Warehousing Archives - Page 8 of 9

Practical Tips for Warehouse Managers

Have you heard of management by wandering around? Just like it sounds, the tactic involves randomly walking around to learn about your employees and the productivity of your workplace.

For warehouse managers, this tactic holds particularly fruitful because you need to watch over your employees as well as your inventory and equipment.

Consider the benefits to warehouse productivity that comes from strategically walking around:

Get a complete picture. Walk around at different times and randomize your path, and you can make more accurate assessments.

Make discoveries. See things from different angles, and you may spark an idea that boosts productivity or efficiency. You might see how one worker accomplishes a task more efficiently than with another person’s method.

Gain trust and respect. You don’t want to be seen as simply someone in an office. Walking among the employees helps build camaraderie, and that leads to more open and honest communication.

Avoid calling employees into your office. Some employees feel stress and anxiety when called into your office. If you have to talk to someone, they may be more comfortable with a casual chat in the warehouse, if appropriate.

Shake up your work day. Improve your own productivity by breaking up your work day. Walking around adds variety to your day, helping you focus more on work when you get back to the office. Plus, it always helps to add a little physical activity to your day.

Warehouse managers need every advantage possible. Just as our motorized cart movers can have an incredible impact on your efficiency and productivity, so can smart management.

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.

Material Handling Product Sales Are Booming – All The Way to 2018

The proper material handling equipment helps companies operate more efficiently and protects employees from accidents and back injuries. It reduces the damage that can occur to materials during movement and storage. Increased competitiveness in all industries requires every business to look for ways to maximize their available space, improve customer service, and lower indirect labor cost. Research by the Freedonia Group shows more industries are implementing advanced automation equipment and investing in material handling equipment to ensure their continued success.

Mike Deneen is a senior industry analyst for the Freedonia Group. Deneen says much of the strong gains for material handling equipment will be in the area of large-scale factory automation and automated guided vehicles (AGVs) that contribute to automated warehouse environments. He expects U.S. demand for AGVs and robotics to increase by about 6 percent, with durable goods manufacturers accounting for half of the material handling equipment demand through 2018.

In addition to manufacturers and global distribution companies seeking to reduce labor cost, more small service and trade companies are also recognizing the benefits of energy efficient products like car pushers and electric lift trucks. These easy-to-use pieces of equipment can move cars and trucks of up to 20,000 pounds on a flat surface, increasing productivity for mechanic shops and car dealers, while protecting employees from injury and keeping vehicles damage-free. With a low-maintenance design and simple 36 volt, 3 battery system, these car pushers have little maintenance cost.

DJ Products has a full line of energy efficient caddies and tugs for any size business. Contact our knowledgeable Sales Engineers at 800.686.2651 to discuss which solution best fits your individual material handling needs.

Managing Your Supply Chain During Unpredictable Events: Car and Vehicle Pushers

Any number of unpredictable events can put a kink in your supply chain and put your patience and problem solving skills to the test. While you can’t avoid warehouse problems, you can take concrete steps to make sure that you are equipped with the right tools to handle any challenge. DJ Products can provide you with the equipment (such as Car and Vehicle Pushers) and warehouse management tips to help you be prepared and avoid interruptions to your business.

One of the biggest challenges involved running a warehouse is making sure that it operates as smoothly as possible even during emergencies. While major companies use a variety of data to try and predict disasters and limit time to recovery, even the most accurate models can’t foresee what Mother Nature may unleash on your factory or other key components along the supply chain.

You can employ a more effective risk management strategy by making sure that you have the equipment to quickly move products and supplies during an emergency. From car and vehicle pushers to shopping cart retrievers, we specialize in offering a wide range of powerful and affordable tools that will allow you to quickly and easily move cars, carts and even airplanes. Not only do our products aid in the day to day operations of warehouse across a variety of industries, they also serve as vital tools during emergency situations.

While many warehouse management tips may focus on people centered skills, we believe that the most important tip is to equip your employees with the tools they need to do their best work. Providing pulling and pushing equipment will allow everyone to reach peak performance.

We’re Watching Warehouse and Logistics Trends for 2016 for You

Warehousing Trends for 2016

Industry trends serve to prepare for changes. Every business adopts change and technology at different paces, but many trends will eventually inform the new reality for us all. In 2016, the warehouse and logistics industry looks forward to beneficial disruption — especially in terms of technology that boosts efficiency.

