December 24, 2018 - DJ Products

Tips for Bringing Seasonal Workers Up to Speed Fast

Get New Employees up to Speed so they Can Do an Excellent Job

Our safe and efficient electric tugger carts are easy to use, but training seasonal workers involves a number of activities and concepts that are much more involved. Time is of the essence during the limited holiday season, further complicating matters.

Seasonal workers should improve, not hinder, productivity. Use these helpful guidelines to optimize training for temporary employees and get them up to speed quickly.

Before Hiring

– Document job requirements and duties for all positions so you know what to prioritize in applicants.

– Even though they’re around for a short time, temporary employees can disrupt the teamwork and camaraderie of permanent staff. Screen candidates carefully to make sure they fit both the job and the company culture.

Onboarding

– Have specific yardsticks to measure success. Communicate this during training and schedule follow-up checkpoint meetings to see how employees are progressing.

– Include training on company culture to help workers see where they fit in while internalizing your mission and goals.

– Experienced employees should participate in the training process and serve as mentors to the new hires.

– Whether it’s by observation or hands-on, tailor training to a worker’s preferred learning style as much as possible.

On the Job

– Training doesn’t end once a new hire walks onto the warehouse floor. Set goals, recognize achievements and maintain open communication.

– Give interactive feedback. Ask employees how they would handle a particular problem, then explain to them what works and what doesn’t. This approach empowers workers to think for themselves.

Tugger Carts: A Year-Round Solution from DJ Products

Battery-powered tugger carts, such as our best-selling CartCaddyShorty, let even temporary workers move thousands of pounds with ease, freeing up experienced employees for other activities.

Visit our website and use the online chat feature to learn more.

OSHA’s Cold Stress Guide – Considerations for Warehouse Staff

Loading and Unloading Packages In the Winter can Cause Stress on Your Fingers and Other Extremities.

The Occupational Safety Health Administration (OSHA) maintains a broad directive that employers are required to provide “a workplace free from recognized hazards.” While elements such as quality material handling equipment are easy to control, cold weather presents a more abstract health risk.

OSHA recognizes cold stress as a genuine workplace hazard. Here are tips on how to recognize and prevent cold weather-related injuries and illnesses.

Common Cold Stress Conditions

– Hypothermia is a rapid loss of body heat during which body temperature drops below 95°F. A person suffering from hypothermia will shiver initially, but the shivering actually stops as the condition grows more severe.

– Frostbite results when frigid temperatures cause skin and underlying tissues to freeze. Feet and hands are most susceptible to frostbite, which is characterized by numbness and reddened skin marked with gray and white patches.

– Trench foot, sometimes referred to as immersion foot, occurs when wet feet are exposed to cold temperatures for extended periods of time. As blood vessels constrict to conserve heat, they also cut off oxygen and nutrient supplies to the skin.

Tips to Prevent Cold Stress

– Train employees to recognize and treat common cold stress symptoms.

– Make sure workers are dressed appropriately. Wearing layers of loose-fitting clothes keeps skin dry and well-insulated. Accessories such as hats, gloves and boots should also be worn.

– Cold stress can cause people to become disoriented and lose coordination. Assign workers in pairs so they can monitor each other for symptoms.

– Provide a warm break room and keep warm, sweetened beverages on hand to prevent dehydration.

Put Safety First with Material Handling Equipment from DJ Products

Electric tugs, movers and pushers such as our best-selling CartCaddyShorty improve productivity in any type of weather. Call 800.686.2651 for more information.

Our January Tips to Reduce Costs in Your Warehouse Operation

How Can You Make it More Efficient For Your Warehouse Employees in 2019?

Does your warehouse staff finish the year in a scramble to bring expenses in under budget? Our industrial tugs maximize labor and reduce costly injuries to provide savings all year long.

In 2019, resolve to make reducing costs a year-round priority. Implement these measures in January to make financial awareness and expense-cutting part of the workplace culture.

Optimize Storage Space

Expansion is costly and time-consuming, especially today with warehouse space at a premium. Review the warehouse layout and inventory storage system to find wasted space and make changes where necessary.

Institute Cross-Docking

The more time product spends in your warehouse, the faster costs add up. Cross-docking, by which incoming products are immediately loaded onto outbound trucks for delivery, dramatically reduces storage, shipping and labor expenses.

