Tag: productivity

Eliminating the Overexertion of Trash Removal

Full dumpsters and trash containers need to be stationed at the right place and at the right time in order to be picked up.  This is critical for apartments, condos and retail establishments that accumulate trash quickly because missing a pick up could potentially create a build up of waste and unsanitary conditions.  For this reason, employees are often asked to do whatever it takes to get the waste container to its destination, which could potentially compromise safety and put employees and property at risk.

The process of getting the heavy waste container, which may weigh in at a few thousand pounds or more, to its destination could involve employees having to push or pull the dumpster over several hundred feet over rough or hilly terrain.  This can be a very dangerous undertaking for one, two or even three employees regardless of the weather, but the high temperatures of the Summer or the ice and snow of the Winter can greatly increase the chance of overexertion and injury.

The battery powered WasteCaddy from DJ Products lets a single employee safely maneuver a fully loaded trash container over any distance and any type of terrain with no worries at all.  The very reliable and ergonomically designed waste container mover makes this job that usually requires multiple employees an easy task for just one employee.

Using properly designed equipment to maneuver heavy dumpsters and recycling bins drastically reduces the chances of injuries, while at the same time increasing productivity by allowing the job to be completed by one employee instead of two or three.  The job gets done faster, easier and with less of a chance of injury or property damage and this is an optimal situation for both management and the employees.

The Benefits of Our Dumpster Caddy

The difficult, labor-intensive task of moving waste containers poses a persistent issue for workplace productivity and cleanliness. From manufacturing plants to apartment complexes, businesses need a solution for quickly, efficiently moving dumpsters whenever necessary.

Dumpster caddies help facilitate this job for your employees while giving a boost to the quality of your work environment.

Here’s how ergonomic, battery-powered dumpster caddies impact your business:

Easier logistics. By making trash hauling easier with the dumpster caddy, businesses can enjoy greater freedom to arrange a warehouse or other facilities without worrying about carrying heavy loads over long distances. This means you can locate dumpsters where you want:

  • Locate dumpsters where needed, rather than near compactors or haul-away locations
  • Move dumpsters to different locations as needed
  • Work around awkward or difficult locations thanks to easy maneuvering

Fewer injuries. Loaded dumpsters typically weigh thousands of pounds and present an extremely difficult moving task without special equipment. With cart caddies designed to move your dumpsters, the burden shifts away from your employees and everyone enjoys a lower risk of injury. That means a better work environment, less financial risk, and a more productive workforce.

Less labor. Instead of using two or three employees to move a dumpster, the dumpster caddy only needs one person for safe, simple operation. This keeps more of your employees available and makes relocation possible for any trained staff member. Additionally, by taking away an unpleasant and hazardous task, you can retain good employees longer and get more out of your workers throughout the day.

For more info about dumpster caddy solutions for your business, call Team Cart Caddy at 800.686.2651 today.

Downsizing without Alienating Customers

In this economy, where it’s been exceedingly tough to generate more income due to the fact that fewer individuals and businesses are spending quite as freely as they were once capable,  reducing overhead has been the easiest way for warehousing and logistics companies to maintain profitability.  Usually the two largest areas of expense lay in employees and in rent, and since it’s impossible to run a material handling business without employees, many companies are doing what they can to reduce the amount of money they spend per month on rent.

The biggest problem with shrinking your operating space is the risk of not being able to fully serve your customers – the only way reducing overhead works to maintain profitability is if it doesn’t cause the loss of some of your sales.  This means that a warehousing or distribution company needs to carry as much inventory and maintain the very same fluidity of operation, but they need to do so in a smaller space.

Though this may not sound very realistic, with the right employees and the right equipment it is very possible.  Lifts and carts from DJ Products are consistently reliable and easy to maneuver in even the tightest of spaces.  These quiet and ergonomic carts are among the safest in the business for warehousing employees to operate and they allow just one user to move a multitude of smaller items or a few heavy items without enlisting anyone’s help.

A few well trained employees who have access to the best material handling equipment can perform a task much more efficiently than a full crew trying to operate outdated equipment that could be prone to failure.  When an incoming shipment can be received and appropriately stationed to go into stock or to go out for an order, then either put away or shipped more quickly and efficiently – a warehouse is able to successfully operate in a potentially much smaller environment.

Freight Solutions for Small and Medium Sized Warehouses

A forklift is a great asset for moving palletized freight or heavy loads from point a to point b in your facility, but not every plant or warehouse that handles heavy loads has the storage capacity or room to maneuver for a forklift to be a viable option.  In many of these establishments, employees are manually handling these heavy loads and workers are risking injury every single day in order to perform their job.