At DJ Products, we help warehousing and logistics providers with automated material handling equipment. Devices like our warehouse tugs and powered pushers help close the gap between operational efficiency and the rigorous demands of profitability.

For 2016, the folks at Logistics Viewpoints have already identified several major warehouse and logistics trends to watch:

Sustainability will eventually be a part of your mission. Private companies can avoid public pressure longer than larger, publicly-traded companies. But emissions standards and landfill reduction will become a necessary action — and there are ways to find ROI for those efforts.

Omni-channel logistics is your next big move in fulfillment. As legacy software gradually becomes replaced, omni-channel technology will become the norm and business strategies will adapt to integrate.

Warehouse automation keeps disrupting. Warehouses continue to innovate with robotic and motorized tools such as warehouse tugs and powered pushers. This tech is now necessary to meet the demands of e-commerce efficiently.

Crowdsourcing will disrupt transportation. For delivery and transportation, many warehouses would be wise to leverage one of the new Uber-inspired outsourced delivery innovators instead of investing in in-house fleets and TMS.

Follow our blog to stay on top of the trends in 2016 and beyond. Ready to implement automation tools for warehouse and logistics efficiency? Visits DJProducts.com to learn about our warehouse tugs and powered pushers.

Volunteer to Speak at High School Career Day

High schools are starting to schedule annual Career Days. DJ Products encourages business owners and managers to call your local high school guidance department and volunteer to make a presentation. There’s been a lot of press over the past year about dwindling work forces in the material handling, manufacturing, fulfillment and warehousing industries. The need to educate young people about the career potential in our industries has been repeatedly stressed by industry leaders at national association conferences. We need to work now to encourage America’s youth to pursue careers that will benefit and ensure the future of material handling and the U.S. industries so vital to American commerce. High school Career Days give local business leaders a perfect opportunity to talk to America’s future workforce and encourage teens to seek careers in material handling, manufacturing, fulfillment and warehousing.

Partnering with high schools through Career Day, internships and technical training programs are among the nationwide efforts being made to draw future workers to material handling and other industrial careers. A unique partnership in Rock Hill, South Carolina could serve as a model for similar programs across the country. In sponsorship with the Material Handling Industry of America (MHIA) and the Material Handling Education Foundation Inc. (MHEFI), Rock Hill Schools are set to open the Don Frazier Supply Chain Training Center at the end of April. A new addition to its Applied Technology Center, Rock Hill’s new entry-level pilot program will allow high school students to learn by doing in a state-of-the-art, fully equipped, 4,000 square foot warehouse and distribution center, according to a MHIA press release.

Named for industry pioneer and program supporter Don Frazier, founder of Frazier Industrial Co. headquartered in New Jersey, the Don Frazier Material Handling Technical Training Program will provide hands-on learning in material handling and supply chain jobs to high school students in grades 9 through 12. Numerous local and national industry leaders and suppliers contributed to the start up of the Rock Hill program. Modeled after the prestigious Lehigh Career and Technical Institute program at Lehigh University near Allentown, Pennsylvania, it is hoped that the pilot program will serve as a model for the development of similar programs at high school technical centers across the country.

Warehouse Robots May Become Your Best Employee

As a task automation tool, warehouse robots serve as both an inexpensive “employee” and a method of improving your warehouse efficiency for everyone.

The BBC checked in on a new robotic dolly that reads orders and moves to the correct location. The robot does not handle the picking and grabbing, but it does move the loading cart into the right position so a human passerby can simply place the item on the cart.

If your warehouse does not use automated material handling solutions, your workers are handling the full physical exertion of every aspect — pushing or pulling the cart, lifting and loading the item, and moving the heavy cart from a standstill.

The Growing Value of Automation

Motorized industrial tugs are a commonsense solution for improving warehouse efficiency. No need to reinvent the wheel with a system designed for robots rather than humans. Motorized carts simply help workers get more done in less time, with less injury risk.

Humans can efficiently and accurately read an order and pick the correct item — but the strenuous, repetitive task of moving the cart slows down the process.

The new British robots require that a human happens to walk by and pick the item. Industrial tugs have an efficiency advantage — the worker simply directs the motorized cart from location to location.

Take away the strain of moving warehouse equipment and speed up the process, and your human employees will perform even better thanks to industrial tugs.

For more info about motorized cart movers and cart pushers, visit DJProducts.com and discover how you can reduce injury, boost productivity, and get more done at the warehouse.

