Tugs Archives - DJ Products

Process Improvements Help to Improve Damaged Stock Realities

Reviewing the Process Can Reduce Accidents and Damaged Materials

Damaged stock is one of the primary factors reducing warehouse and supply chain profitability. The impact can be direct, as in the case of incomplete orders, or indirect, such as when an accident injures an employee.

Anywhere from two percent to 11 percent of products received are already damaged, but the problem isn’t simply a matter of chance. Experts recommend use of tugger carts as one of the proactive ways to reduce the amount of damaged stock in your warehouse.

Improve Workflows

How is stock typically handled during day-to-day operations in your warehouse? Review the process from start to finish and look for areas of improvement, such as reducing the number of times a case is touched.

Use Material Handling Equipment Whenever Possible

Material handling equipment involves a significant financial investment, but the costs will be more than offset by less product damage and fewer job-related injuries.

Reassess Racking Systems

If the racking system is inadequate, it could result in improper storage which is a leading cause of damaged stock. In addition to upgrading racks, consider installing safety equipment such as column protectors and aisle shields.

Train Employees

Employees are on the front lines when it comes to handling and processing stock. Incorporate product awareness into your ongoing safety training workshops.

Build a Culture of Cleanliness

It sounds simple, but employees sometimes become lax about keeping the warehouse clean, whether it’s due to work deadlines or thoughtlessness. Create and enforce standards of cleanliness and hold employees accountable.

DJ Products Makes Tugger Carts to Solve Any Need

No matter what types of products are handled in your warehouse, we have a wide range of tugger carts to improve safety and productivity. Use our handy online chat feature to learn more.

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.

Tips to Reducing Costs and Improving Efficiency in Your Warehouse – Part One

Tips to Reducing Costs and Improving Efficiency in Your Warehouse

Managing a warehouse is a constant juggling act as you work to control labor, inventory and freight. Tugger carts from DJ Products help employees be more productive. What other methods can you use to improve efficiency and reduce costs?

How to Reduce Costs and Improve Efficiency

Here are five top tips from experts to keep all three elements of your warehouse operations running at high levels.

1. Control Freight Charges

Freight charges can eat away at profits more quickly than any other factor. Skilled consultants can help you negotiate carrier agreements at lower rates without a corresponding decrease in service.

2. Develop Incentive Pay Programs

Incentive pay for performance is actually one of the more cost-effective methods to increase productivity. Review programs carefully to make sure they’re not redundant.

3. Simplify Workflow and Processes

Less really can be more. Take a look at the warehouse layout and work processes to see if you can identify any wasted space and motions.

4. Establish a Baseline and Benchmarks

If you don’t know where you started, how can you tell when you’ve reached the finish line? Determine the measurements you want to track and provide employees with regular feedback to get them engaged.

5. Invest in Manager Development

When managers are the weak leak, it impacts every area of your business. Make sure they have proper training and other tools they need to succeed.

Streamline Warehouse Efficiency with Tugger Carts from DJ Products

Battery-powered tugger carts, such as our best-selling CartCaddyLite, promote higher levels of productivity and reduce costs through lower risk of workplace injuries.

Visit our website to learn more about our full line of material handling solutions. Use the convenient online chat feature to get real-time assistance from our sales engineers.

Batch or Wave Picking – Which is Best for Your Order Fulfillment Warehouse?

Did you realize that pickers in your order fulfillment warehouse spend nearly two-thirds of their shift moving their tugger carts from one bin to another? Batch picking and wave picking reduce that time for improved efficiency. Which process is right for your warehouse?

Batch Picking

As implied by the name, batch picking involves sorting orders into batches that can be picked at the same time. This cuts down the number of times pickers must visit the same bin location.

Batch picking in small-order warehouses can more than double average pick rates. Since items are usually transported by cart rather than conveyor, batch picking also reduces expenses.

Experts recommend batch picking for warehouses with a higher concentration of SKUs over a large area or those with SKUs in densely populated locations. Varying the number of orders in each batch boosts productivity by limiting traffic on the warehouse floor.

