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Forklift 1TM Material Handling Equipment and Warehouse Management Systems
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In the News: Disabled workers enable Walgreens distribution By Tom Andel Source September 1, 2007. Drug store chain Walgreens recently opened an innovative new distribution center in Anderson, S.C. What makes the facility unique is not the technology inside—it's the workforce. 40% of the DC's (Distribution Center = warehouse) 264 employees are people with disabilities. Many of them were recruited through a special Web site—walgreensoutreach.com—that uses videos and detailed job descriptions to help potential employees determine whether they're qualified for the work. Walgreens' hiring initiative is not just charity. The Anderson facility, says Randy Lewis, vice president of distribution and logistics at Walgreens, is 20% more efficient than the chain's older DCs. "With these workers we have the lowest turnover and less absenteeism, and there are a lot of other rational arguments you can make," says Lewis, adding that this workforce performs just as well or better than one without disabilities. Employees at the Anderson facility use touch-screens that display icons, and workstations are ergonomically designed to the workers' range of motion. The company will duplicate this recipe of people and technology at a DC scheduled to open in Hartford, Conn., in 2009. While not all Walgreens' facilities use the same technology, all of them employ people of varying abilities, including those with autism and cerebral palsy. Jim Tompkins, president and CEO of supply chain consulting firm Tompkins Associates, says there's a big future in materials handling for senior citizens, the disabled and a variety of other people who have not been successful finding employment. "What a shame more companies aren't doing [what Walgreens is]," he says. "Underemployed people often turn out to be very loyal. You don't have turnover or absenteeism and they take pride in their work. Plus, pick-to-light or put-to-light technology is conducive to employing the handicapped in that environment." Randy Lewis offers these tips for building a workforce of people with disabilities: 1) Get a partner to provide the workforce (consult your state's vocational rehab agency). 2) Start with a "rock star" employee. 3) Hold your ground on standards. 4) Face co-workers' fears with education. In the News: Forklifts Tap into Nuvera Hydrogen, CAMBRIDGE, MA, United States. Nuvera Fuel Cells Inc has installed its first hydrogen generation system for fuel cell applications at its partner East Penn Manufacturing Company Inc’s Topton, Pennsylvania, distribution centre. Nuvera Fuel Cells and East Penn agreed to develop a hybrid battery and fuel cell electric power source for forklifts and other off-road industrial vehicles in January 2005 (Forkliftaction.com News #191). Hydrogen generated by the PowerTap system will power a fleet of fuel cell-powered forklifts. The system has been implemented as part of a field test of the new ReadyPower unit, which combines Nuvera’s fuel cell technology and East Penn’s advanced lead-acid battery design. PowerTap global market leader Charles Myers said PowerTap was designed with the objective of producing on-site hydrogen in the most cost-effective way for delivery to the fleet of forklifts. “This hydrogen source is economically attractive and a viable source of alternative energy for warehouses and distribution centres today.”PowerTap’s PTG-50 generation module produces hydrogen from natural gas at a rate of 2.4kg/hour. Nuvera’s proprietary technology, using pressure swing absorption technology and providing hydrogen at a minimum purity of 99.995 per cent, is at the core of the PTG-50. Famous Blunders - Learning from Our Mistakes - Wacky Industrial News - - 101 Dumbest Moments in Business by Adam Horowitz, Mark Athitakis, Mark Lasswell, and Owen Thomas, Business 2.0 - - To err is human. So is snickering at others’ mindless mistakes. Have a giggle over these manufacturing mishaps and silly snafus - - Nuts Over Bolts - - Workers at Lockheed Martin unceremoniously drop a $239-million weather satellite while moving it, inflicting a reported $135 million in damage. A NASA investigation uncovers the mishap and reveals that the cause of the accident was 24 missing bolts - - A Little Something Extra - - Hormel Foods is left with no choice but to recall 104,000 lbs. of Stagg canned chili, when it discovers that it has inadvertently added an extra ingredient--bits and pieces of a plastic handheld