Is Your Warehouse in Trouble? A How to Know Checklist

Discovering a problem inside your warehouse should be considered a good thing — you know what to fix! The tricky part involves figuring out the hidden causes of lost productivity. Once you know what’s wrong, you can take action to make the warehouse more efficient.

Operations expert Dave Piasecki has a helpful checklist of warehouse problem symptoms to look for. Some frequently overlooked problems include:

Equipment damage

Worker injuries & declining productivity

Cleanliness and organization

Low morale

Some problems, like inventory errors, can be easily spotted in the numbers. But what if workers are slowing down and performing below expectations because of an inherently problematic process? That’s when it’s time to focus on the process itself.

Improving the Process, Implementing New Tools for Warehouses

As Piasecki says, you only need to analyze so much. You need to implement solutions.

Do you need a drastic overhaul? Probably not. Instead of worrying about elaborate changes, streamline the material handling process with better tools for your workers.

Powered industrial tugs improve warehouse efficiency for each individual task, and for the staff as a whole. Replace the tiring, injury-riddled problem of manually pushing carts with motorized tugs, and a worker can accomplish more in less time.

Over the long haul, your workers will maintain a higher level of productivity thanks to fewer injuries and less energy spent over the course of a day’s work.

Then there’s a ripple effect: inventory and equipment get moved more efficiently, so managers, receivers and everyone else can do their job with less back-up and stalling.

Ready to solve the problems plaguing your warehouse? Start with industrial tugs from DJProducts.com.

Part 6: Why Businesses Fail, the Conclusion

Today we conclude our six-part series on Why Businesses Fail (see our posts starting July 14). One of the primary reasons businesses fail is:

Faulty attitudes and objectives. Businesses fail when personal or company desires are placed ahead of customers’ wants and desires. You don’t run your business; your customers run your business. Customer satisfaction is the single-most important factor in driving business and repeat business to your door. Businessmen who forget that don’t remain in business long.
Employee satisfaction goes hand-in-hand with customer satisfaction. When businesses fail to value their employees, employee satisfaction plummets, taking with it production quality and efficiency and customer satisfaction. It’s a downward spiral from which businesses don’t recover without an attitude adjustment. The bottom line is that it’s the human element that guarantees business success.

DJ Products understands the value and importance of customer and employee satisfaction — both ours and yours. That’s why we manufacture and use ergonomically designed electric carts and motorized cart pushers and equipment movers. Our equipment is smaller, more maneuverable and less costly to purchase and operate than traditional powered equipment like fork trucks, walkies and riding tugs. And our equipment is designed to eliminate the pain and strain of manually moving heavy carts and wheeled equipment. We value the health and safety of our workers — and yours.

DJ Products’ expert sales staff can assist you in assessing your material handling needs. On our website you’ll find a handy Ergonomic Load Calculator designed by experts to estimate the amount of horizontal force needed to move wheeled loads. Our sales staff can help you calculate load factors and recommend material handling products designed to protect the health and safety of your workers. Visit the DJ Products’ website for detailed specs on our complete line of products. If you have a material handling problem, DJ Products can provide the solution.

Part 1: Why Businesses Fail

Almost daily I read about the failure of one business or another in the business section of my local newspaper. The economy is down, credit is tight and fuel prices are through the roof. Naturally these conditions place an additional strain on businesses. But generally when a business fails there were already underlying fissures in its structural foundation that caused it to crack and break under the pressure.

Businesses fail for many reasons, the most likely being one or a combination of the following:

Lack of a business plan or failure to update the business plan to account for changes in the industry, economy and society. Business is not static. You should review your business plan annually and adjust it to take advantage of changing markets, new products and technologies, financial incentives, and customer preferences.
Lack of current financial data or failure to fully understand financial reports. Finance is the language of business. You don’t have to be able to write it (that’s why you have an accountant or CFO, but you do have to be able to correctly read and understand financial statements.
Lack of capital. If you’re starting a business, minimum start-up capital should be enough to cover your first six months of operation. However, once you’re up and running, don’t confuse capital with operating funds or cash flow. Growth capital should be used to grow, improve and expand your business. You should generate enough monthly income to provide a healthy cash flow and cover operating expenses. If your business is in trouble, borrowing more money isn’t the answer. If you can’t service your current debt load, you won’t be able to service an increased debt load.

To be continued

Tag: Warehousing