You don’t need extra wide aisles in order to operate a powered machine that can move heavy equipment or loads from one end of your warehouse to the other; you can get the same power delivered by a full sized fork truck in the smaller and easier to maneuver CartCaddy4SC powered hand truck from DJ Products.

The CartCaddy4SC allows workers to quickly, safely and easily handle loads up 4,500 pounds in situations where a full sized forklift would be too big a piece of equipment.  The CartCaddy4SC can also be an incredible compliment to a full sized forklift in high volume warehouses that require multiple large loads to be handled at the same time but that don’t have the budget, need or space to merit having two forklifts on site.

Just like all of the material handling equipment from DJ Products, this powered hand truck is built with both functionality and safety in mind.  This piece of equipment is easy to use, quiet, ergonomically designed and can run for a full eight hour shift with regular use on a single charge.

Your business can operate much more smoothly and safely with the proper equipment for the job and if you need heavy loads moved in tight quarters or need to safely get heavy equipment or stock from one place to another while your forklift is in use elsewhere – your business could certainly benefit from having a powered hand truck on site.

Weighing the Options

Functional equipment operated by quality employees is pretty much the lifeblood of the material handling industry.  Unfortunately, with the state of the economy over the course of the last couple years, many warehouses and distribution centers are operating with outdated and broken down equipment that is hampering their employee’s productivity and putting them at risk of injury. Some owners feel that equipment upgrades simply aren’t in the budget, but at the same time they constantly have to pay for costly repairs on the machines that they are using and losing time and money when equipment is down.  If all of the repairs and lost income from delays over the course of a year were tallied, odds are that the sum would far outweigh the cost of an equipment upgrade.

Upgrading outdated material handling equipment in favor of the safer, more reliable and more efficient powered carts from DJ Products will have many benefits, both immediate and long term, which will far outweigh the initial one time investment of the purchase.

The material handling equipment from DJ Products is ergonomically designed to be among the safest equipment that your employees can use, this helps to ensure that your employees avoid many of the injuries often associated with manual material handling.  You’ll also get unparalleled reliability, with carts that can operate strong for an entire shift on a single charge with no worries at all about failure.

Healthy employees and reliable equipment will dramatically increase your operational productivity, this will allow you do satisfy more customers and do so in a quicker fashion.  Equipment that can help to keep your employees healthy and allow you to fulfill customer orders more quickly will pay for itself in no time, regardless of the cost of the initial investment.

Reducing Strains, Aches and Pains

The biggest danger in the workplace may not stem from the loudest crash or ugliest fall, though these instances can cause injury they are pretty rare when compared the injuries relating to the use of poorly designed material handling equipment.

Many distribution center managers understand that the use of forklifts and powered carts makes their workers jobs easier, but they fail to realize that easier may not always be safer.  In order to prevent overuse and repetitive stress injuries the equipment that your employees are using needs to be ergonomically designed.

All of the battery powered lifts and carts offered by DJ Products are designed to move without putting any undue stress on your employees’ bodies and they also put the material in the best possible position for lifting.  This keeps nagging aches and strains, which can ultimately result in the need for time off, to a minimum at the same time as increasing the staff’s overall productivity.

Operating your facility with equipment that forces your employees to strain to get the job done or that puts their bodies in uncomfortable positions while completing everyday tasks puts everyone at risk for injury.  This can lead to more absences, lower productivity and higher rates of workman’s compensation claims costing your operation quite a bit of money in the long run.  By upgrading to the highly efficient, battery powered equipment from DJ Products you can all but eliminate these risks from your workplace and you can greatly improve the physical portion of the job for your employees.

Outdated equipment can put your employees and your productivity in jeopardy, and though a material handling equipment upgrade will have an initial investment – the benefits of healthy and more productive employees are well worth the cost.

A Little Goes a Long Way

When it comes to performing any job, it’s imperative that workers have both the “know how” and the proper equipment to accurately perform every task they encounter.  An employee attempting to figure out how to use a piece of equipment as he goes can result in plenty of wasted time and even put people at risk of injury.

Upgrading every piece of computer and material handling equipment at once could bring about too much of an expense for some distribution centers to bear, but taking small steps to ensure that you have all of the equipment necessary and that all of your employees know how to use it is a big step towards optimal efficiency. 

Having only one big, bulky forklift that is constantly breaking down doesn’t make much sense when you receive and ship out dozens of pallets worth of material per shift.  In the long run, you could save money on operating costs and move more freight if you scrapped the outdated forklift in favor of two smaller battery powered lifts.  Battery powered lifts from DJ Products are designed to be safe and easy for any employee to learn how to operate, which could mean a lot less waiting and a lot more working.

