Material Handling Management articles from April 2005

Material Handling Management archives from April 2005

Get back to basics: mastery of the management basics, not the adoption of the latest ideas or technology, separates leaders from the run of the mill.(Light Lifting)
April 1, 2005... At an operations management workshop a while back one of my co-presenters passed out laminated cards showing a drawing of a button and a caption that read, "Magic Button." There it was, at long last, the answer to every manager's prayers. Where...

Lessons to be learned.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
April 1, 2005... How did we get into this mess? How do we get out of it? [Re: The Education Sham, Page 37, February 2005.] To solve any problem, the problem must be properly defined. For the last 50 years there have been rare occasions of properly identifying...

New 7-Eleven DC expands fresh food offerings.(Industry News)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2005... A new distribution center in a Seattle suburb gives 7-Eleven the ability to make daily deliveries of freshly prepared foods to 267 of its convenience stores in the area. In addition to other products, the distribution center will deliver fresh...

On the job.
April 1, 2005... "I know it's because of the new insurance rates, but I feel pretty silly" [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Subscription-based media providers add fulfillment centers.(Industry News)(Simply Audiobooks)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2005... Operating under a unlimited rental, membership-based business model, Simply Audiobooks added a new fulfillment center in Las Vegas to serve customers in the western United States. The facility augments operations in Buffalo, N.Y. and Toronto....

Food industry distribution study.(Industry News)(Food Marketing Institute)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2005... Distribution expenses within the food industry average 3.0% of sales, the Food Marketing Institute (FMI) states in the recently released 2004 Food Industry Distribution Center Benchmarking Report. Costs vary between traditional food...

State fines Safeway $96,000 over DC construction project.(Industry News)
April 1, 2005... In March, the Washington State Department of Ecology fined Denver-based Safeway Inc. $96,000 for actions by contractors that released polluted water from a distribution center construction site. The company's contractors reportedly mixed...

DHL upgrades U.S. network.(Industry News)(DHL International Ltd.)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2005... DHL (Plantation, Fla.) is launching a state-of-the-art $160-million U.S. hub automation and integration project to enhance letter- and parcel-processing operations and tracking capabilities across its U.S. network. The rollout will begin this...

Transpro moves to Mississippi.(Industry News)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2005... Transpro, Inc., (New Haven, Conn.) opened a new distribution facility in Southhaven, Miss., at the end of March. It will close two warehouses and a returns-processing facility in Memphis. Transpro manufactures and distributes aftermarket...

APICS to launch new supply-chain certification.(Industry News)(Association for Operational Management)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2005... The Association for Operational Management (APICS) has launched a new certification, the Certified Supply Chain Professional (CSCP), for professionals interested in demonstrating their knowledge of supply-chain management. "The APICS CSCP...

The Warehouse Education Research Council.(News Briefs)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2005... The Warehouse Education Research Council (WERC) released the latest installment in its WERCbook self-study series: Coaching Employee Development. The guide focuses on the manager's growing need to use coaching skills in the performance,...

The Conveyor Equipment Manufacturers Association.(News Briefs)(Belt Conveyors for Bulk Materials)(Brief Article)(Book Review)
April 1, 2005... Following a multi-year, all-volunteer effort, The Conveyor Equipment Manufacturers Association (CEMA) has published a revised edition of its book, Belt Conveyors for Bulk Materials. CEMA representatives report that every page, every table, and...

Supply-Chain Council.(News Briefs)(Version 7.0 of Supply-Chain Operations Reference-model)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2005... Early this month the Supply-Chain Council (SCC) released Version 7.0 of its Supply-Chain Operations Reference-model (SCOR). The changes in SCOR 7.0 make SCOR Level 1 metrics easier for members to measure their supply chain processes and for...

Wal-Mart.(News Briefs)(will build distribution center)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2005... Wal-Mart says it will build a $60 million, 850,000-square-foot distribution center in Cheyenne, Wyo. The center will create more than 500 jobs in southern Wyoming and Northern Colorado. Jobs will reportedly pay an average of $11 to $13 an hour...

