Material Handling Equipment Supplier Archives - Page 4 of 6

Tips for Improving Warehouse Efficiency

Expect the Unexpected

Warehouse management can often feel like a circus juggling act as you struggle to keep everything up in the air. Does your warehouse equipment help or hinder productivity in your warehouse? Here are four more tips to help you “keep your eye on the ball” and optimize warehouse efficiency.

Tips for Improving Warehouse Efficiency

1. Keep Aisles Clear of Obstructions

Leaving empty pallets or unshelved merchandise sitting in the aisles “just for a minute” can stretch into hours or even days, increasing the likelihood of accidents. Make sure employees are in the habit of keeping the aisles free of anything that doesn’t belong.

2. Optimize Warehouse Design to Meet Workflow Needs

Minimizing travel time is key to improving productivity. Design storage and layout of your warehouse to reduce the number of times a product has to be touched, eliminating need for time-wasters such as repalletizing or restacking.

3. Analyze Order Processing Cycle Time

Do you know how long it takes to process the average order in your warehouse? One distribution center was stunned to discover that less than 40 percent of their order processing cycle time was spent in actually working on the order. Analyze your current order processing steps and identify weak spots.

4. Establish a Culture of Safety

Workplace accidents have both short- and long-term effects on your overall productivity and the injured worker’s health. Enforce use of appropriate safety equipment, train employees in proper procedures and post safety tips and reminders in visible places.

DJ Products: Your #1 Choice for Safe and Efficient Warehouse Equipment

DJ Products offers a comprehensive line of battery-powered tugs, movers and pushers to accommodate the needs of any application. Visit our website and use the convenient online chat feature to learn more.

Top Tips for Preventing Back Injuries in the Warehouse Workplace

Health and Safety is Key

Your back is meant to last a lifetime, but a workplace injury can result in a lifetime of chronic pain instead. Here’s a look at proper warehouse equipment and other ways to minimize the risk of back injuries in your warehouse.

Tips for Preventing Back Injuries in the Workplace

• Muscle tightness restricts flexibility, increasing the likelihood of tears and sprains. Take frequent breaks to stretch and move around.

• Poor posture puts undue strain on the spine. Make it a point to keep head, shoulders and pelvis in line, with feet about shoulder-width apart. Gently tighten abs and buttocks, but refrain from overall tension.

• Wear sturdy and supportive footwear. Appropriate work gear will protect your feet as well as your back. Place rubber mats at work stations and other areas where employees stand for long periods of time.

• When sitting, keep your back firmly against the chair’s backrest with feet flat on the ground and knees aligned with hips. Adjust the height of the chair as needed so you can comfortably rest your arms at elbow height. If you handle transportation in-house, these guidelines apply to truck drivers as well.

• Keep heavy loads on shelves and other elevated surfaces whenever possible to alleviate strain when lifting.

• Twisting, pushing and pulling are the main causes of musculoskeletal injuries. Use appropriate warehouse equipment when transporting product to loading docks and other areas.

Improve Workplace Safety with Electric Warehouse Equipment from DJ Products

With battery-powered warehouse tugs, pushers and movers such as our popular CartCaddyLite, a single employee of any size, age or sex can easily move heavy loads. Our warehouse equipment is also ergonomically designed to prevent repetitive motion injuries.

Call 800.686.2651 to learn more from our sales engineers.

Amazon’s Embracing of Robots Drive Investment into Warehouse Worker’s Education

Embrace the Future: A Society with Efficient Robots.

As your first choice for a quality material handling equipment supplier, DJ Products wants to keep you up-to-date on news and trends affecting the warehouse industry. Here’s a look at how Amazon is addressing the challenge of robots and automation displacing human workers.

Adapting to the Changing Workforce

It’s no secret that technology is creating automated solutions for more repetitive types of jobs, but the time is coming when robots will be able to handle more sophisticated tasks. At this point, automation is creating more jobs than it’s destroying.

Problems arise when robots take over basic entry-level jobs that usually go to people who need to work but aren’t qualified for higher-paying jobs. Amazon has taken a proactive approach by offering training to expand these workers’ options.