These battery powered lifts and carts from DJ Products can also last an entire shift on a single charge, so there is no time wasted changing fuel tanks and fewer moving parts means that there is less chance for equipment breakdown and a smaller budget required for equipment maintenance.

Streamlining or optimizing can sound like overwhelming processes to undertake, especially for a business trying to survive during these tough economic times, but properly training your employees and providing them with the right equipment may be all that needs to be done to make your operation as efficient as possible.

How to Increase Pick & Pack Efficiency

With costs up and profits down, everyone is scrambling to improve efficiency. No matter what business you’re in, you’re trying to do the job faster and better — often with fewer people. Warehouses, fulfillment houses and distribution centers are particularly challenged, says Bill Hubacek of FKI Logistex North America in a recent article in Manufacturing & Technology eJournal. “Customers demand nearly 100% order accuracy; smaller and more frequent orders cover a greater number of SKUs; and senior management calls for lower costs and increased productivity.”

High volumes from more frequent orders and quick order-to-ship turn-arounds can place a significant strain on your system and your workers. As Hubacek points out, “picking and packing functions remain two of the most labor-intensive and costly jobs in the operation. When performed manually, picking and packing can be a major source of errors, expense and decreased efficiency.”

And a reputation for errors is definitely something you want to avoid. Errors erode consumer confidence and create a negative drain on customer loyalty. When the economy is tight, competition becomes even more fierce than usual. A reputation for order accuracy can ensure a high rate of customer satisfaction and garner valued customer loyalty. Anything you do to improve your workers’ ability to perform accurately while picking, packing and shipping orders is essential.  

Hubacek makes a good argument for automating pick and pack operations, but most businesses are putting off that type of major retooling and restructuring effort until the economy improves. However, you don’t have to make a massive investment in automation to significantly improve productivity. Augmenting your workforce with a few ergonomically-designed powered carts or movers can improve the overall efficiency of your pick-pack-ship operation, increasing both speed and accuracy — and, ultimately, customer satisfaction.

DJ Products makes a full line of extremely versatile, highly maneuverable electric battery-powered movers designed to perform pushing, pulling and lifting tasks. Ergonomically designed to eliminate musculoskeletal injuries, DJ Products’ carts, tugs and movers take the physical burden of many pick-pack-ship tasks off your workers, allowing them to perform more efficiently. When not physically stressed, workers are able to perform tasks more quickly, concentrating on accuracy rather than the physical discomfort of the task. DJ Products’ powered movers allow you to add “mini-automation zones” to your warehousing, distribution or fulfillment process. And due to their versatility, DJ Products’ ergonomically-designed carts and movers can move with workers from one task to another or can be tasked to different key areas as needed.

Talk to one of our industry specialists to find out how DJ Products’ movers can improve your company’s efficiency — at a price you can afford.

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.

Material Handling and Distribution Heats Up in the Summer – Literally

Warehouses are generally poorly ventilated buildings with no good source of circulation, many with metal roofs that absorb the heat of the sun, and certainly no provisions for air conditioning.  So as the temperatures of the Summer rises, so does the temperature of the workplace.

Open dock and receiving doors let in the Summer heat and the fast pace of the employees and the bustle of the machinery just forces the temperatures even higher throughout the course of the day.  In this type of environment it’s critical to have safe and reliable material handling equipment, because the extreme heat will only add to the dangers of manual material handling.

Having the proper equipment to assist in the transport of heavy loads gives your employees the opportunity to complete their work according to (or even ahead of) schedule without having to over exert themselves inside of the scorching warehouse environment.  Old, outdated propane forklifts can throw hot exhaust, which can also work to drive up the temperature in an already borderline dangerous environment making a very uncomfortable workplace practically unbearable.

Just because the temperature has risen outside, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to slow down your operation or that you have to compromise your employees’ safety.  Reliable, battery operated carts and lifts help to ensure that your employees will have the assistance they need with heavy materials, minimizing the risks involved with manual material handling.  Battery operated carts don’t tend to get as hot as propane operated lifts and they also don’t release hot exhaust into the already stifling air.

Your warehouse or distribution center is most likely going to be hot – even with ceiling and floor exhaust fans running it’s difficult to keep temperatures down.  It’s up to you to do whatever you can to keep your employees safe and one of the best ways to do that is to operate with the most reliable battery powered lifts.  Lifts and carts from DJ Products will help minimize unnecessary excess heat while ensuring that your employees can safely perform their regular duties without the fear of over exertion.