The International Brotherhood of Teamsters' Warehouse Div.(News Briefs)(www.walmartworkersunite.org)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2005... In an effort to unionize employees The International Brotherhood of Teamsters' Warehouse Div. launched a Web site (www.walmartworkersunite.org) directed at workers within Wal-Mart's distribution centers across the United States.

Intermec Technologies Corp.(News Briefs)(passive UHF RFID tags )(Brief Article)
April 1, 2005... As part of the U.S. Government's initiative to improve efficiency and inventory asset management, Intermec Technologies Corp. (Everett, Wash.), has been awarded a blanket purchasing agreement contract to provide passive UHF RFID tags to support...

Wal-Mart distribution center.(News Briefs)(employee arrested for stealing consumer electronics)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2005... Authorities in Laurens, S.C., arrested a 41-year-old employee for allegedly stealing $110,000 worth of consumer electronics from a Wal-Mart distribution center. A surveillance tape shows the man loading laptop computers, digital cameras and...

TJX Companies Inc.(News Briefs)(distribution facilities )(Brief Article)
April 1, 2005... TJX Companies Inc. will close two distribution facilities in Mansfield, Mass., and move operations to a new, larger facility in Bloomsfield, Conn. The move will eliminate 500 jobs in Massachusetts by June 30. The company expects to add 150 new...

Professional Conveyor, Inc.(News Briefs)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2005... Professional Conveyor, Inc, changed its name to Nationwide Conveyor Specialists, LLC (NCS). The Bristol, Conn.-based company specializes in installations, refurbishment and replacement of conveyor systems for the baggage handling, air cargo and...

FKI Logistex.(News Briefs)(DHL International Ltd)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2005... FKI Logistex won a contract to supply a state-of-the-art sorter matrix consisting of 16 high-speed tilt-tray sorter systems with the capacity to sort hundreds of thousands of packages per hour to the consolidated air hub operations of express...

Loblaw Cos.(News Briefs)(will close six warehouses )(Brief Article)
April 1, 2005... Loblaw Cos., (Toronto) Canada's largest supermarket chain, announced it will close six warehouses in Ontario and Quebec over the next three years to make it more competitive with discount rivals. The closures will eliminate 1,400 jobs and are...

PepsiCo.(News Briefs)(warehouse burnt by Hindu nationalists)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2005... Hindu nationalists set fire to a PepsiCo (Purchase, N.Y.) warehouse in western India on March 26 to protest U.S. denial of a visa to the chief minister of Gujarat State, Narendra Modi. The State Department revoked his existing tourist/business...

Huttig Building Products Inc.(News Briefs)(distribution center opened)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2005... Huttig Building Products Inc. (St. Louis) opened its 45th distribution center in Minneapolis at the end of March. The company is one of the nation's largest distributors of millwork, building materials and other wood products used in...

Salt Lake.(News Briefs)(warehouse accidents)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2005... An employee at a Salt Lake furniture warehouse was killed when boxes of tabletops, weighing 1,800 pounds, fell on top of him, local news sources report.

Returnable is the operative word.(Shipping Management)(Column)
April 1, 2005... Mom said it was bad manners to interrupt when another person was speaking. The guy at the other end of a recent telephone conversation, however, was challenging me to override mom's admonition. The problem was, he kept using the term "reusable"...

Cutting costs with cutting-edge WMS: moving from a paper-based inventory management system to an automated warehouse management system might seem like stepping from the dark into the light. Though this system operates in the dark, things are looking much brighter.(Cutting Edge)
April 1, 2005... Apparently the adage, if you want to hide an elephant the best place to put it is in a herd of elephants, applies as well to automobile and truck tires. Del-Nat Tire Corporation (Memphis) handles about 2,000 stock keeping units (SKUs) and ships...

Better keg management, better beer: outsourcing keg management leads to greater brewer profitability.(Best Practices)
April 1, 2005... Keg management is a time-consuming and costly task and takes away from brewers' main task: creating beers customers love. Kegs and barrels, made of stainless steel or aluminum, are widely regarded as commodities. MicroStar Keg Management...

Package Flow Technology at UPS: for parcel delivery companies, building customer loyalty begins with sortation.(Sortation)
April 1, 2005... How do you ensure each of your 7.9 million customers feels like they are your only customer? "Our long-term strategy," says Donna Barrett, technology manager UPS (Atlanta) "is to establish environments in which we create more personalized...