Buy Used Containers

Used containers in good condition are often available at significant savings from reputable vendors. Purchasing used containers is a good practice to demonstrate eco-awareness and green workplace policies.

Reduce Energy Usage

Conscientious energy usage is another way to save money as well as the environment. High-quality building insulation, motion-sensitive lighting systems and hands-free faucets are just a few of the methods to cut back on excessive energy use.

Improve Labor Productivity

Labor is often the single largest element of any company’s operating costs. Hiring and training new workers is expensive and disruptive, so start a plan to improve employee retention. In addition, cross-training makes workers feel more accomplished and ensures that absences or temporary shortages won’t impact productivity.

Industrial Tugs from DJ Products: “Like Adding Another Staff Member”

Why assign two workers to handle heavy loads when one can easily complete the job with the help of one of our battery-powered industrial tugs? Learn more by calling 800.686.2651.

Truckers Keep an Eye on Inflation, Chains, Tread for Winter

A Good Set of Wheels Can Take You a Long Way on the Road. Ensure You’re Taking Proper Care of Your Vehicle!

Driving in the winter is stressful, doubly-so for those toting a fully-loaded rig. Luckily, you can take a bit of worry off your shoulders with the help of your electric yard trucks and a properly prepped fleet. The right tire, sufficient, even tread, and proper inflation levels can greatly improve traction and handling on icy, snow-covered roads.

Selecting Tires

Performance is intimately tied to tire selection. Look to tread designs to find your ideal winter tire match. The more open the tread, the better tires perform in snow and slush. In addition, look to skid depth: Full skid-depth tires offer better traction than those with shallow depth.

Ensuring Proper Inflation

Maintaining proper inflation positively impacts a number of factors, including tire wear, casing life, the ability to retread tires, and even gas mileage. In winter driving, it provides an ‘enhanced footprint’ essential to navigating snowy, icy roads. Ambient temperature affects inflation levels, with pressure drops proportional to temperature: 2 psi for every 10° decrease. This makes frequent calibration, at least weekly, essential.

Checking Tread

Tread depth ensures tire ‘grip’ on road surfaces. Use retreads? Choose tread designs with numerous biting edges and ‘sipes’ to boost traction.

Chaining Up

Though this process is considered antiquated by some, ‘chaining up’ tires to improve traction and grip remains an effective way to ensure additional stability in snowy, icy road conditions. When properly chained up, no impact on tire longevity should occur. When selecting tires, opt for styles designed for easy chain application. Be sure to apply chains tightly, removing them as soon as they’re no longer needed.

Shipping schedule blowing up? Stay on top of delivery demands, saving time, reducing labor, and preventing injuries with the help of yard trucks from DJProducts today.

Winter Trucking Tips to Revisit with Your Drivers

Keep Your Fleet Safe in Winter with These Tips

Winter driving conditions require a specific skillset. Big rig operators must not disregard the need to alter driving habits in such dangerous conditions. Before your terminal tractors deliver another trailer for haul, ensure drivers make smart decisions by revisiting these essential winter driving safety skills.

Slow Down

Driving in snow and ice is riskier due to poor traction, increased stopping time/distances, reduced visibility, and the unpredictable nature of other drivers. Slowing down should be a top priority for every driver. Speed is the top cause for at-fault accidents. Speed kills!

Personal Space

Drivers should leave plenty of room between the vehicle in front of the truck (and those beside, when possible). Likewise, avoid moving ‘in packs,’ traveling alone to maximize the distance around your vehicle.

Don’t ‘Follow the Leader’

Remember Lemmings? If the vehicle ahead makes an error, so will you. Besides, when visibility is low, seeing the taillights of the vehicle ahead means you’re too close.

Know When to Get Off the Road

If the weather is so severe you wonder if you should get off the road – just do it. Delivery pressures may be high, but safety and lives are paramount. Don’t feel like you’re letting anyone down by playing it safe.

No Hovering

In low visibility situations, don’t stop on the shoulder. Drivers could mistake your vehicle as in-motion and slam into the back of your rig.

Don’t Wing It

Perform ALL necessary safety/equipment/fluid checks before heading off to prevent becoming stranded in winter storms. (And pack an emergency kit just in case. A smart trucker is always prepared.)

