christopher Harper, Author at DJ Products

Protect Industrial Employees from Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

The human body is a well-crafted machine but as wonderful as it is, it has its limits. For tasks that cannot be completed with human power alone, we use machines. It is best for you and your employees if you provide them with machines that act as extensions, working with the human body rather than causing the human form to overexert itself.

At DJ Products our mission is to provide solutions for material handling situations that are ergonomically correct, safe and cost effective. We manufacture machines that eliminate the strains and pains of manually pushing or pulling heavy carts, equipment, or materials.

Some of the wheeled carts that are used in a number of industries are quite heavy and allowing your employees to push these carts on their own may be putting them at risk. For example, our CartCaddyHD cart mover can push or pull heavy material handling carts up to 50,000 lbs.

Not only would such a cart be quite heavy, the necessity of moving it through a warehouse setting requires the kind of twisting and moving that could cause musculoskeletal injury. When attached to the swivel caster, a material handling solution like the CartCaddyHD dolly mover provides the pushing and pulling power that your employees need to turn carts smoothly and with ease.

The CartCaddyHD is just one of our many material handling solutions that offers a variable speed twist grip, allowing an operator to move the cart forwards and backwards at between 0-3 mph, while also protecting the operator from getting carpal tunnel syndrome.

To learn more about the CartCaddyHD and similar material handling solutions, call us at 800-686-2651.

A Powered Carpet Dolly Helps Get the Job Done

If your business involves moving large carpets or similar objects that are heavy and cylindrical, you could probably use some help if your employees have been shouldering the burden of moving these things on their own. A power carpet dolly from DJ Products can load and move an object that is up to 1000 pounds. How is this possible? Its unique tilt and power forward action allows this to happen.

The CarpetCaddy powered carpet dolly has a conveyor lip that you can tilt forward to meet the carpet’s edge. The operator can then slowly move the CarpetCaddy forward while at the same time operating the conveyor backwards. The carpet’s weight will level out so that it rests on the CarpetCaddy and is ready to be moved. A similar set of actions in which the operator almost reverses the previous steps will unload the carpet at its desired location.

Notice we mentioned a single “operator” in the previous steps. This powered carpet dolly makes the loading of a carpet roll, a mat, or a rug from a warehouse to the jobsite an effortless job for one person. Traditionally 2 or 3 individuals would be needed to load a heavy carpet roll on their back or on a cart or dolly. This will not only allow installations and other work that involves moving carpet to process faster, it will also reduce the chances that one or more of your employees will get injured transporting carpet. During a typical carpet removal or installation, there are ample instances where someone might twist the wrong muscle, hurt their back or do some other physical damage that would require time to heal.

Reduce Effects of Chronic Pain with Ergonomic Material Handling Solutions

A 2011 article from BusinessInsurance.com stated, “Chronic pain is a infrequent but growing aspect of workers compensation claims…” and advised companies to try to prevent injured employees from developing chronic pain. It added that companies are seeing more reports of chronic pain because of an aging workforce.

Chronic pain can have a number of sources and the article notes that it is hard to define. Still, we would advise companies to do what they can to prevent the kinds of on-the-job injuries that lead to chronic pain. (There is little you can do about illness or injuries workers suffer outside of work.) However, you can provide equipment that is ergonomically sound and functions in concert with the musculoskeletal system. That way, the machines being used at your facility will not be the cause repeated injury among your workforce.

DJ Products makes ergonomic material handling equipment that eliminate the strain of pulling heavy products, parts carts or wheeled equipment. With our powered carts, pullers and pushers, your employees can move everything from soiled linen carts to carpets to cars. Our walk-behind units use battery power to move heavy loads efficiently so the operator is able to maintain control without feeling a lot of strain.

Purchasing material handling solutions from us won’t strain your budget either. But if you are hesitant, think about the costs of workers compensation claims and the strain on your workforce that occurs when even one employee needs to be way from work for an extended period of time.

You can contact one of our Sales Engineers at 800-686-2651 to learn more about which of our products would be best suited to your industry.

Improve Health and Safety with the DJ Products Ergonomic Load Calculator

Sometimes older people shake their heads at the thought that many students are allowed to use calculators in school these days. And for their part, some young people ask why they have to learn how to do certain mathematical calculations without a calculator since once they leave school, they will be free to use calculators whenever they want.

At DJ Products, we know that there are some equations and problems that cannot be solved by someone counting on their fingers or making a “guesstimation.” When it comes to workplace safety, you want to make sure that you are examining the numbers and the factors as accurately as possible.