Power partner: a successful relationship between manufacturers and logistics service providers begins with crystal clear expectations.(Manufacturing Management)
April 1, 2005... Manufacturing executives outsource logistics for two primary reasons: to save money or to improve performance. To deliver the anticipated cost savings and service objectives requires a commitment from both organizations that, like a successful...

50 years of adding value: some things don't change; No matter how long a company has been in business, customer service never grows old.(Value-Added Award)(Interview)
April 1, 2005... Each year the editors of Material Handling Management solicit names of Material Handling Equipment Distributors Association (MHEDA) members who demonstrate exceptional skill in adding value to clients' businesses. We review the list of...

Mining for gold: there's valuable information hidden in the data collected by software systems. Today's supply-chain execution systems can help extract the gold from that mountain of ones and zeros.(Information Technology)
April 1, 2005... Today's supply-chain execution systems (SCES) can report up-to-the-minute revenues, track minute-by-minute pick quantities, tell managers which employees are the most productive, and check supplier's inventory availability along with a host of...

Dot Foods puts new DC close to customers: logistics data pointed to best location for supply-chain efficiency.(New Facilities)
April 1, 2005... Nestled at the foot of Oklahoma's Arbuckle Mountains, Ardmore (pop. 23,939) has great market proximity. It is strategically located on I-35, just 90 miles from Dallas and Oklahoma City. It has mild winters and warm summers. Mean annual...

Lean material management: it's time to take a fresh look at how lean principles should guide material management.(Operational Excellence)
April 1, 2005... During the past 20 years, lean has expanded well beyond manufacturing. Along this journey, much has been learned about the use, application and effectiveness of lean techniques. We can take these lessons and reapply them to some of the original...

Calendar.(Materials handling equipment)(Calendar)
April 1, 2005... April 19-20 Automation & Assembly Summit 2005. Sheraton Lakeside Chalet, Saint Louis. Sponsored by the Society of Manufacturing Engineers. (www.sme.org, 800-733-4763) April 20-22 Demand Planning & Forecasting Best Practices Conference....

A better indicator of economic vitality.(Manufacturing Management)(Per Capita Consumption of Machine Tools )
April 1, 2005... How would you rate a country's economy? Point to its GNP? GDP? Output per person? Per capita income? These are all helpful measures of a nation's economic health. But there's another one I use as well that measures manufacturing activity like...

Automation on stretch wrappers yields efficiencies.(Tech Spotlight)(Rev-A-Shelf Inc.)
April 1, 2005... Adding a bit of automation to its stretch wrappers, and subtracting waste from its final packaging operations, has saved Rev-A-Shelf (Louisville, Ky.) time and money. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Founded in 1978, Rev-A-Shelf manufactures...

Machine Safety Catalog.(Product News)(Buyers Guide)
April 1, 2005... The Machine Safety and Automation Catalog includes optical and audible signaling devices, mechanical limit, position, foot and safety switches, safety relays, non-contact safety systems, power supplies and accessories, Industrial PC's and...

Wire shelving label holders.(Product News)(Buyers Guide)
April 1, 2005... Max label holders have the same properties as conventional Wire-Rac label holders, but are engineered to retrofit major manufacturers' high-moisture environment shelving units. The holders snap on and off to reposition. The label or insert...

Protective dock shelter.(Product News)(Buyers Guide)
April 1, 2005... The Eliminator-GapMaster II dock shelter helps building owners get the maximum energy savings at the dock. It hooks on the shelter. Side curtains wrap around the edges of open swing-out trailer doors as the trailer backs in. Gap-sealing hooks...

Hoist heavy loads.(Product News)(Buyers Guide)
April 1, 2005... The Scorpio Plus and Plus XL portable hoists replace ropes and pulleys. The Scorpio Plus XL can lift 400 pounds to a height of 80 feet. They have a travel speed of 80 feet per minute. The hoists have flexible mounting options and can be...

Three-wheel truck for heavy loads.(Product News)(Buyers Guide)
April 1, 2005... The TMX three-wheel counterbalance electric truck is available in capacities from 2,500 pounds to 5,000 pounds. It has an AC motor with no brushes to replace or service. The heavy-duty high-torque drive motors product generous draw bar pull....