Safety issues or late delivery have you on thin ice? Increase safety and productivity with the help of terminal tractors from DJ Products today.

Logistics Companies Benefit from New Mobile Weighing Technology

This New Mobile Weighing Technology is the Future for Warehousing.

As online shopping continues to grow, customer expectations increase the need for speed in the supply chain and logistics. Our battery-powered semi trailer movers provide greater efficiency in the truck yard.

Technology is creating tools to streamline operations inside the warehouse. Mobile weighing has become a necessary step in making the loading and unloading process less cumbersome and time-consuming.

Mobile vs. Manual Weighing

In the traditional logistics model, product is transferred via pallet jack or forklift to stationary scales inside the warehouse. As the product is weighed, a worker manually records the data before the load is transported back to the loading/unloading area.

Mobile weighing lets product be loaded or unloaded and weighed simultaneously. In addition, data is captured immediately and transmitted wirelessly to warehouse management systems.

Benefits of Mobile Weighing

– Mobile weighing reduces time and expenses. One medium-sized facility switched to a mobile scale and cut three minutes off each weighment, which calculates out to annual savings of 620 manhours and $21,696 in labor costs.

– Data flows directly into the capturing device, eliminating the risk of human error.

– Locating the weighing mechanism inside a pallet jack or forklift removes the need for a cumbersome assortment of equipment that can cause safety hazards.

What Does the Future Hold?

Mobile weighing systems may ultimately include voice activation and cameras to send visual information down the processing chain. There is also potential for integration with wearables from picking to communicating information to the customer.

Shunting on Demand with Semi Trailer Movers from DJ Products

Why wait for a shunt truck to maneuver trailers around the yard? Our popular Electric Yard Dog can be operated by any worker with no permits or special training required. Contact us for more information.

Is Your Supply Chain Keeping Step? Smaller, Digital and Nimble are Key.

Connecting Your Fleet Digitally to Quickly Relay Information is a Smart Business Tip.

Supply chains have embraced tools such as our battery-powered yard trucks that make physical tasks easier. But when it comes to adapting digital technology, the industry has remained behind the curve.

This attitude has been showing signs of changing, as factors including a labor shortage and rise of the Internet of Things (IoT) are driving supply chain managers toward smaller, digital and more nimble operations. Here’s a look at some of the ways technology is changing the supply chain industry.

Move to the Cloud

Experts predict that by 2020, planning systems will remain on premises while 90 percent of spending for execution systems will be for cloud-based applications. The IoT will provide the means to create a digital network allowing for data flow from start to finish of operations.

Improved Forecasting

Another benefit of the IoT is the ability to replace short-term forecasting with demand sensing, which uses advanced math techniques and near real-time data for more accurate forecasting.

Preventing Disruptions

Shippers with a more resilient supply chain will be better equipped to identify and manage risks, making them less vulnerable to reduced capacity and inventory problems.

Shift to Micro-Logistics

Following Amazon’s lead, many manufacturers are evaluating a transition to micro-logistics, which entails a group of small, localized warehouses rather than the traditional DC model.

Less Is More

Whether due to financial struggles or strategic purposes, consolidation among transoceanic shipping companies, third-party distribution services, and over-the-road carriers will likely increase. As a result, 3PL agreements will center on value rather than price.

Move Trailers Safely and Quickly with Yard Trucks from DJ Products

Our Electric Yard Dog is less expensive than a new yard truck or shunting service and reduces risk of damage and injuries. Call 800.686.2651 for more information.

Hate a Smelly Dumpster – How to Solve the Problem

Ways to Deal with Everybody’s Least Favorite Chore – Taking Out the Trash.

Most businesses – large or small – have dumpsters. They’ve been around since the 1930s, and they made it so much easier for companies to deal with all their trash. Of course, the need for them has grown over the years as businesses have grown in the United States.

While dumpsters are important, they can also be problematic. No one wants to deal with their smell, but there are ways to combat it. Whether you’re thinking about how to cover it up, or you’re considering investing in dumpster moving equipment, we have some information that can help you solve this problem.

