-powered, electric lifts allow workers to lift materials and perform tasks at optimal work height, eliminating injury-inducing stress and strain. Contact DJ Products for complete information. We manufacture a full line of material handling products and can design an ergonomic solution to your unique problem.

Avoiding the Number One Citation from OSHA

According to statistics released in publications for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the number one reason for citations in warehouses across America is the forklift.  This makes perfect sense if you consider that more than 100 individuals die each year as a result of forklift related accidents and that nearly 100,000 people are injured in forklift incidents every single year.

If your employees, even ones that have been driving your forklift for a substantial period of time, don’t closely adhere to the proper safety guidelines when driving, they are putting themselves, other employees and your entire operation at risk.  Forklifts can be a huge asset to the warehouse and material handling environment, but only if they are used in a consciously safe manner.  Many forklifts are also loud and run on combustible fuels, which can add another element of risk to operation and storage.

Though forklifts have many potential benefits, if you run a warehouse or distribution center, there may be safer and easier alternatives to your material handling needs.  Battery powered carts from DJ Products create no noise pollution and operate free of combustible fuels – they are powered by a long life battery that can easily handle an entire, fast paced shift on a single charge, making them much more efficient and much less expensive to operate than a traditional forklift.

Keeping your employees safe is integral to running a successful business and the battery powered carts from DJ Products are designed with employee safety in mind.  All carts are ergonomically designed to prevent over use injuries and the overall operation is so simple that a single employee can transport heavy loads safely with very little physical effort.  This gives your employees the power to perform work as quickly as they could with a forklift, without the potential hazards often associated with forklift operation.  By trading in the biggest risk of employee injury for a much safer alternative you can greatly increase your company’s overall productivity while at the same time reducing risks to your valuable employees – that’s a winning situation for everyone.

Featuring the Paper Roll Pusher

Material handling equipment must perform on multiple levels to be effective. In addition to protecting employees from injury and allowing them to move large, heavy materials, it must do all this in an efficient manner, and the operator controls need to make maneuvering the product easier than any other feasible alternative.

The Paper Roll Pusher

CartCaddy Roll Pusher Paper rolls and wire spools are among the most difficult products to move around manufacturing environments. Any material handling equipment must be capable of handling these extremely heavy spools, while also having a way to control momentum. The CartCaddy Roll Pusher uses an easily adjustable roller system that is mounted on its front to push against the bottom of paper rolls and other round objects.

Total control for the operator

Applying pressure to the CartCaddy increases the traction of the drive wheels. The front-mounted rollers move the reel forward by rotating in the opposite direction. The operator controls momentum with the variable speed of the handlebar controls. When the operator slows the CartCaddy Roll Pusher, the rolling product also slows.

The CartCaddy Roll Pusher uses a 36 volt, 3 three battery system to move round objects up to 20,000 lbs. The charger works with 120/220 Hrz outlets. It has adjustable and custom rollers. The rollers extend beyond the cart’s profile to facilitate picking out rolls lined next to one another.

Regardless of your industry, DJ Products has a full line of material handling carts that will improve the efficiency of your business. Call 800.686.2651 to discuss your unique needs with one of our courteous and knowledgeable Sales Engineers.

How to Create a World-Class Warehouse

There are five essential steps to creating a world-class warehouse, according to Dr. Edward Frazelle, founder of The Logistics Institute at Georgia Tech and director of the school’s Logistics Management Series. A pioneer in modern logistics, Frazelle is an industry legend who has trained more than 50,000 logistics professionals and coached countless companies and government agencies in achieving logistics excellence.

  1. Profile. Frazelle believes in creating profiles of every element of a warehousing operation. Profiling order, activity and planning activities makes it possible to identify the causes of problems as well as pinpoint opportunities for improvement.
  2. Benchmark. It is necessary to determine a benchmark for warehouse performance, practices and infrastructure against which comparisons can be made to worldwide standards or future achievements. Benchmark comparisons allow you to determine the need for improvement or new technology.
  3. Innovate. Based on the information obtained during phases 1 and 2, warehouse processes are streamlined and made as efficient as possible.
  4. Automate. Computerize where possible to increase efficiency and productivity. Computerization should focus on simplifying tasks, increase performance and maximize resource use. Mechanize where justified to maximize production and storage density and to assist operators in performing complex tasks.
  5. Humanize. Involve warehouse operators in the redesign process. Recognize individual performance, promote team goals and implement ergonomic improvements in every possible warehouse activity to safeguard your workforce.

The order in which the above 5 elements are applied to warehouse design and redesign is important, warns Frazelle. Keep in mind that:

  • Design adjustments are much easier and cheaper to make in the early profile and benchmark phases.
  • Mechanization investments are less flexible and more expensive than computerization.
  • Protect your workforce. Ultimately your most valuable resource is your workforce. They are your last element of consideration only because your workforce requirements will be dictated by the preceding elements.

Frazelle’s five elements of warehouse development can be successfully utilized to design a warehouse master plan, redesign existing operations, develop requirements for management systems and guide improvement projects.

