Improving a warehousing operation is a complex endeavor that can be approached from any number of angles. Here are 13 common actions you can consider in any warehouse improvement effort:
13 Best Practices for Warehouse Productivity
March 17, 2011
by Scott Stone
Posted in Warehousing & Distribution|
Why Warehouse Employees Ignore Safe Lifting Advice – and How to Help Them
December 5, 2010
by Scott Stone
The most common advice that ergonomics experts, OSHA, and other researchers provide to people in warehousing or other jobs that require manual lifting is that you should always bend your knees and lift that way, rather than bend at the waist to pick something up. Repetitive stress on the lower back is staggering: 20% of workplace injuries are related to lower back issues. Lifting right is essential to employee safety, and also to preventing Worker Compensation claims.
Even when you train employees to lift right – and we know that not everyone does – they frequently ignore the advice. Why?
Tags: ergonomics, lifting, musculoskeletal, warehouse workers, back issues, injury prevention
Posted in Safety & Ergonomics|
Forklift Safety: Don’t Blame the Driver
June 24, 2010
by Scott Stone
Most forklift accidents are blamed on operator error, but that is just partially true – and something of a cop-out. Rough estimates say that a quarter of forklift accidents could be avoided by addressing environmental concerns. When you eliminate those, it helps you understand better when a driver is truly ineffective, or just hamstrung by the way your warehouse is set up. In other words, before you point the finger at the driver, take a look at your operation. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: OSHA, warehouse safety, forklift safety
Posted in Forklift - Pedestrian Safety|
Guide to Forklift Safety for Pedestrians
January 18, 2010
by Scott Stone
Take a few minutes to watch this video from WorkSafeBC on how to prevent forklift injuries from a pedestrian’s point of view.
As a pedestrian in a forklift environment, it’s your responsibility to keep yourself safe. Anyone who runs a warehouse or industrial facility understands the dangers, and drivers should be trained. Do you train the pedestrians, the order pickers, the managers, and vendors who sometimes roam your facility and are exposed to forklift traffic? Watch the video. It’s 12 minutes long, and worth every second.
Tags: Manufacturing, industrial safety, warehouse safety, storage systems, forklift safety, warehousing, Pallet Rack
Posted in Forklift - Pedestrian Safety|
Horizontal Carousels: Why Top Drive is Better
January 6, 2010
by Scott Stone
The age-old argument of top-versus bottom-driven horizontal carousels comes up all too frequently (at least among carousel people). You may think it doesn’t matter that much but in fact, it makes all the difference in the world. Supporting something from underneath makes sense. After all, trains, cars and most rolling objects are bottom-supported. Yet, the best designed horizontal carousels in the world are top-supported units that outperform bottom-supported units in both speed and efficiency. How can that be?
Posted in Automation, Labor & Efficiency|
Get Your Pushback Rack Load Right
October 12, 2009
by Scott Stone
Push back rack systems are excellent high density storage solutions — perhaps the most economical way to squeeze space out of a crowded warehouse. All loads are stored and retrieved from the same aisle. This reduces the number of aisles needed in a facility, freeing up more space for storage. Aisles can take a great deal of space up in a typical warehouse, so by implementing a pushback pallet rack system, you essentially swap selectivity for space. Push back rack systems provide a Last-In-First-Out (LIFO) inventory rotation, so you have to be certain your load fits. If it does, congratulations — you’ve just saved a lot of space.
But there are issues that can arise when pushback rack is inappropriately specified or utilized.
Posted in Pallet & Warehouse Racks|
7 Steps to Help You Prevent Worker Compensation Fraud
September 8, 2009
by Scott Stone
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.
Tags: security, workers' compensation, insurance fraud, plant safety
Posted in Safety & Ergonomics|
Options for Mobile Weighing Technologies in the Warehouse
July 11, 2008
by Scott Stone
In dynamic distribution environments, accurate, fast weighing, counting, and dimensioning systems are more important than ever. This is particularly true in 3PLs and other operations where needs often change. Getting it right, and getting it quickly has become increasingly more important. One way is to utilize the newer mobile weighing systems on the market today.
Tags: inventory accuracy, warehousing, Material Handling, scales, industrial weighing systems
Posted in Warehousing & Distribution|
Comparing Gravity Flow Rack Types
June 15, 2008
by Scott Stone
Walk into any order fulfillment operation, and you will see gravity flow rack.
The reason is obvious–it’s one of the best ways to pick orders utilizing first-in, first-out principles. It used to be that there was one kind of the stuff, the plastic-wheel tracks, but these days the choices are more diverse than ever. For the most part, these flow rack types act the same; they decline toward the picker and boxes or totes or even larger components flow toward him. They’re restocked from the rear and picked from the front onto a takeaway conveyor line, a cart, workstation, or another step in the process.
Tags: gravity flow rack, distribution center, Unex, Keneco, Conveyor, picking systems, warehousing, Material Handling, Hytrol, order fulfillment, Supply Chain, carton flow
Posted in Order Picking & Fulfillment|