Preparing for the Future

Amazon’s Career Choice program was rolled out in 2012. It’s currently available to any hourly employees who have been with Amazon for a minimum of one year. Under the program, Amazon pays up to 95 percent of college tuition for employees who want to train for more in-demand jobs.

Classes are conveniently held right in the warehouses, and so far 14,000 people have taken advantage of the program. Amazon’s goal is to double that number by 2020.

According to author Martin Ford, lifelong learning is the key to staying relevant in the workforce. While Amazon’s program is a start, the next step is to provide training for more advanced jobs.

DJ Products: Your Preferred Material Handling Equipment Supplier

Manpower is still needed for lifting, carrying and other physical labor, and our state-of-the-art pushers, tugs and movers allow greater productivity and reduce the risk of workplace injuries. Visit our website and use the handy online chat feature for more information.

Protect Your Staff from These Top Warehouse Related Injuries

Despite Slow Moving Machinery and Large Space, Accidents in Warehouses do Still Occur.

How safe is your warehouse? The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports 5.5 injuries for every 100 warehouse workers. Reduce risk to your employees by using tugger carts and taking steps to prevent these common warehouse injuries.

Forklift and Truck Accidents

Forklifts are standard equipment in nearly every warehouse. While they’re essential for moving materials, forklifts are also involved in many warehouse accidents, either from malfunction or operator error.

Warehouses often contract their trucking needs to third-party providers. Those that handle transportation in-house are vulnerable to employee and property damage from truck accidents.

Overexertion Injuries

Musculoskeletal disorders are responsible for nearly one-third of all worker’s compensation costs in the United States. The back and shoulders are the most frequently injured body parts, although other body parts can also be affected by twisting, pushing and other causes of overexertion.

Loading Dock Injuries

Loading docks are some of the busiest and most congested areas of any warehouse. Injuries can occur due to inattentive truck drivers, unstable loads or moving heavy materials.

Workplace Obstructions

Spills or leaks that aren’t cleaned up promptly can cause employees to slip and fall. When empty pallets, misplaced inventory and other debris block warehouse aisles, other falling accidents are likely to happen.

Falling Objects

Warehouses make use of vertical space in order to maximize returns and minimize costs. It’s a valuable concept, but it increases the chances of materials falling and striking workers down below.

Tugger Carts: A Practical Solution to Warehouse Safety from DJ Products

Tugger carts such as our best-selling CartCaddyLite are ergonomically designed to minimize risk of common musculoskeletal injuries from pushing, lifting and other causes of overexertion. Visit our website and learn more about our full line of electric tugger carts from our sales engineers.

Material Handling Equipment Market Surges Forward Aggressively into 2018

Make Your Job Easier. Get Equipment for Material Handling.

In 2018, we’ll see more automated equipment purchased and implemented than ever before. Companies in the e-commerce industry are increasingly looking for material handling equipment suppliers for powered carts and cart pullers. Elsewhere, industries ranging from food distribution to heavy construction are also turning to machines for better efficiency.

While automation is often associated with labor reduction, many more factors will drive the material handling equipment industry in 2018 and beyond. Equipment can make the job significantly safer for human workers. In warehouses, picking and packing can be both faster and more accurate.

Soaring Sales for Material Handling Equipment

The consultancy Market Research Future forecasts a compound annual growth rate of 7.5% through 2023 for the material handling equipment supplier industry.

E-commerce leads the way, and Asia will be the region outspending the rest. The most common application is material handling for smaller loads such as retail goods and small parts.

Small and large players are driving competition in the field. Rather than being dominated by just a few global manufacturers, firms often choose a regional material handling equipment supplier.

Industrial Equipment from DJ Products

What’s the only thing holding back the market? Much of the technology available requires a high initial investment, and implementation involves a radical change to the way your warehouse operates.

DJ Products offers more affordable solutions. Our material handling equipment can easily be learned and operated by just about any employee.

Our offerings include the CartCaddy (and CartCaddyLite version) with an ergonomic design to push or pull heavy loaded carts with ease. There are also more task-specific models like the PartsCaddy and CarpetCaddy.