calculator - - What a Track Record - - Chairman of gunmaker Smith & Wesson, James Joseph Minder, is forced to resign when newspaper reporters dig up his criminal record. It turns out that before he was a corporate executive, Minder was in prison for 15 years for a series of armed robberies and an attempted prison break - - Not Even Close - - The Grand Challenge - a robot race across the Mojave Desert - was supposed to spark innovation in self-driving vehicles. Unfortunately, not one of the 15 entrants seemed particularly inspired as they all fail to come within 134 miles of the finish line. The "champion" of the Pentagon-sponsored event is a refashioned Hummer constructed by a team from Carnegie Mellon for $3 million. It manages to travel 7 miles before it bumps into a rock and its tires catch fire - - Quite a Bash - - All Nokia wanted to do was invite its customers to a lively gathering at an industry trade show in Germany. Instead the cell-phone maker's text message invitation proves to be so potent that it immediately debilitates hundreds of phones. The damage is so severe that the cell phones have to be brought to Nokia service centers to be repaired - - SOS from a TV - - An orbiting search and rescue satellite notifies police and the Air Force when it picks up an international distress signal coming from ... a TV set. TV owner Chris van Rossman of Corvallis, Oregon is mystified, and TV manufacturer Toshiba has no explanation for the uniquely gifted idiot box but does offer to get him a new one - - They've Come Undone - - Bike-lock maker Kryptonite, whose slogan is "Tough World, Tough Locks," discovers that most of the locks it has manufactured for the past three decades are not so tough after all. Last September, bloggers started posting videos showing that all it takes is a Bic pen to pick open its widely used U-shaped locks. Donna Tocci, spokeswoman for the Ingersoll-Rand subsidiary, tries to assure customers that the locks still prevent theft and that Kryptonite would rush deliveries of its new locks to stores. But this fails to appease angry bloggers, forcing the company to agree to replace its Bic pen-challenged products - at an estimated cost of $10 million. As of December, Kryptonite is still struggling to manufacture and ship the 100,000 replacement locks, derailing shipments of new locks and costing the company some $6 million in sales. Funny Box - ROMANCE MATHEMATICS - Smart man + smart woman = romance. Smart man + dumb woman = affair. Dumb man + smart woman = marriage. Dumb man + dumb woman = pregnancy. OFFICE ARITHMETIC - Smart boss + smart employee = profit. Smart boss + dumb employee = production. Dumb boss + smart employee = promotion. Dumb boss + dumb employee = overtime. SHOPPING MATH - A man will pay $2 for a $1 item he needs. A woman will pay $1 for a $2 item that she doesn't need. GENERAL EQUATIONS & STATISTICS - A woman worries about the future until she gets a husband. A man never worries about the future until he gets a wife. A successful man is one who makes more money than his wife can spend. A successful woman is one who can find such a man. HAPPINESS - To be happy with a man, you must understand him a lot and love him a little. To be happy with a woman, you must love her a lot and not try to understand her at all. LONGEVITY - Married men live longer than single men do, but married men are a lot more willing to die. PROPENSITY TO CHANGE - A woman marries a man expecting he will change, but he doesn't. A man marries a woman expecting that she won't change, and she does. DISCUSSION TECHNIQUE - A woman has the last word in any argument. Anything a man says after that is the beginning of a new argument. HOW TO STOP PEOPLE FROM BUGGING YOU ABOUT GETTING MARRIED - Old aunts used to come up to me at weddings, poking me in the ribs and cackling, telling me, "You're next." They stopped after I started doing the same thing to them at funerals. Worth Mentioning: Supply chain trade associations are collaborating to form the American Logistics Aid Network (ALAN). The network will assist government and relief agencies in providing humanitarian aid to prepare for and respond to disaster situations. The following Associations are among the founders of ALAN: Material Handling Industry of America, Material Handling Equipment Distributors Association, Warehousing Education and Research Council, and Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals. Occupational Safety: The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) reports 6,000 people die each year from workplace injuries, with another 6 million workers suffering