Tag: wagon caddy

Riding an Experiential Trend, Breweries Enter the Hotel Market

Use of Industrial Caddies Can Keep Your Employees Safe When Moving Heaving Objects Like Kegs
Use of Industrial Caddies Can Keep Your Employees Safe When Moving Heaving Objects Like Kegs

Breweries of all sizes seem to have found their niche somewhere in the market. Everything from global retailers to local micro-breweries see success, but one beer-maker has decided to take things a step further with a hotel theme based on brewery-related tourism.

Start of a Trend?

Stay and play destinations have been around for centuries, but few, if any, have been developed around the concept of a brewery. With micro-brews becoming more popular every year, it was probably only a matter of time before someone decided to try a destination brewery concept. What remains to be seen is if the first one will be a one-off experiment with questionable results, or if the hotel’s success leads to other micro- and macro-brewers designing their own beer-themed affiliated hotels. It’s likely that you will have an answer to that question within the next couple of years.

Unique Challenges for Brewery-Themed Hotels

Hotels that cater to a specialty clientele usually have to provide more to their guests to make up for the higher price. This can include hauling around more items, requiring more manpower, or specialized equipment that can do most of the heavy lifting. With a hotel attached to a brewery, chances are that many kegs of beer will need to be moved around, requiring the use of powered hotel carts. These carts can reduce staffing, cut down on service time, and reduce staff injuries considerably.

To find out more about our hotel maintenance solutions, give us a call at 1-800-686-2651. Our knowledgeable team can help you find the right product for any job – big or small.

Optimizing Warehouse Operations with a WagonCaddy

Many warehouse and distribution center employees face the unique challenge of preparing for dramatic increases in business during some seasons. In fact, depending upon the type of material being stored and shipped from a facility, the vast majority of shipments may occur during one brief window during the year. Without the proper material handling equipment, like the WagonCaddy from DJ Products, these exceedingly busy times of year can dramatically increase the chance of employee injury.

Even during the lower volume times of year manual material handling can increase the risk of musculoskeletal injuries. It might only take a single occasion where an employee attempts to strong arm a heavy load of product manually for a serious injury to occur. When the amount of incoming and outgoing shipments is doubled or tripled the chances of injuries caused by manually moving heavy carts of material goes up as well. The risk of injuries can be minimized if a warehouse or distribution center invests in equipment that is properly designed to handle hauling heavy loads of product like the WagonCaddy from DJ.

Workplace injuries can have a major impact on a business in a few different ways. A serious injury could put a very valuable member of the distribution center team out of work for the foreseeable future. This could put quite a bit of additional stress on the remaining employees who are left to fill the void during the busy times of year, possibly paving the way for additional injuries.

A serious injury to an employee can also result in the need for a costly workers’ compensation claim. Depending upon the severity of the injury a workers’ compensation claim could cost a distribution center thousands and thousands of dollars.

The WagonCaddy has built in safety features like an ergonomically designed variable speed control and an emergency stop switch. This makes this versatile piece of equipment an incredibly effective for increasing safety and efficiency in any high volume distributorship.

Power Mover Could Take Bite Out of Prepping for Ida

The weather folks are in their glory, on full alert as hurricane Ida churns toward the Gulf Coast. Even up here in the far northern reaches of the Midwest (Little Falls, MN) where even mild fallout from Ida is highly unlikely, local weather broadcasters are dancing on screen in paroxysms of joy as they gasp the latest warning bulletins. It’s likely to be a few weeks before any real snow hits our neck of the woods, so I guess Ida gives the storm chasers something to do; but prevailing winds being what they are, I don’t think we’re in much danger of flooding up here.

All the hoopla in the press did give me a new idea to pass along to our sales team. I saw resort workers struggling to push stacked lounge chairs across pool aprons and into storage areas. You could see them struggling to muscle the heavy stacks of chairs against the wind. It occurred to me how easy the job with be with DJ Products’ versatile WagonCaddy power mover. We’ve already adapted our powered material handling equipment to help local schools maneuver metal bleachers around school gymnasiums and on and off playing fields. This application for the hospitality industry would be a snap!

Ergonomically-designed to take the strain off workers’ backs, DJ Products’ WagonCaddy power mover allows an operator to quickly and easily transport materials — like lounge chairs — parts or machinery without physical exertion. (Click here to see a video of the WagonCaddy in action.) Like all of our ergonomically-designed, powered material handling equipment, this tug is equipped with an instant safety stop to prevent injuries. A variable speed thumb twist allows the operator to smoothly move in forward and reverse up to 3 mph. Compact design allows for maneuvering in narrow corridors and tight spaces and the cart can pivot loads a full 360 degrees. For full details, visit DJ Products website.

Technology Changes the Way Material Handling is Performed in 2015

Large warehouse
Business Growth and Automation

When your business grows, can you handle the surge in labor? Technological advances in material handling are making things easier with automation. From manufacturing equipment, to warehouse distribution, to shipment — industrial tugs and other automated material handling solutions are driving growth in all industries.

Forecasts through 2019 call for a compound annual growth rate of more than 8 percent in the material handling industry. The numbers from BCC Research point to high-tech advances ranging from robotics to wearable tech as a source of growth for the next 20 years.

Tech that Makes Material Handling Faster, More Agile

Buzzwords like scalability and flexibility have been around for years. The new tech available are turning those concepts into a key part of everyday operations.

Consider the effects of adding industrial tugs to a warehouse. With a manual wheeled cart, a single employee can only move “X amount” of products around the warehouse floor in a given day. With a motorized tug that pushes or pulls the cart, the employee avoids the physical strain of maneuvering the heavy items all day.

Busier than usual one day? Automated solutions help your existing workforce accomplish more. If order volumes vary by day or season, a warehouse can keep costs down with a right-sized workforce using smart solutions that provide the flexibility and scalability required at all times.

Growing Your Business with Automated Material Handling

If your staff moves inventory, equipment, or vehicles around the worksite, we have industrial powered carts to increase productivity (and reduce worker injury, too).

Check out the WagonCaddy and other industrial tugs at DJProducts.com for more info.