Tag: Safety and Ergonomics

Ergonomically Designed Tugs Let You Transport Large Equipment

Our material handling solutions are compact, battery powered “walk behind” units that can help people transport heavy loads with control in numerous situations. Whether you have plenty of room in which to maneuver or you need to move something within a tight, difficult space, we may have an electric or motorized cart tug that can help. You would be surprised at how the proper design makes it possible for a little machine to allow you to move something very heavy. The machine does not need to be as big as or larger than the object being moved when it is engineered properly.

Airplanes?
Yes, you can move an airplane with our aircraft tug. And when we say you, we mean that you can complete this task on your own using the power of our aircraft tug.

Vehicles?
Our car pusher and trailer movers can move vehicles and pieces of equipment with that have straight wheels or are on a rail.

Dumpsters?
Most people wouldn’t try to move an airplane, alone but they might consider themselves strong enough to push a dumpster…what they don’t factor in is the strain this can cause. Just because you can do it doesn’t mean that you should do it. A DJ Products dumpster mover can help you avoid unnecessary muscle strain and pain.

At DJ Products, our goal is to provide solutions for material handling solutions that are ergonomically correct, safe, and cost effective. If you are wondering just how one of our products can help you, feel free to call us at 800-686-2651 and talk to one of our Sales Engineers.

Prevent Back Pain with a Power Puller

When your employees pull or tug on carts and dollies that are too heavy the result can be pain, back strain, and a number of other injuries. WebMD categorizes these injuries as:

Sudden (acute) injuries: These kinds of injuries are “sudden and severe” and include things like compressed nerves, ligament and muscle injury, spine fracture and torn or ruptured discs. Although WebMD notes that the “pain from an acute injury usually does not last longer than 6 weeks,” that is quite a long time to be hurting if you need to perform physical labor for work. And it is possible for a worker to become re-injured during that time.

Overuse injuries: With these, an employee may not remember a specific incident such as ‘throwing his/her back out,” but the pain stiffness and muscle spasm are certainly memorable, lasting 4 weeks if there is no treatment.

Material handling solutions such as a DJ Products power puller is an invaluable for preventing the injury and re-injury that can occur when employees strain their backs. Wheeled equipment such as dollies, hand trucks, linen carts, and hospital carts may be overloaded or the weight on them may not be distributed evenly. This is where a CartCaddyLite Shorty power puller comes in handy: it’s designed with enough power to maneuver carts with less than 1500 lbs. through confined environments where tight maneuverability is of a huge concern. You don’t want your employees to injure themselves or end up with tipped over carts.

Contact one of our Sales Engineers at 1-800-686-2651 to learn more about power pullers and our other useful material handling solutions.

Hotels and Hospitals: Powered Carts Can Increase Efficiency & Reduce Strain

Employees in the hospitality industry as well as those working in actual hospitals can benefit by using a motorized powered cart to transport items like linens and cleaning supplies. If your employees are currently using carts that they push manually, consider the strain they may be under and consider switching to powered carts from DJ Products, such as a Powered Housekeeping Cart or a Motorized Clean Linen Wire Cart.

The Powered Housekeeping Cart and the Motorized Clean Linen Wire Cart can haul loads up to 700 lbs. The variable speed twist grips allow the operator to travel between 0-3 mph, forward or backward. Both of these carts can be used for an entire shift without re-charging. As long as they are charged, you do not have to worry that an employee will need to take time away from work tasks to wait while a powered cart charges. These carts can also be customized as needed for different environments.

Powered carts will not only help reduce strain and aches from repeated pulling, pushing and tugging–they may also reduce the time it takes for employees to complete their rounds. All of our products are battery powered “walk-behind” units, allowing better control by the operator, even in tight, difficult spaces. Allowing your workers to use ergonomically designed equipment, like motorized carts, can do a lot to reduce injury and the loss of productivity that goes with it. The proactive implementation of ergonomic policies can improve worker morale and make your operations much more efficient.

Be it a hospital or a casino or a hotel, you need to keep things going around the clock—linens need to be changed and rooms need to be cleaned on a continual basis. Powered carts can reduce the time it takes for employees to get this work completed and they will feel less strain as they finish their tasks.

Ergonomic Mobile Applications

We recently read about a mobile app that was designed to help improve ergonomics in the workplace. With this app, people can see photos different postures that might lead to injury at work and get information on ways to improve posture as well as learn about exercises they can do at work to reduce injury. This is a great way to increase awareness about the importance of correct posture.

However, before the term “app” was used to refer to programs created for mobile devices, it was part of word “application.” And for some people, a mobile app will not be enough to reduce injury in the workplace but a mobile application that they can use as they complete their work tasks can make all the difference.

A DJ Products Industrial Power Mover can eliminate the strain of manually pulling heavy products, parts carts and wheeled equipment. Our material handling solutions or “mobile apps” can also eliminate bulky, expensive lift trucks.

Our CartCaddy power movers comes in many different shapes and sizes to handle wheeled applications that operate with racks, carts, and casters. They are designed to move with employees so they do not have to overexert themselves to push or pull in ways that can damage the musculoskeletal system.

If you have seen a number of workers who need to go on disability due to injuries that relate to ergonomic issues, isn’t it time to apply a different kind of material handling solution?