non-fatal workplace injuries at an annual cost of more than $125 billion to U.S. businesses. “The world’s most efficiently run manufacturers understand better than most the drain injuries place on employees, and on corporate profits,” IndustryWeek noted earlier this month. “Companies interested in improving productivity, quality, morale and employee health while reducing injuries employ multi-faceted programs to aggressively address the issue.” In this context, “due diligence” means taking all reasonable care in all circumstances of the workplace to protect the health and safety of all workers. This is the standard of care required to comply with OSHA regulations. And it requires communicating and fostering a culture of safety. An IBM server worth $1.4 million was wrecked after it fell off a forklift during shipping, InformationWeek recently reported. Now the customer is suing. "The rear wheels of their forklift hit the raised surface at the entry door of the warehouse, causing the forklift to rock, and subsequently causing the server to rock … As a result of the rocking motion, the base of the pallet and the crate broke and the crate fell onto the curb, damaging the server packed inside," the contractor stated in court papers filed in July. "The damage sustained by T.R. Systems was due to the poor workmanship and/or defective packaging design and methods used by IBM," the company argued in court papers. Now, $1.4 million is a lot of money — yet this doesn't hold a candle to the loss of human life still too common to forklift screw-ups. In the U.S. alone, 1,021 workers died from traumatic injuries suffered in forklift-related incidents from 1980 to 1994, according to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). Forklift-related accidents also kill more than 100 workers a year, according to eMedia's Health & Safety in Manufacturing Bulletin. About a quarter of these fatalities are caused by overturning. It comes as little surprise, then, that "Powered Industrial Trucks," or forklifts, came in at #6 on OSHA's most recent list of top 10 violations. National fatality data from NIOSH indicate that the three most common forklift-related fatalities involve forklift overturns, workers on foot being struck by forklifts and workers falling from forklifts. Inadequate operator training again accounted most frequently for federal forklift-related violations, the US Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) said. Statistics for the year to September 30 repeated OSHA’s findings on citations for forklift violations in past years. Other than training, OSHA issued the most forklift violations during fiscal 2006 for operating an unsafe vehicle, 418; lack of vehicle certification, 375; missing triennial evaluation of operator performance, 256; and untimely frequency of inspections, 223. “The biggest issue for powered industrial trucks (forklifts) is lack of training,” Richard Fairfax, director of OSHA enforcement programs, said on November 7 while discussing OSHA’s top 10 violations program at the National Safety Council annual congress, in San Diego.Glossary: ADC = Automatic Data Capture | ADP = Automatic Data Processing | AGVS = Automatic Guided Vehicle Systems | AI = Artificial Intelligence | AIDC = Automatic Identification & Data Collection | AKA = Also Known As | ASCII = American National Standard for Information Interchange | ASRS = Automatic Storage & Retrieval Systems | Assn = Association | B2B = Business to Business | B2C = Business to Consumer | CAD-CAM = Computer-Aided Design or Manufacturing | CB = Counterbalanced. Forklift with Weight Added to Prevent Tipover. Sit-down & Stand-up Models | CFR = Code of Federal Regulations | CNC = Computer Numerical Control | CNG = Concentrated Natural Gas | Co = Company | Corp = Corporation | Cushion Tire = Actually a Misnomer. A Solid Rubber Forklift Tire | DBMS = Data Base Management System | e-Business = Refers to Electronic but Implies Internet/ Website Based Marketing & Order Taking | DC = Either Data Capture or Distribution Center | ERP = Enterprise Resource Planning | Eductor = Device using Pressurized Motive Fluid Liquid or Gas to Drive another Fluid along a Conveying Line | FMRI = Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Detects Flow of Blood to Brain's Centers of Pleasure, Thought or Memory; What do Consumers Really Think? | FMS = Ambiguous except in Context = Financial or Freight Management Systems | GDP = Gross Domestic Product, an Indicator Production & Sales of the National Economy | GIS = Geographic Information System | GVWR = Gross Vehicle Weight Rating. Includes Weight of