Need a new material handling equipment supplier? Contact us at DJ Products to stay ahead of industry trends with game-changing industrial equipment.

What Supply Chain Trends are Predicted for 2018 and the Years Beyond Part Two

This post is a continuation of Part One found on our blog.

What Supply Chain Trends Will You Expect to See in 2018?

We brought in the new year with a look at supply chain trends that are expected to affect the industry in 2018 and beyond. While tugger carts and other electric material handling equipment are established parts of today’s warehouses, we continue to examine developing factors that can change your approach to workplace operations.

Emphasis on Supply Chain Externals

As environmental awareness has continued to grow, the public has become more concerned about how companies affect society in terms of carbon footprint and sustainable practices. Companies will need to increase transparency with disclosure of the end-to-end impacts of supply chains.

Serving the “Base of the Pyramid”

More than five billion people around the world make less than $2,000 per year. An influential book entitled The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid explored the market potential of this segment. As a result, current cost-plus supply chain models will transition to not-to-exceed cost models.

Global Demand for Knowledge Work and Workers

The shift to a global market has increased the need for supply chain workers who understand the local complexities of foreign communities and have an ability to communicate in multiple languages. Approximately 40 percent of this work involves analytics, planning and processing.

Identifying Micro Segments

Supply chain usually paints the model of customer service with a broad brush that addresses the basic category. Companies are now finding more success with a supply chain that effectively serves specific micro segments of customers based on what triggers their buying decisions.

Increase Safety and Productivity with Tugger Carts from DJ Products

Our electric tugger carts provide a consistent level of safety and efficiency that maximizes productivity in your workplace. Visit our website to learn more about our full line of material handling solutions.

Typical Causes of Forklift Accidents

When it comes to material handling equipment, most warehouses aren’t complete without forklifts. These compact but powerful vehicles are also involved in thousands of injury accidents each year.

Here are some of the more common causes of forklift accidents and how they can be prevented.

Lack of Training

You wouldn’t consider hiring a truck driver who didn’t have the necessary training, and forklift operation should be taken equally seriously. Provide appropriate training that must be completed by employees before using a forklift.

Mechanical Problems

Malfunctioning equipment, such as failing brakes or jammed forks, often leads to accidents. Follow the manufacturer’s recommended maintenance schedule and remove old forklifts from service.

Improper Loading

Broken pallets or poorly stacked loads can result in unstable forklift operation or hazards from cases falling off the fork. Instruct employees in the correct methods of loading forklifts so the pallets are balanced and the driver’s vision isn’t obstructed.

Operator Error

Forklift operators should follow the same safety precautions used when driving any vehicle.

– Maintain a safe speed.

– Seat belts should always be fastened when forklift is in use.

– Use caution when backing up.

– Always check for obstructions in the path of travel.

– Passengers should be sitting in seats, not on the load or on the fork itself.

Workplace Design

Keep aisles, intersections and doors free of obstructions. Set up workstations away from the aisles and lay out clearly marked walkways.

DJ Products: Your Preferred Source for Quality Material Handling Equipment

Our comprehensive line of battery-powered material handling equipment includes the best-selling CartCaddyLite, which allows a single employee to move carts weighing up to 1,500 pounds.

Call 800.686.2651 and let our sales engineers help you select the best tug, pusher or mover for your applications.

Ecommerce and the Speed of Fulfillment Drives New Robotic Technology into Warehouses

As e-commerce growth continues to surge past brick-and-mortar sales, how will online retailers keep up with order fulfillment? It may not be long before order-filling robots take their place alongside the rest of your material handling equipment.

Can E-commerce Response Keep Up with Consumer Demand?

According to Ken Goldberg, a roboticist from UC Berkeley, Amazon and other ecommerce companies are delivering orders at an astonishing rate of 500 packages per second. With online sales projected to reach $600 billion in the U.S. by 2020, that number will only increase.

While robots aren’t new to warehouses and fulfillment centers, they’ve been limited to literally doing the heavy lifting. Advancements in technology are allowing robots to pick orders and perform other nuanced tasks.