Secure shipping service.(Product News)(Buyers Guide)
April 1, 2005... Roadway Express offers security and protection to shippers with its Sealed Divider Service. Shipments are placed behind a customized barrier, which is secured with two uniquely numbered, tamper-resistant rod lock seals. Once the shipment is...

Configurable workstations.(Product News)
April 1, 2005... Mobile Workstations, which are mini workstations and high-density storage cabinets on wheels, are available in a variety of heights, widths and depths. Cabinet drawers have a 440-pound load capacity. There are seven different cabinet...

RFII communications.(Product News)(Buyers Guide)
April 1, 2005... The PowerKey RF Gateway-Direct Connect establishes RF communications for data transfer between vehicles and the PowerKey base station computer. It is a product option in the PowerKey Fleet Management System, which provides control and data...

Stack and wrap pallets.(Product News)(Buyers Guide)
April 1, 2005... The PS520 Pallet Load Stacker is said to save 60 seconds per stacked load versus lift truck stacking. It mounts on both sides of the pallet conveyor and holds the stretch wrapped loads with a positive stop gate. A pneumatic alignment system...

Narrow-Aisle forklift: LP gas lift truck works in 7 ft. aisles.(New Products, Equipment & Services Showcase)
April 1, 2005... The Aisle-Master articulated forklift is designed to maximize storage space by reducing operating aisle widths. The truck can work both indoors and outside like a regular counterbalance truck. The Aisle-Master has 4400 lb. lift capacity, with...

Skylights: solar lighting for distribution.(New Products, Equipment & Services Showcase)
April 1, 2005... Dramatically reduce your lighting cost with the DAY & NITELITER[TM] interactive lighting system. The interactive lighting and daylighting system is specifically designed for Distribution Centers with High Racking and Open. Typical lighting...

Battery: The Legacy Low Maintenance Battery delivers power.(New Products, Equipment & Services Showcase)
April 1, 2005... The Legacy Low Maintenance Battery has a new internal design that takes advantage of optimized grid metallurgy and new technology to give true Low Maintenance performance and unquestionable quality. Our new separators and internal construction...

Conveyor systems: modular conveyor systems offer versatility.(New Products, Equipment & Services Showcase)
April 1, 2005... Dynamic Conveyor's light- to medium-duty DynaCon[R] modular conveyor systems offer true versatility. DynaCon's modular conveyor systems can be recon-figured in less time, in ever-changing manufacturing or workflow environments. Made from...

Safety Gates: double coverage up to 6-ft-wide mezzanine openings.(New Products, Equipment & Services Showcase)
April 1, 2005... Protect a 6-ft-wide opening with standard FabEnCo XL71 Series Self-Closing Safety Gates for $500 or less. Special features allow for mounting on either side of your mezzanine opening with no opposite point contact. No cutting, welding or...

Lifting device: precision lifting.(New Products, Equipment & Services Showcase)
April 1, 2005... More precise than a hoist, more efficient than an air balancer. Gorbel's new Easy Arm[TM] lifting device gives you the speeds you need to increase productivity, the precision you need to decrease product damage, and the strength to protect your...

Workstations: modular ergonomic industrial workstations.(New Products, Equipment & Services Showcase)
April 1, 2005... Choose from basic four-leg stations, hand-crank or electric height-adjustable, technical systems, wire harness stations, clean room, LAN stations, ball transfers and packaging stations, cabinets and lab furniture. Many units IN STOCK. Our...

Storage cabinets: heavy-duty floor cabinet is strong and functional.(New Products, Equipment & Services Showcase)
April 1, 2005... Strong Hold floor model cabinet has drawers that hold up to 225 pounds and adjustable shelves. The wrap-around design from 12-gauge steel and one-piece all-welded construction makes it the strongest storage cabinet available today. The...

Space constrained marking.(Data Intelligence)
April 1, 2005... Let the quibbling begin! What is space constrained? Is it limited to something like a pharmaceutical blister pack with one dose of medicine or can it include a four by six inch (or larger) shipping label? Surprisingly enough, "space...