Warehousing - Page 8 of 9

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 This should serve as a warning to all warehouse and distribution environments that if they are operating outdated and unreliable equipment or if they haven’t properly trained their employees on correct usage procedures of equipment that they could suffer citations and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.

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.

Battery Powered Carts Reduce the risk of injury

Operating a forklift or battery powered cart without following the necessary safety guidelines is a huge risk that can result in serious injuries or even death, but not all material handling injuries stem from improper use on the part of the operator. If you allow any employee to operate material handling equipment that you know isn’t functioning properly, you are putting every employee in your business at serious risk.The older a piece of equipment is, the more likely it is to malfunction or breakdown, which can cause delays in the completion of work and potentially lead to injuries. Forklifts and powered carts require regularly scheduled preventative maintenance, but if there is ever a question of proper operation it needs to be tended to immediately to ensure your employees’ safety.Distribution of materials is often a fast paced environment with many activities going on at the same time. There may be dozens of employees scurrying around the warehouse filling orders and receiving shipments while a number of machines are working to load and unload trucks or put away stock – if even one of these pieces of equipment malfunctions it could lead to several serious injuries.In order to keep your fast paced environment as safe and productive as possible, you need to have the safest and most reliable equipment. Battery powered carts and lifts from DJ Products are engineered to be quieter, safer, more reliable and cheaper to operate than traditional forklifts and lift trucks. Each piece of DJ Products equipment is ergonomically designed to prevent many of the nagging injuries often associated with manually material handling and easy enough to use so a single employee can tackle heavy jobs quickly and safely.Truly efficient warehouse and distribution environments don’t rely on equipment that may or may not get them through a shift. In order to be as safe and successful as possible your equipment needs to be the safest around and completely reliable day in and day out – and that’s exactly what DJ Products strives for with every piece of equipment sold, including our battery powered carts.

How to Attract and Keep Young Talented Workers to Your DOD Contracting Business

One of the most overlooked warehouse management tips is attracting and keeping young talented workers in a department of defense contractor scenario. This may even seem like a non-issue because the standard has always been to give someone a job, give them a fair rate of pay, and they would then stay there until they retired.

But that mindset no longer works for a modern job force under 30 years of age. You have to learn and understand the nature of this modern workforce in order to keep them on the job for the long haul.

Family Friendly

Although you are employing one single person, the family comes along for the ride. Competitive businesses allow such things as paternity leave, flexible schedules and telecommuting, to name a few. Making your business family friendly makes for long term employment.

Growth Within

In this case, one of the most important warehouse management tips is to give the opportunity for growth within the company. These younger employees are more apt to enroll in higher education, gain knowledge and experience, and move on to another job if a growth opportunity does not present itself within a reasonable time.

Perks

In this day of modern communication, which is nearly constant, get Wi-Fi for computer access to allow these younger employees to stay connected during lunch hour and breaks.

Many employees may also have kids that need daycare or nannies, and that can be a valuable perk if offered on-site.

For more information on this or products that will aid your DOD warehouse, contact DJ Products, makers of trailer movers, tuggers, dumpster movers and aircraft tugs.

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

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.

Logistics Industry Down But Not Out

Considering the state of the economy, it’s not unexpected that the logistics industry is suffering along with everyone else. According to the recently released Global Contract Logistics 2009 report published by Transport Intelligence, the global contract logistics market grew at a rate of 5% in 2008, half the 10% growth experienced in each of the past few years. Of greatest concern was the noticeable drop in volume during the fourth quarter, generally considered the industry’s peak season.

“This downturn has been felt well into 2009, although there are signs that the fall in volumes may well have bottomed out by the end of the first quarter, the report suggests,” logistics industry analyst Ken Hurst noted in today’s posting on Works Management online.

Increasing, global reach provides the greatest opportunity for future success in the logistics industry, particularly when U.S. markets go stale. Developing markets in Latin America, Central and Eastern Europe and the Asian Pacific region offer the most opportunity for future growth, according to the Ti report. While the China market has cooled recently, Hurst expects it to rebound, saying, “… with GDP growth still in the high single digits, and a $585 billion stimulus package taking effect, underlying economic activity will continue to drive its [China’s] logistics sector.”

The report predicts five more years of volatile swings in the logistics industry worldwide with significant recovery not predicted until 2011. Rebuilding is expected to be agonizingly slow. According to Hurst’s post, “Ti believes that the market will grow at a compound annual rate of 2.4% between 2009 and 2012.” Stabilization of the industry will depend on the speed with which global sales increase. Until consumer confidence returns and drives up demand for goods, manufacturers and retailers will continue to keep supply costs lean. Because of its position at the tail end of the supply chain, the logistics industry may be one of the final economic sectors to achieve recovery. While contractual relationships will protect some logistics companies from the worst market volatility, “logistics providers will have to work hard at increasing their value proposition to clients if they are to avoid the worst excesses of the recession,” John Manners-Bell, Ti CEO told Hurst.