Tag: warehouse equipment

Will the IoT Make Your Supply Chain “Smarter”?

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Will the IoT Make Your Supply Chain “Smarter”?

Do you track your workouts with a FitBit or run your household with the help of Amazon’s Alexa? Welcome to the Internet of Things (IoT), a world of “smart” devices that are impacting your personal life and revolutionizing supply chain management.

Making Your Supply Chain “Smarter”

While these Internet-connected devices have been making a big splash, it’s not going to slow down any time soon. In fact, research firm Gartner recently issued a prediction that the number of IoT devices will increase thirty-fold by the year 2020.

How does this new technology impact supply chains and logistics? The IoT will connect people, processes, information and equipment to an extent never before possible, providing an amazing depth and breadth of data.

A Real-Life Scenario

A significant example of this benefit is in-transit visibility. As products pass through a number of points between manufacturer and consumer, an agile supply network is needed to follow them through all steps of the supply chain.

Cloud-based GPS and radio frequency identification (RFID) technologies can be used to transmit identity, location and other data that’s crucial to accurate tracking. With a chip in a pallet and a coordinated device in the shipping vehicle, stakeholders can monitor progress in real time and make proactive decisions based on the constant flow of data.

DJ Products: The Leader in Warehouse Handling Equipment

While the IoT takes supply chain management to another level, our battery-powered warehouse handling equipment makes labor-intensive tasks easier and safer. Contact us to learn more about our popular CartCaddy5WP and other products in our full line of electric pushers, tugs and movers.

Functional Equipment doesn’t necessarily mean Basic Equipment

Many of the duties performed in a warehousing environment are repetitive, especially if much of the material distributed is similar.  Employees in the receiving department follow the appropriate procedure from unloading to stocking and the shipping department will follow their detailed procedure for pulling, stationing and prepping the materials to be picked up by the freight carrier.

This seemingly simple operation might lead people to believe that any old equipment can perform the job – all the employees are doing is moving materials from one spot to another right?  This assumption couldn’t be further from the truth though, the procedures followed in many warehouses and distribution centers follow a similar path – but if safe, reliable and properly designed equipment weren’t available, the business would never be able to keep up with the competition.

Some warehouses would probably be able to function for a very brief period with just the most rudimentary materials, like hand trucks and pallet jacks – provided that the material is to large or cumbersome to be handled manually.  There are probably some distribution centers that could squeak by for a brief period with outdated propane fueled forklifts that are prone to breakdown and require regular maintenance but operating in this fashion would certainly mean the most difficult road for the employees and the biggest risk of not being capable of accurately fulfilling orders.

The ergonomically designed and battery powered lifts from DJ Products are the solution to any material handling problem plaguing a warehouse or distribution center.  These lifts and carts are easy to operate, quiet, safe and the most reliable available.  These days, just keeping up with the competition in the distribution industry may not be enough to survive – you have to give your employees every edge to be able to fulfill orders as quickly and accurately as possible.  The edge often begins with the equipment used to get the job done, that’s why many warehouses and distribution centers are turning to the lifts and carts produced by DJ Products for their material handling needs.

Eliminating Overhead the Smart Way

The economy is still lagging far behind what it was a few years ago and though some industries are beginning to see some promise, logistics and third party warehouses are still struggling to stay out of the red.  In order to keep the doors open, many businesses are being forced to find a way to cut overhead because the customers just don’t have money to spend.

Many businesses are moving to smaller facilities, cutting down the inventory they stock and even cutting employees just to lower spending enough to remain profitable.  If you slash inventory, move to a smaller facility or cut employees you could be hurting your company’s ability to provide adequate service, but there is a way that you can spend less money while at the same time improving your ability to serve the customer.

Propane powered equipment may seem like the most convenient and efficient way to move material, but when you calculate the cost of fuel and tally up the frequent maintenance and repair costs you’ll see that quite a bit of your budget is being spent on this equipment that is supposed to be saving your company money.  A much more economic way to move material is with battery operated carts and lifts.

The lifts and carts offered by DJ Products are quiet, efficient and incredibly reliable and the cost of operation is far less than that of a propane powered forklift.  A single employee can easily maneuver around tight spaces with heavy loads of inventory and not ever have to worry about wasting time changing an empty fuel tank – the lifts and carts from DJ can last an entire shift on a single charge.