Make Sure Trash is Sealed

All trash should be sealed before it’s tossed in the dumpster; and this includes cardboard, which can become the perfect breeding ground for bacteria when it’s wet. Also, use garbage bags that are no less than 2 mm thick to ensure the bags don’t break.

Air the Dumpster Out Periodically

It’s a good idea to open the side doors and the top of the dumpster daily to air it out. This will help keep moisture to a minimum, but it should only be done during the daylight hours. Airing it out at night will only attract pests.

Avoid Putting Food in the Dumpster

If at all possible, try to avoid putting food in the dumpster. This might seem like an unnecessary change, but food will only attract mice and other animals. Composting is a much better option.

Move it With Dumpster Moving Equipment

Sometimes dumpster placement is the real problem. Dumpster moving equipment is the best way to relocate it. You’ll prevent needless injuries from trying to move it manually, and you’ll save a lot of time in the process.

We can help! Contact us today!

Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) Issues Final Statement on Rail Modernization Standards

Laws Concerning Railroad Transportation of Goods are Changing. Stay Up to Date Here!

Railroad companies are now able to pair technological advancements with more current standards of safety protocol at railroads across the nation. The FRA (Federal Railroad Administration) has recently finalized more modern performance-based safety standards.

This recent initiative has begun paving the way for faster railway speeds. In an era where speed is a requirement, safety procedures and innovative efficient machinery have to rise to meet those demands.

Being Swift to Safety

Increased efficiency due in part to implementing speed-enhanced procedural changes can be a positive addition to any transaction or logistics-based company. In the same measure, speed can also bring with it an uncontrollable element.

How do you emphasize the importance of efficiency without compromising quality or the safety of your employees? You incorporate effective multi-functional barriers. Investing in high-grade machinery like a railcar mover can facilitate speed and safety in one simple transaction.

A railcar mover utilizes durable materials and advanced technology to fulfill difficult tasks. If you’ve discovered the only way to increase efficiency safely is to implement tested quality machinery into your daily procedures, you’ve joined the thousands of companies across the nation that understand the current market.

Do you have tasks that require the moving of hundreds of thousands of pounds indoors and outdoors? At DJ Products our railcar mover couples an industry standard heavy-duty coupler with a battery operated system to guarantee quality and ease of use.

Test DJ Products

If you agree that an extra hand makes light the work, our railcar mover has the ability to provide help where it’s needed. Keep your operations running smoothly and speedily with machinery that is made to meet your highest expectations. Visit DJ Products today and watch your productivity speed up the rails towards success.

The Top Colors and Fabric Blends for Hotel Linens

Color and Texture Can Play a Critical Part on How Comfortable You Feel in a Hotel Room. What’s Recommended?

What do your guestroom linens say about your hotel? Clean, high-quality sheets, pillows and covers contribute to a guest’s comfort and satisfaction, making hotel supply movement a priority for your housekeeping staff.

Choosing hotel linens involves different considerations than furnishing a bed in a private home. Here are tips to select hotel bedding that enhances the guests’ experience and brings them back in the future.

Best Fabrics for Hotel Sheets

While trendy materials such as bamboo may come and go, cotton is still the gold standard for luxury bedding. Cotton is soft and cool but durable and easy to care for. Pure cotton is preferable, but properties with limited ironing facilities may opt for a polyester-cotton blend that is more wrinkle-resistant.

Lyocell fiber regenerated from wood cellulose, marketed under the brand name Tencel, has become another popular fabric in the hospitality industry. Tencel reduces bacteria build-up and eliminates dust mites so it’s a great choice where allergies might be a problem.

White or Colors?

White’s pristine appearance has made it the classic choice for hotels, where the perception of cleanliness can make or break reputations. Some hotels have been using bed scarves and matching pillow covers to add pops of accent color.

More recently, hotels have been integrating color into duvet covers, which also helps prevent stains. In addition, properties sometimes run into a chronic problem of bedscarves “disappearing,” a situation that’s less likely to occur with duvet covers.

Improve Productivity with Hotel Supply Movement Carts

Nothing’s more disappointing to a hotel guest than to find out their room isn’t ready. Powered hotel supply movement carts from DJ Products let your housekeeping staff turn rooms quickly and efficiently.

Visit our website and chat with one of our friendly sales engineers.

Day: December 24, 2018