Material Handling Offers Good Job Growth Potential

Particularly in a tight economy everyone wants to know where the jobs are and where they’re going to be for the next decade or so. Material handling and the related fields of logistics and warehousing are growth industries that offer good job potential now and into the future. International development is predicted to drive 5% annual growth in the worldwide material handling industry for each of the next five years (see our Sept. 22 post). In the U.S. retiring baby boomers are creating critical worker shortages in logistics and warehousing. However, automation and increasingly sophisticated technology are also creating a need for more highly skilled and more highly educated workers.

While the value of experiential education is still recognized, a bachelor’s degree is the new entre into a professional career; and a master’s degree, the ticket to climbing the career ladder, according to Mike Ensby of Clarkson University’s Engineering & Global Operations Management Department. “The three most important credentialing letters today seem to be ‘MBA,'” he said in a recent interview with Modern Materials Handling, particularly if you’re aiming for the boardroom.

Companies do still hire people right out of high school, and many professionals who began their own careers that way seem to place greater value on certified skills than college degrees. But material handling is in a state of transition. Industry experts say the drive to automation and integrated systems will increasingly demand a workforce with advanced technical skills. Tomorrow’s warehouse worker is more apt to operate a computer than a forklift.

In the coming decade, high school grads may find themselves stuck in a career track that rarely rises above skilled labor, such as order fulfillment. “Going into the future, not many people will have much success in their career progression without professional development of some kind,” Ensby said.

Next time: What courses will catapult your material handling career to success? What will employers be looking for?

Increase Productivity and Morale

There are more ways to improve your business than by just raising your prices, heavier margins and a more profitable business can be had through a number of situations – especially when your business involves moving a lot of bulk material.  Increasing productivity, speed of processing and developing strong customer relations are even better ways to grow your business than simply arbitrarily increasing prices.

When you have the proper material handling equipment for your staff, you can drastically increase employee productivity.  Quotas can be made on a much more regular basis because your employees aren’t struggling through the tasks which they need to complete.  Both your shipping and receiving departments can run more smoothly and efficiently with the use of ergonomically designed, powered carts; outgoing shipments can be picked, staged and packed with less physical effort in a much sorter time span and stock shipments can be received and put where they belong with less physical effort and in the shortest time possible.  By fulfilling orders quicker and more accurately you can generate customer loyalty, which could also lead to referral business generated from your happy clientele.

You’ll also reap the benefits of happier and healthier employees who can complete their regular work in a timelier and less stressful manner.  Employees will feel a heightened sense of accomplishment as a result of performing their job well and workplace moral will increase.  Employees who work in positive atmospheres are more likely to have a desire to be successful in their jobs and those who work with proper equipment are less likely to miss time as a result of injury.

Efficiently operating warehouses and rock solid relationships with customers and vendors are what keeps many business afloat during difficult economic times, having the right material handling equipment is a big step toward increasing workplace performance and being able to service the customer in the best way possible.

Reducing Strains, Aches and Pains

The biggest danger in the workplace may not stem from the loudest crash or ugliest fall, though these instances can cause injury they are pretty rare when compared the injuries relating to the use of poorly designed material handling equipment.

Many distribution center managers understand that the use of forklifts and powered carts makes their workers jobs easier, but they fail to realize that easier may not always be safer.  In order to prevent overuse and repetitive stress injuries the equipment that your employees are using needs to be ergonomically designed.

All of the battery powered lifts and carts offered by DJ Products are designed to move without putting any undue stress on your employees’ bodies and they also put the material in the best possible position for lifting.  This keeps nagging aches and strains, which can ultimately result in the need for time off, to a minimum at the same time as increasing the staff’s overall productivity.

Operating your facility with equipment that forces your employees to strain to get the job done or that puts their bodies in uncomfortable positions while completing everyday tasks puts everyone at risk for injury.  This can lead to more absences, lower productivity and higher rates of workman’s compensation claims costing your operation quite a bit of money in the long run.  By upgrading to the highly efficient, battery powered equipment from DJ Products you can all but eliminate these risks from your workplace and you can greatly improve the physical portion of the job for your employees.

Outdated equipment can put your employees and your productivity in jeopardy, and though a material handling equipment upgrade will have an initial investment – the benefits of healthy and more productive employees are well worth the cost.

Need Temp Help in Your Warehouse? Who You Gonna’ Call?

Warehouse productivity depends on having a trained staff of people to move your products. Occasionally, temporary help is required to cover shifts or regular full-time employees who are on vacation or illness leave.

In other situations, you may need temporary personnel to store an incoming shipment or send out shipments of your products. You need to use a temporary service that has experienced people available when you need them.

A temp service can also provide people that you may eventually want to hire full-time.

Expertise

The temp staff must be able to quickly learn about your products and how they are used. A car lot using the Car Caddy electric car pusher from DJ Products may need temps who will learn quickly how to use this product when vehicles are delivered. This product will move cars and trucks easily around a lot.

DJ Products also uses temporary help to move products, including the Car Caddy, during extra busy operations.

Safety

Temporary personnel should know all of the warehouse safety precautions including forklift operation requirements. This includes operating powered movers, carts, pullers and retrieving items from top shelves and ledges. They should be familiar with any required safety equipment such as hard hats and vests.

A reliable temp agency will assess the skills and experience of temporary help before they are assigned to a warehouse job.The agency will qualify that the temp is familiar with various movers and other equipment.

Contact DJ Products, manufacturer of a variety of products for warehouses that are easy and safe to use. This includes power movers,  tuggers, dumpster movers and other products for industrial use.