We recently mailed thousands of dock equipment mini-catalogs, so you may already have a copy. If not, read on to download one.

It focuses on ways to improve productivity, safety, and security at the shipping & receiving dock. The focus is on equipment such as our exclusive truck-to-dock delivery vehicle conveyor,  dock bumpers, dockplates, and dock door security cages, plastic strip doors. We also toss in some basic storage equipment like shelving and racks, along with all kinds of protective equipment, including edge-of-dock safety gates, bollard covers, man trap dock door cages, column protectors, and more.

• Check out the mini-catalog here (966KB PDF, opens a new window). You can also contact customer service and request a hard copy.
• Article: Security at the Shipping Dock: How to Harden the Target.

Prices are fluid and subject to change in this day and age of energy and steel volatility, so check the part number on our website for any changes.

Duncan Prince of Material Handling Wholesaler has a short, informative piece you might appreciate on preventing workers’ compensation fraud.  In a system that costs business billions of dollars every year, there is ample opportunity — and motivation — for fraud.  Prince argues that many employers, but in particular smaller operations, take a hands-off approach to worker compensation. After all, they believe that it is just an insurance issue.

The problem: worker compensation fraud isn’t an insurance issue at all…

(more…)

It’s been the big story in manufacturing for more than a decade: companies are sending plants offshore to take advantage of inexpensive labor. But according to Exel Logistics, the advantages of manufacturing overseas have waned over the last few years. Will U.S. companies begin to bring manufacturing operations home, faced with increasing burdens and decreasing ROI on their overseas facilities?

(more…)

Inventory theft horror stories like this one are not as uncommon as you might wish.

The everyday stuff that hits many shipping docks may not be as organized, or to such a scale, but any operation that stores, ships or receives valuable items is at risk of being hit – or is already being hit to some degree.  In the above case, an organized group of thieves working at a shipping dock would simply wait until after a supervisor finished checking outbound shipments and add more to them. Since the shipments sat on the docks for 90 minutes, it gave the pilferers plenty of time to work on this. They would place extra cases onto staged pallets and those would ship out on trucks driven by colluding drivers. The next day, the drivers would sell the extra product for cash and split the proceeds with their warehouse accomplices.

(more…)

Leaving a dock door open all day is an invitation to have someone stroll your aisles, check out your inventory, and perhaps take something. Most busy operations, particularly in good weather situations, leave those doors open. Often, the crew is busy with actual work; they don’t have the time to monitor visitors, delivery drivers, service providers, and every other person who strolls in.

(more…)

With the focus on plant security the last few years, it’s little wonder that companies are outfitting their warehouses with security partitions and cages for high-value inventory, restricted access areas, tool cribs, and other places where more physical control of the property is needed. They are superb in these functions, keeping tools, components and inventories safe for a relatively low cost vs. other kinds of security measures.

Recently we started to offer welded wire partitions alongside the traditional woven cages that have been standard in the industry for years. Both are good equipment. Both will secure an area. Both will keep unauthorized people out of places they aren’t supposed to be. But they are different products, with different applications.

(more…)

We’ve offered quick ship metal lockers from Penco for years. They ship fast, they’re easy to order, but sizes, color, and other options are limited. You can order them today and you’ll get them fast. They’re used all over the place – schools, warehouse locker rooms, industrial and commercial facilities. People like them for easy, inexpensive secure personal storage. But now, we’re offering Built to Order Vanguard Lockers priced by the frame on our site. This gives you a ton of options and flexibility.

(more…)

Something we often recommend to save space for our clients is modular drawer storage — for certain operations, in particular those with components, assorted small parts, hardware, or even tool storage, we’re talking about recouping 50% -70% of floor space. Once people have ‘em, they love ‘em.

But there is more than one way to skin that cat. You can configure different kinds of cabinets to do different jobs. There are hundreds of possible combinations of drawer styles and sizes. Another wrinkle is what happens when you can merge the drawers with steel shelving. It can be new, it can be some you are already using. It begs the question: when is it better to have a cabinet, and when is it better to use shelving and compartmentalized drawer inserts?

(more…)

Unguarded rack is flat-out dangerous if orders are being picked in the lower bays, or there is consistent foot traffic below. Safety managers know this, insurance companies know it, and if you have rack in your facility, you should know it too. Look, we have all probably seen pallets break. We’ve seen drivers make mistakes when loading & unloading. We’ve seen things fall off. If you’ve been in the business any length of time, you may have walked into your warehouse in the morning to find a case of something from the fourth level split open on the floor. It happens to everyone, and if you’re in the industry long enough, it’ll happen to you.

Stuff falls off of racks, and if we’re fortunate, none of the stuff hits someone. But you can also prevent that drop in the first place and maybe save the stored inventory as well. So if you buy into the fact that your racks should have some fall protection, then the question becomes: “what kind?”

(more…)

That’s a compelling line from Ed Tittel’s article at SearchSecurity.com.

For Datacenter, server, and other sensitive information technology, it seems as if the security focus has sometimes missed the actual servers themselves. As Tittel says in the piece, “…just about any Windows NT, 2000 or XP laptop, booting this software (NT Locksmith) from a floppy permits a knowledgeable Windows person to take over the machine and reset the administrator password in 5-10 minutes.”

(more…)