Years ago, during a busy time at one of our warehouses, an intruder entered our building through an open dock door and proceeded to steal things from some offices. Thankfully, nobody was harmed and nothing was really lost, but the incident underlined the need to control access to our facility while still letting fresh Spring air flow. To prevent intrusions and still allow easy access, there are some options for warehouses and manufacturing facilities with large dock doors.

Since 87% of warehouse inventory losses occur at warehouses and shipping yards, dock doors – and the way they are guarded – play a critical role in overall security.

Read the rest of this entry »

As the “greatest supply chain expo on earth,” ProMat is an opportunity to discover the latest manufacturing, distribution, and supply chain solutions to move your business forward. This year, the show featured four keynotes on new ways to drive productivity, in addition to more than 100 show floor seminars on autonomous vehicles and sustainable facility solutions.

Read the rest of this entry »

As your 3PL grows and attracts more clients, products, and infrastructure, your product movement and storage capacity won’t be able to keep up with the increased volume. Growth is a great problem to have, but it’s still a problem.

Intelligent warehouse automation is an effective way to create better flow, enhance efficiency, ramp up throughput, reduce errors and improve your processes.  Introducing automated systems into your current warehouse environment can produce drastic reductions in time spent on certain day-to-day activities.

Read the rest of this entry »

You see them all over the place in warehouses these days – the ubiquitous blue forklift light gliding over the floor ahead of or behind a lift truck as it winds its way between rack rows, down aisles, across docks, and out of trailers. A wide variety of choices are available, including many inexpensive imports with a bewildering number of dense specifications. How can you tell the difference?

Let’s break down the ways you can avoid the “bargain” light that could cost you plenty.

Read the rest of this entry »

In a recent report of current industrial and logistics trends released by the CBRE, the prevailing theme among U.S. Tenants and Landlords is that of shrinking available space. While this should come as no surprise to those within the logistics community, the rate at which warehouse vacancy is dwindling is far outpacing the increase in new construction (new supply trails leasing demand by 1.5 to 1). This puts 3PLs in a predicament, but also provides opportunities for those who can maximize their available footprint.

Read the rest of this entry »

A guest post by Tom Reddon of the National Forklift Exchange.

Driving a forklift in the snow or ice seems intimidating. However, with modern innovation and improvements, outdoor operations have been revamped and revitalized, even in the most trying of circumstances. Whether it’s flurries or a full-scale blizzard, adhering to these practices will prevent the issues that pile up with each snowflake. The outdoors poses numerous challenges, but there are some practices forklift operators can use to drive safer in these conditions.

Read the rest of this entry »

Driver awareness—or lack of it—is responsible for many forklift accidents

Busy, frazzled, distracted, or plain inattentive drivers whose sightlines are impaired may have accidents. They’ll collide with pallet rack posts, building columns, walls, machinery and a variety of other things. Worse, they sometimes hit people. What can you do to increase driver awareness and the ability to see what’s around them?

Read the rest of this entry »

A loading dock is like a football center: It touches the ball every play, but gets no glory when things go well.

Almost all warehouses and manufacturing facilities induct and ship out almost everything through the dock area.  Your shipping and receiving areas are the conduit between your operation and the world beyond. Finding ways to improve operations in the dock area can yield positive results for almost any business. Whether your operation processes 10 pallets or 10,000 packages a day, you can improve the entire operation by optimizing dock operations.

Read the rest of this entry »

Forklifts aren’t cars, and they don’t drive like them.

They don’t brake or accelerate like cars, and they certainly don’t steer like them, yet accidents occur far too often because drivers and pedestrians don’t understand the difference. Pedestrians misunderstand the way forklifts maneuver, and the danger of walking or working around them. Forklifts aren’t dangerous to pedestrians only from the front or rear — they can also hit someone on foot from the side, frequently due to rear-end swings, since forklifts swing wide when they corner.

How can your reduce the chances for this type of accident?

Read the rest of this entry »

When heavy loads are stored on multi-level pallet racks, collapses and product falls are a primary safety concern. Busy warehouses with many workers who drive or walk between aisles of rack should find ways to reduce the chances of a disastrous event.

Stopping a collapse is an order of magnitude easier and less expensive than a single incident. Due to its interconnected nature, when pallet rack falls, it’s usually an entire row, or a series of them. Costs, in terms of damaged product, lost production time and injuries can be extreme. In many “just-in-time” manufacturing operations, losing components means losing days of production time.

So: what can you do?

Read the rest of this entry »