Wave Picking

On the other hand, wave picking calls for pickers to work in specific zones rather than on batches. Once all the items are picked, they are collated into individual orders.

Wave picking generally works best in distribution centers with large numbers of SKUs. The process can be refined further into fixed waves, in which orders aren’t packed until the entire wave is picked, and dynamic waves, where each individual order is packed as soon as it’s completed.

Streamline Your Warehouse with Tugger Carts from DJ Products

When employees struggle to transport outsized or heavy loads, it seriously impacts productivity in your order fulfillment warehouse. Our full line of electric tugger carts offers a solution for every application.

Visit our website to learn more about tugger carts such as our best-selling CartCaddyLite, which can transport carts weighing up to 1,500 pounds.

Good Warehouse Housekeeping – Improves Safety and Prevents Injury

Good housekeeping shouldn’t be confined to your place of residence. Maintaining a tidy workplace and using tugger carts reduce injury risk and promote high levels of efficiency.

Incorporate these expert tips for making cleanliness an important part of your workplace culture.

Prevent Slips-and-Falls

Slips, trips and falls are second only to musculoskeletal stress as a cause of workplace injuries.

– Keep aisles and doorways free of obstructions.

– Clean up spills and leaks as soon as they occur.

– Immediately repair or replace worn-out or damaged flooring.

– Use strategically placed floor mats to provide traction and prevent employees from tracking materials across the warehouse.

Control Dust

A layer of dust no thicker than a dime presents a serious explosion risk. Use vacuums and compressed air to keep all surfaces, materials and equipment dust-free.

Remove Clutter

Clutter forces employees to restrict their movements, which can lead to sprains, cuts and other injuries. Make it a habit to return items to their proper place after use and keep extraneous items out of the workplace.

Use Personal Protective Equipment

Personal protective equipment such as safety glasses, closed-toed shoes and face masks should be used appropriately, with no exceptions. Have supervisors conduct regular checks to make sure all PPE is in good working condition.

Create and Maintain Written Housekeeping Policies

Create a manual thoroughly detailing housekeeping policies and keep it updated. All employees should be trained on proper procedures and have convenient access to the manual.

Save Time and Money with Tugger Carts from DJ Products

Our battery-powered tugger carts pay for themselves many times over in improved productivity and reduced workplace injuries. Visit our website and get real-time assistance from our sales engineers to select the perfect tugger carts for your warehouse.

Invest in Ergonomically Designed Material Handling Solutions

Your employees may be using a cart or some other device that they have pieced together themselves to transport goods within your workplace and you figure as long as they get the job done it is okay. But is it really?

Carts that are designed for other purposes and those that are not made specifically for humans to transport heavy loads can cause injury and strain. You have invested a lot in your company and in your employees—why not see to it that they have the right equipment to do their jobs and transport materials without incident? The loss in revenue and productivity that results from using material handling solutions that are not ergonomically correct can be avoided. DJ Products provides power tugs and other solutions that eliminate the strains and pains of manually pushing or pulling heavy carts, equipment or material.

In addition to that, DJ Products makes material handling solutions that are more maneuverable than traditional electric equipment like fork trucks, walkies or motorized riding tugs. Our battery powered “walk behind” units are designed for better control.

We offer a wide range of equipment, such as:

* Hospital Carts

* Stainless Steel Food Carts

* Platform Trucks and Scissor Lifts

* Carts with Casters

* Carts with 4-swivel casters or wagon-wheel style of turning

* Car Pushers

* Trailer Movers

* Paper Roll Pushers

* Equipment Pullers

* Airplane Tugs

And if you are not exactly sure of what you need, you can call us and one of our Sales Engineers will be happy to help you select the right solution and discuss custom applications where our base products match primary criteria.

What Can We Learn from Failure?

You’ve probably heard the old saying, “What doesn’t kill you makes you strong.” Or “No pain; no gain.” Ask anyone who’s been in business a while and they’ll tell you, you learn from your failures. Those who struggle with a new idea, testing and tweaking it through multiple incarnations until they get it right enjoy a sense of accomplishment unknown to those who simply luck into an idea, though not to imply that there’s no joy in the occasional “gift.” Sometimes, but not often, we get it right the first time. Usually, though, success is a matter of hard work and sacrifice. Perhaps that’s what makes success taste so sweet.