Call us at 1-800-686-2651 so we can help you find material handling solutions that fit your workplace.

Ergonomically Correct Powered Movers Decrease Possibility of Injury

Would you prefer that your business spend money to safeguard against injuries or would you prefer to incur the costs and lost productivity that can stem from employee injury?

You cannot prevent employees from being injured off the job, but you can see to it that they have what they need to stay safe at your workplace. DJ Products provides solutions for material handling situations that eliminate the pain and strain of manually pulling and pushing heavy carts or wheeled equipment. Our powered movers and industrial tuggers Southeast Missourian , this fund “which keeps individual businesses from having to pay the injury claims of workers with previous injuries or health conditions who are re-injured on the job, is going broke. ” The additional three percent that Missouri companies add on to their workers’ compensation insurance has not been sufficient to keep the fund going. Although groups that represent employers in that state are trying to find ways to keep the fund going, there are no guarantees.

Whether or not you are required to pay into a second injury fund, you can take a more preventative approach to worker injury. Investing in ergonomically correct powered movers and industrial tuggers could reduce the chances that your workers will become injured and file for workers’ compensation.

GM Uses a Hologram to Examine Ergonomic Issues

General Motors has a global manager for ergonomics and The Journal Gazette of Fort Wayne recently published and article stating that General Motors will spend $275 million in its state to build newer versions of some of its most popular vehicles. They added the interesting fact that “GM uses a three-dimensional hologram of an average worker to evaluate whether certain tasks in the assembly process are too demanding.”

You may not have global operations or one person in charge of ergonomics as GM does but you will likely need to consider some of the same questions that GM does.

• How far do your operators need to reach to perform work tasks?
• Can we afford to spend money to hire and train new workers if current employees suffer injuries?
• What would be the average cost of a worker’s compensation claim for our company? How will that affect our financial outlook?
• How can we make sure that our workers stay safe as they age?

Here at DJ Products, Inc. we specialize in finding electric or motorized cart tug solutions that either:
• Eliminate the strains and pains of manually pushing or pulling heavy carts, equipment, or materials.
• Are less costly, smaller, and more maneuverable then traditional electric equipment used for moving carts and equipment; like forktrucks, walkies, or motorized riding tugs.

You do not have to sacrifice your employee’s wellbeing to make your products or meet quotas. There are ergonomic material handling solutions that can get the job done. Call us at 800-686-2651 and a Sales Engineer will help you pinpoint the right application for you.

Get Ergonomic Material Handling Solutions and Work With Machines Safely

We have a tendency to separate ourselves from the mechanical inventions we use to assist us with work in a ‘man vs. machine’ fashion. Often we forget that the human body is also a remarkable machine but if you mistreat it, you can pay a heavy price. This is why DJ Products designs material handling solutions to change the way you move equipment. We make our products to move in concert with the mechanisms of the human body to eliminate the strains and pains of manually pushing or pulling heavy carts and other equipment.

And while we cannot completely eliminate the strains of the costs of running a business, we do work to make our products less costly than traditional electric equipment.

Some of our solutions include:

Ergonomic Material Handling Electric Carts for Industrial Use

• Carts with casters
• Carts with 4-swivel casters or wagon-wheel style of turning
• Carts in a straight line
• Platform Trucks & Scissor Lifts

Ergonomic Material Handling Carts for Hospitals and the Hospitality Industry
• Hospital carts
• Pulling heavy soiled linen carts
• Maneuvering clean linen metro wire carts
• Pushing stainless steel food carts
• Ergonomic powered flatbed supply carts
• Ergonomic electric flatbed carts for hauling medical supplies and records

Car Equipment Pushers and Trailer Movers for the Automotive Industry
• Car Pusher
• Trailer Mover, Puller, Pusher

Our maneuverable ergonomic material handling solutions may be smaller and lighter than what you are used to so If you need help selecting products, don’t hesitate to call us at 800-686-2651 and one of our Sales Engineers will be more than happy to assist you.

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

CarCaddy Car PusherSummer 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.

Ergonomics and Obesity in the Workplace

In “Safety 2012: Ergonomic Strategies for Managing Obesity in the Workplace,” EHS Today provides tips for employers who may have noticed that expanding waistlines have had an impact on some employees’ ability to get their work done. While you cannot tell your workers how to eat or make sure that they are getting enough exercise outside of work, you can provide ergonomic material handling equipment, like cart movers, to prevent injury on the job.

According to EHS Today, “increased obesity in the workplace means more arthritis, larger waist circumferences, additional work limitations, compromised grip strength, decreased lower limb mobility and medical risks.”

In addition to this, “Obesity also can impact self-esteem, motivation, absenteeism, presenteeism, premature mortality and more.”

Having the right equipment to safely complete job tasks, not only cuts down on the possibility of injury; it can also augment worker morale. If the matter of providing the right ergonomic solutions is handled sensitively, there will be no need to indicate that worker obesity is a factor. As an employer, you can simply provide safer equipment to aid employees in being more efficient. Ergonomic solutions can benefit all employees because no matter how much an employee weighs, he or she is subject to injury.

In addition to reducing the possibility of employee injury, you will also be decreasing the likelihood that your products will be damaged or mishandled.

You can call us at 800-686-2651 and our Sales Engineers will be happy to recommend the right material handling solution for your workplace and help you decide if you need custom applications.