You don’t need to sacrifice the quality of your service, your capacity to store product or your number of employees to get back into the green – you may be to be able to cut costs and provide better service by running your operation with the right equipment.

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.

Upcoming Material Handling Conventions

With the rapid pace of change in the material handling field, it can be a monumental task to keep up with the latest news. Why not make plans to attend one of the industry conferences and trade shows? You’ll have access to hundreds of resources in one place along with educational sessions addressing the latest trends and developments.

Be sure to mark your calendar for these upcoming events:

  • International Manufacturing Technology Show (IMTS), September 8-13, 2014 in Chicago, IL Billed as one of the largest industrial trade shows in the world, this event draws more than 100,000 attendees from over 100 different countries. Displays from 1,900 exhibitors focus on industries such as aerospace, automotive and medical.
  • APICS 2014, October 19-21, 2014 in New Orleans, LA This conference is considered the premier event for supply chain and operational management professionals. Educational sessions are organized around paths based on different areas of interest. Available themes include Operational Efficiency, Supply Chain Innovation and Risk and Resiliency.
  • Pro-Mat 2015, March 23-26, 2015 in Chicago, IL More than 800 exhibitors will be featuring the latest in material handling and logistics equipment. There will be more than 100 informational sessions including show floor seminars and keynote speakers on current supply chain topics. Your ticket is also good for admission to Automate 2015, a companion show highlighting cutting-edge automation technologies and solutions.

DJ Products is proud to be one of the leaders in this vital and progressive industry. Our battery-powered tugs, pullers and pushers provide safe and effective material handling solutions for a wide variety of applications. Call 800.686.2651 or use our convenient online chat feature for more information.

New Technologies Shake Up Warehousing But Boost Employment Trends

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Maximize Efficiency

New technologies are a cornerstone of improving market share and innovation in all aspects of business. As businesses become more effective and creative, one of the least efficient aspects is logistics. In the past, every business that made a product needed a warehouse in which to store it. These warehouses needed to be maintained, stocked and manned. If a business made products, they always had to have space to store them. That was the bottom line.

Outsourcing

Today, if you are a small business with local demand for your product, and you don’t have the storage space, you can outsource a warehouse. If you’re a large business with a world-wide demand for your products, and you want to cut costs, you can outsource a warehouse. This is called third party logistics, or 3PL for short, and it takes away the warehouse management needed from both small and large business owners.

Warehouse Equipment

3PL’s are the new wave in warehouse problem solving. They can provide warehousing, transportation or even raw material provision. The key to this modern type of warehousing is called containerization, where products are stored in like sized containers that can be stacked and transported efficiently. This has opened up an entire new industry, with the needs for new and effective warehouse equipment to support it.

For more information on warehouse equipment for any job, contact DJ Products, makers of trailer movers, dumpster movers and even rail car movers. We have the mobile solution to your warehouse floor management.

Making the Most of Your Space

A few years back, when business was booming, the answer to the need for increased space because of increased business was simple – upgrade to a larger facility that can handle the increase of inventory.  Now things aren’t quite so simple, increases in margins remain slim and there is constant competition to attract and keep new customers, so many business are leery about taking on greater overheads to try and meet customer demands – instead businesses are being forced to recreate the space that they are in an effort to hold the necessary inventory to satisfy customer demands.

This may mean changing storage racks, warehouse aisles and converting office space in order to make room for additional product storage and this restructuring of space may also mean that the equipment being used may no longer be as effective with the more constrained spaces.  Traditional forklifts can be bulky and may need a good deal of space to  maneuver  around a warehouse  – if you decrease the amount of room for travel there may no longer be enough room for a large forklift to effectively operate.

Though upgrading to smaller, safer and more efficient equipment will bring about an initial investment, unlike assuming a new lease for a larger space, this investment will immediately begin to pay for itself.  The powered carts and lifts from DJ Products allow a single employee to move heavy loads around in the smallest places easily – meaning that your employees won’t struggle at all in the smaller and more cramped spaces and that your business will maintain the same level of productivity despite the fact that your employees have less space to move around in.

Your new equipment will cost less to operate and allow your employees to get the job done quicker, which is exactly the formula you need to attract and keep more customers without having to move into a larger facility.