Robots Go to “School”

Human hands are still more suited to packing orders, the final step in order filling, but a San Francisco startup named Kindred is teaching this task to robots with a two-step method surprisingly similar to how humans learn.

– The process begins with imitation learning, in which engineers actually steer the robots to show them how to handle products from a wide range of shapes and sizes.

– During reinforcement learning, robots essentially “practice” what they’ve learned, refining their movements to increase speed and accuracy.

Will humans eventually become obsolete? Not according to David Schatsky of Deloitte, co-author of a report on robots in the workplace. Schatsky predicts that jobs will evolve, with humans shifting into creative and supervisory roles.

Boost Warehouse Efficiency with Material Handling Equipment from DJ Products

There’s still a lot of heavy lifting that needs to be done by your employees. Visit our website and use the convenient online chat feature to learn more about our full line of tugs, pushers and movers.

New Logistics Company Roadie Looks to Disrupt Transportation Models

New Ways to Look at Logistics

Logistics and warehousing companies typically focus on providing services for small, large and medium-sized businesses, but individual consumers could soon have their own version of delivery services to use. Roadie, a new delivery network, plans to focus on providing convenient and cost-effective services for individuals.

Competition for Amazon and Walmart

Amazon and Walmart are positioning themselves as innovative businesses when it comes to delivering goods to customers. Both companies are considering offering delivery services using local drivers instead of relying on major shipping companies. The idea behind this is to reduce costs to consumers while providing even faster service.

Where does Roadie fit into this? Roadie plans on using registered and rated drivers who are already going in the customer’s direction to pick up items and deliver them. This is more of a gig rather than a traditional delivery service, and it’s not just intended for consumer products.

The Roadie Community

Roadie is set up to make deliveries that fall outside the realm of delivering products and purchases to customers. Individuals who need personal belongings shipped or brought to another location and even those who need transportation for pets will be able to make delivery arrangements through Roadie.

The community includes drivers who are registered with the app and have been rated. Individuals who need pickups and deliveries can create a job, review the rated drivers who are available and choose one. While Roadie might not become immediate competition for traditional logistics and warehousing companies, it’s still a good idea to be aware of these trends.

If you need a semi truck tow dolly or other equipment to help your company save money and manpower, please visit DJ Products. We offer high-quality semi truck tow dolly options and other products.

Projected Rise in Global Ecommerce Impacts Warehouses

Turn to DJ Products for a material handling equipment supplier that can help you maximize productivity in this changing industry.

Continued growth in ecommerce around the globe is making warehouse space and transportation more sought-after than ever. Turn to DJ Products for a material handling equipment supplier that can help you maximize productivity in this changing industry.

Booming Ecommerce Raises Demand for Logistics

While the United States is still the major player, the ecommerce boom crosses all international borders. As a result, Transparency Market Research reports that the global ecommerce logistics market is projected to jump from $122.2B in 2014 to $781B in 2024 for an estimated compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 20.6 percent.

With this massive increase in business comes a heightened expectation of transparency and efficiency in ecommerce logistics providers. Sellers will be looking for more customization in services, including warehousing and transportation. For their part, providers are seeking effective ways to reduce costs.

The Rise of the Asia Pacific Region

The countries in Asia Pacific are home to approximately 60% of the global population, making this region a natural target for expanded ecommerce business. Its growing middle class is another positive factor. This translates to a forecasted CAGR of of 22.4 percent between 2016 and 2024, which is even more robust than the projected global CAGR.

In contrast, the outlook for the ecommerce logistics market in Europe is relatively murky. It’s anticipated that Brexit will cause regulations to become more complex, which in turn will make compliance more difficult.

DJ Products: Your First Choice for a Material Handling Equipment Supplier

Are you looking for ways to reduce costs without sacrificing productivity? Material handling equipment like our best-selling CartCaddyLite provides greater efficiency and safety, allowing employees to get more done with less risk of workplace injuries.

Visit our website to learn more from our helpful sales engineers.

Tag: Material Handling Equipment Supplier