This is why we offer the DJ Products Ergonomic Load Calculator on our website. The calculator is designed to estimate the amount of horizontal force necessary to move loads (on wheels) using inputs from particular workplace environments. It doesn’t just look at numbers in isolation; the calculator will combine conditions related to the state of the “vehicle health”, floor condition, terrain and footing as well as the weight of the load being moved in estimating these forces.

When you use our ergonomic load calculator, you also input variables about the worker who is supposed to perform a certain task. In order to generate an ergonomic estimate of his much force a single worker should apply, it is important to consider that person as an individual. Ergonomic calculators and computer programs that attempt to give you this information using information for an average worker can miss the mark and when it comes to your workers ability to get the job done, you do not want to use miscalculated information.

If you use the DJ Products Ergonomic Load Calculator and want to discuss material handling solutions that might be of benefit to your workers, call us at 1-800-686-2651.

Material Handling Solutions Can Prevent Strain

Summer is winding down and the season for carnivals and county fairs is also soon to end. Perhaps at the fair this year you saw someone demonstrate great strength or maybe you attempted to swing a heavy hammer to win a prize. These kinds of challenges are fine for summer fairs but this is not the kind of atmosphere you want to create for your employees.

While it may be fun to demonstrate just how strong you are, it can also be dangerous particularly on the job. In an effort to get things done quickly some employees may take on too much. Those who do not have any injuries that are immediately evident may sustain physical damage that will cause problems later on.

When you give your employees the material handling solutions they need, they will be able to get their work done efficiently with little strain:

•A car and vehicle pusher will eliminate the need for anyone to show how tough he or she are in trying to move a stalled vehicle alone.
•An electric tug can push or pull carts or a vehicle down a rail.
•Powered carts eliminate the strain of manually pulling heavy product, parts carts, or wheeled equipment
•Ergonomic electric flatbed carts for hauling medical supplies and records can eliminate numerous trips or a disastrous attempt to pile materials to high on inadequate equipment.
•A carpet mover makes carpet transportation a job for one person.

We offer a variety of different material handling solutions and they can be adapted as needed for your workplace. Call us at 800-686-2651 and one of our Sales Engineers would be happy to advise you.

How You Stand and Sit is the Basis for Ergonomics

Your skeleton is like the steel framework of a building. It is the core structure to which everything else attaches that provides the basic support system for the muscles, ligaments and tendons that allow your body to move.

You may not realize it, but the alignment of the bones in your skeleton when you stand or sit has a huge impact on muscle comfort, which in turn has a significant impact on job efficiency and productivity. Your body posture while working — how you stand and sit on the job — makes a telling difference in how you feel at the end of the workday and is the basis for the science of ergonomics.

How Posture Affects Work

Being forced to stand or sit in an uncomfortable position while working can stress and tire your muscles. Being forced to overextend or place undue pressure on muscles while lifting, reaching, pulling or pushing as you perform work tasks can likewise stretch and strain muscles.

As discomfort increases and turns to pain, productivity decreases as you compensate to relive the strain on your aching muscles. Without relief, pain can become chronic and lead to temporary or even permanent disability.

Ergonomics Improves Performance

Workers come in all shapes and sizes. Rather than forcing workers to contort their bodies to fit fixed equipment configurations, ergonomically-designed equipment allows equipment to be adjusted to provide optimal working conditions for each individual worker. The result is increased satisfaction and comfort for workers and improved worker efficiency and productivity for employers. It’s a win-win solution!

Visit our website or talk to our sales engineers to find the right ergonomic material handling solutions for your business.

Power Tuggers Can Prevent Injury and Increase Productivity

If your employees need to transport heavy items over short distances, your workplace could definitely benefit from using industrial tuggers.

According to Safetycommunity.com:

“At a major food processing plant, workers had to manually push heavy meat carts to maneuver them between processing stations. Concerned about injury risk and worker safety, plant executives turned to DJ Products for ergonomic solutions to their material handling problem.”

The experts at DJ Products recommended the CartCaddyShorty power tugger, a motorized cart mover designed to push, pull and maneuver carts that require turning.

Safetycommunity.com highlighted the importance of finding ergonomic solutions when workers need to transport goods. An employer may think that obtaining a regular cart with wheels will solve the issue, but if that cart has not been specifically designed to help a worker maneuver without twisting the body in harmful ways, this could cause even more problems.

In addition to meat, these tuggers can carry a variety of items such as a bin full of washers, a flat bed of steel or a cart full of cookie dough.