Celebrating Failure: The Power of Taking Risks, Making Mistakes and Thinking Big by Ralph Heath (Career Press, 2009, paperback, 191 pages, $9.26 on Amazon.com) is a smart book and a quick read. Heath’s message is to stop punishing mistakes, yours and your employees’, and start learning from them. Emphasize the learning, not the error, and move on. By embracing our failures we strip them of power. As he points out, the people who make mistakes are the same people who succeed.

Trade-Off: Why Some Things Catch On, and Others Don’t by Kevin Maney (Broadway, 2009, hardcover, 217 pages, $15.64 on Amazon.com) explores why some ideas succeed and others fail. Maney contends the magic formula is a combination of targeting your market correctly and staying true to your goal. Many businesses fail because they don’t make the mutually exclusive choice between convenience (low cost + easy use) and fidelity (premium quality + exclusivity). As he notes, a low-end Mercedes won’t sell, nor would a 5-course McDonalds meal.

The bottom line is deciding what need you want to meet and staying true to your game plan. You can’t be all things to all people. Success often comes fastest when you narrow your goal to meet a specific need. That’s been our experience at DJ Products. Our ergonomically designed carts and tugs won’t do everything, but they do a superior job of getting things from point A to point B without straining taxing your workers. Find out more at DJ Products.com.

Power Tug Can Prevent Physical Strain

The dictionary definition of the verb “tug” includes phrases like “to pull hard, to struggle, to exert oneself laboriously, to pull or strain hard at, to carry with difficulty” but we want you to know that working with power tug from DJ Products will not require struggle. Effort is needed and it is necessary to be alert when operating a DJ Products material handling solution (as it is necessary for using any other kind of machine), but it should not be a struggle.

In fact, DJ Products specializes in offering small, maneuverable tug that still have plenty of power to handle most push or pull applications. We know that space is precious in a warehouse environment so we design our tuggers so they can be used effectively in small spaces. These carts can carry a variety of items and help employees push or pull almost any heavy cart, be it a flat bed of steel or a cart full of cookie dough.

We call them power tugs because they are empowering. Rather than straining and struggling with loads that can cause injury to the human musculoskeletal system, your employees can be more productive and have few concerns that they will be prone to injury. In addition to minimizing the risk of injury, a tugger like the CartCaddy5WP can reduce the drudgery of physical labor. And while we cannot promise that all of your employees will be happy, we can say that having the right equipment to get the job done can be a factor in improving workplace morale, boosting overall job performance and decreasing employee turnover.

Highlighting the Cart Caddy

Just because carts or other equipment have wheels doesn’t mean they’re easy to move. The size and weight of these loads makes transporting them awkward at best and stressful at worst. Using the Cart Caddy 5WP tug gives you the power and maneuverability to handle the toughest jobs.

This upgrade to the 5W provides greater traction thanks to more weight over the drive tires, enabling it to move heavier loads. The tug attaches to the swivel caster end of the equipment to negotiate turns and other movements with ease.

The Cart Caddy is versatile enough to move any equipment without the need for an assortment of special attachments. Its tug arm can lift or lower to fasten securely to the bottom of any cart. Once in place it has a pivot range of a full 180 degrees, removing the possibility of jackknifing interrupting the transport.

Operator health and safety is a priority with all powered pushers from DJ Products. Our Cart Caddy operates in both forward and reverse up to 3 MPH with a variable speed twist grip to prevent carpal tunnel and offer the operator greater control. There is also an easily accessible safety stop switch for immediate shut-off in case of emergency.

DJ Products offers a wide selection of material handling solutions to streamline your operation safely and efficiently. Our free demo trial program lets you see first-hand how your company can benefit from using the Cart Caddy or any other cart pushers. Expert Sales Engineers are ready to answer your questions at 800.686.2651.

Tag: Tugs