Vehicle, Passengers, Cargo & Equipment | GUI = Graphical User Interface. A typical GUI is your Computer's monitor | HMI = Human-Machine Interface | HQ = Headquarters | HR = Human Resources/ Personnel | IC = Internal Combustion | ID = Identification | Inc = Incorporated | Info = Information | Inst = Institute | ISO = International Organization for Standardization | IP = Internet Protocol. An identifier for a computer or device on a TCP/IP network. Networks using the TCP/IP protocol route messages based on the IP address of the destination. IP protocol deals only with packets of data | IT = Information Technology | ITA = International Truck Association. Related in Many Ways to Forklifts. E.g. Established the Seven ITA Classes of Forklifts | LAN = Local Area Network | LCD Liquid Crystal Display | LED Liquid Electronic Display | LPG = Liquified Petroleum Gas = Propane | LOL = Laughing out Loud | MCSE = Microsoft (Certified) Computer Systems Engineer | MEMS = Micro-electromechanical Systems, AKA Analog Computing or Smart Matter, Tiny Mechanical Devices such as Sensors, Valves, Gears, Mirrors, & Actuators Embedded in Semiconductor Chips | MES/MRP = Manufacturing Execution System | Mfr = Manufacturer, Manufacturing, etc. | MHE = Material Handling Equipment | MRFM = Magnetic-resonance Force Microscopy, Nanotechnology Hybrid of MRI Magnetic-resonance Imaging & AFM Atomic Force Microscopy | MTM = Single-setup Multitasking Machine Tools, such as Milling & Turning | OEM Dealer = Original Equipment Manufacturer (Implies a Dealer who sells a Brand Name Item, Usually with Some Exclusive Marketing Agreement | OIT = Operator Interface Terminal | OP = Order Picker, Forklift where the Operator & the Controls Rise with the Load | Org = Organization | OS = Computer's Operating System, e.g. x86 Linux, FreeBSD, PowerPC linux, Sparc Linux, Windows 98/ME/NT/2000/XP, Mac OS8/9, Mac OS X, AIX, SGI Irix, Compaq UNIX, HP-UX, Solaris | OSHA = Occupational Safety & Health Administration, U.S. Department of Labor | PBX = Private Branch Exchange | PLC = Programmable Logic Controller | PLM = Product Lifecycle Management, now Critical for Government Compliance, Engineering Changes & ERP Systems | POS = Point-of-Sale Terminal | RF = Radio Frequency | Reach Truck = Forklift with Hydraulically Operated Mechanism, AKA Pantograph, that Extends Forks to Engage Load | RFDC = Radio Frequency Data Capture | RFID = Radio Frequency Identification | RMC = Remote Control | RNAi = Ribonucleic Acid Interference,a Biotechnology Modality Biotechnology to battle AIDS, Cancer, Heart Disease, Parkinson's | RRC = Radio Remote Controls | RSS = Software Format for Syndicating News & Content of News-like Sites | SCE = Supply Chain Execution | SCES = Up-to-the-Minute Supply Chain Technology. Detailed Systems Report Revenues, Track Pick Quantities, tell Managers Most Productive Employees, Check Supplier's Inventory Availability | SCM = Supply Chain Management | SCP = Supply Chain Planning | Sq = Square | SI = Systems Integration | SW = Software | Suite = a Cluster of Related Software | TMS = Transportation Management Systems | UK = United Kingdom | WMC = Warehouse Management Controls | WMS = Warehouse Management Systems, usually Refers to Computer Controls | Hardware & Software + Design, Manufacture, Installation, Monitoring & Consulting | TCP = Transmission Control Protocol. One of main protocols in TCP/IP networks. Enables two hosts to establish connection and exchange streams of data. Guarantees delivery of data and that packets will be delivered in same order sent | 3PL = Third Party Logistics, e.g. Warehouse & DC Companies that Store & Distribute for Others
Directory
Policy: It is the purpose to develop an up-to-date and broad based,
independent source of information for the users of forklift and/or automated
systems for materials handling as well as the manufacturers and distributors of
that equipment and those systems. No endorsement of the companies listed or
their products is made. They are provided for information only and for the user
to investigate and determine their value. Directory Listings: Get 1000
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Directory, Forklift1 Operator and Safety Trainer Training Systems and the
Forklift1 Website were designed, built and are owned by Tom Courtney. His
experience includes over 25 Years as the owner of a forklift and material
handling equipment dealership, service center and safety training business. He
has post graduate studies in accounting & computer science, an MBA in
finance from UCLA.
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