The CartCaddy Shorty was engineered so that an employee carrying a heavy load would be able to move, turn, and maneuver it in tight spaces, such as those in a meat processing plant. Not only does this help prevent injuries, it also helps to ensure that the food being processed gets transported between stations without having a cart tip over. This tugger is the smallest, most maneuverable tug available on the market, and still has plenty of power to handle most push or pull applications.

A tugger can also increase overall productivity. A single employee can now negotiate heavy carts, which may have previously required multiple operators to maneuver. As a result, the operators eliminated from these tasks are available to take on other responsibilities.

Hospitals: Help Your Staff Treat Summer Injuries

Summertime and the livin’ is easy…people like to spend time outside, getting into summer sports and being more active. We all hope for the best but we know that an increase in activity increases the chances of injury. For this reason, hospitals need to stay on alert and be ready for patients who arrive and need help after a baseball game, water skiing, a race, or an impromptu tumble down a hill.

During the summer, you need all of your staff ready to work and assist. You will want your employees ready to work and not injured themselves from attempting to hurry while transporting supplies needed for patients that arrive with injuries. DJ Products makes powered carts including a Powered Dirty Linen Cart, Powered Housekeeping Cart and a Motorized Clean Linen Wire Cart that can keep work moving efficiently and allow employees to navigate tight corners safely.

Our products can also reduce the chance that your employees will experience muscle strain or musculoskeletal injuries as they push or pull carts with heavy loads through hospital corridors. All of our products are battery powered “walk-behind units” that allow for better operator control than traditional wheeled carts. Because of this operating flexibility, our electric cart movers can be used in more applications than standard material handling equipment.

Check out our products online and if you have questions, you can call our Sales Engineers at 800-686-2651 and ask for a recommendation on your proper solution. One of our Sales Engineers will be more than happy to explore custom applications where our base products match primary criteria.

Worker’s Compensation Tips – Stay Savvy to Stay Profitable

Warehouse and distribution companies should pay special attention to the trends in workers’ compensation and employee healthcare. Risk expert Mark Walls of Property Casualty 360 examines how businesses are minimizing injury risks and keeping employees productive — and his insights have inspired us with some great new warehouse management tips.

Trends in Workers’ Comp Networks

For workers’ compensation, employers are moving toward outcome-based networks. OBNs send injured workers to care providers with a track record of fast, effective, and quality results.

It’s all part of looking at the bigger picture. Rather than choosing plans based solely on the price tag, OBNs help control costs and reduce unnecessary claims while also finding ways to get workers healthy and back on the job. Better health and less unnecessary claims lead to a healthier bottom line.

Reducing Injuries & Claims for Warehouse Employees

Many workplace injuries at warehouses stem from constant physical exertion, rather than spills and accidents. Manually pushing and pulling carts and equipment places great strain on the arms, back and legs.

Also, businesses using part-time staff should be aware that less-experienced employees are also prone to injuries. Thorough training and ergonomic tools like motorized carts help ensure a safe work environment for workers of all experience levels and physical abilities.

Ultimately, industrial cart movers reduce injuries so a business can expect fewer workers’ comp claims and a healthy workforce. Preventing injuries in the first place is always better than dealing with claims.

For more warehouse management tips, follow the DJ Products blog. Check out our CartCaddy4SC and other industrial electric carts to boost productivity and minimize workers’ comp risk.

A Dumpster Mover Transports Dumpsters with Ease

With a DJ Products dumpster mover, the work of moving a dumpster, a task that once may have required three or four people, can now be done by just one person. And that one person does not have to worry about strain or overexertion. Our WasteCaddy dumpster mover was ergonomically designed to help an employee transfer a dumpster from an underground parking lot to the street, move a dumpster along a street that is level, or move a dumpster on an incline.

You want to be able to move a dumpster with ease and control and a dumpster mover can help make this happen. This was not the case earlier this month when a dumpster was mysteriously moved across a parking lot in Washington state. The Kitsap Sun published a story about how a condominium complex put out a dumpster one morning and residents later learned that it “careened across a parking lot.” No one was hurt, so neither the complex nor are taxpayers need worry about liability. Still, the publication reported “no one knows whether it was stiff wind or vandals.”

While it is not clear just how the dumpster ended up across the parking lot, having a dumpster mover means that it would be at all taxing to move the dumpster back to its original spot. A heavy waste container can often weigh up to 5,000 lbs. and the WasteCaddy has a powerful 36-volt motor can maneuver dumpsters from 500 lbs. up to 10,000 lbs.

If you want to know more about the dumpster mover and would like to discuss our FREE DEMO TRIAL PROGRAM, please contact us at 1-800-686-2651.

Author: christopher Harper