Material Handling Management articles from July 2008

Material Handling Management archives from July 2008

Training versus education.(Witt's End)(employee eduction and triaining)(Editorial)
July 1, 2008... There is a difference between training and education. I know: I'm just a word guy. I'm going to get slammed for making an issue of this. I don't care. It's not semantics. There is a philosophical difference. There is also a physical difference...

Noble cause: lift truck dealer's safety efforts help the community.(Powered Vehicles)
July 1, 2008... When executives at Toyota Forklifts of Atlanta wanted to improve education for lift truck operators, they had two important and specific goals. First, they wanted to offer a unique, comprehensive and socially inclusive training program. Second,...

Air Force tests hydrogen-powered lift truck.(Powered Vehicles)
July 1, 2008... The Robins Air Force Base near Atlanta is testing the feasibility of hydrogen power with a new Quantum HyHauler Plus hydrogen-fuel dispensing system and a hydrogen-powered lift truck. A trailer will house the hydrogen-producing equipment until...

Fleet management for the little guy.(Powered Vehicles)
July 1, 2008... Companies with small material handling fleets and budget restrictions may want to consider Vigilant G2 Lite mobile asset management system from Access Control Group (Mountainside, N.J.), which includes equipment and a Web-based application. ...

Lithium-ion lift trucks.(Powered Vehicles)
July 1, 2008... Global newsletter ForkliftAction.com reported that alternative fuels and the use of lithium-ion batteries in lift trucks were hot topics at CeMAT 08. The event was held in May in Hannover, Germany. According to the newsletter, lithium ion...

Fuel-cell-powered prototypes.(Powered Vehicles)
July 1, 2008... Linde Material Handling expects hydrogen-powered lift trucks to be economically viable by 2015. "The future is hydrogen," says Mark Sullivan, product support and service director for Linde in the U.K., "either as a fuel to be fed into an...

Lift truck industry merger.(Powered Vehicles News)
July 1, 2008... KYOTO, Japan -- Nippon Yusoki Co. Ltd (Nichiyu) and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. will consolidate domestic marketing activities through a new company slated for opening on April 1, 2009. The new company, Nichiyu MHI Forklift Co. Ltd.,...

Toyota aids Midwest flood victims.(Powered Vehicles News)
July 1, 2008... COLUMBUS, Ind. -- Toyota Material Handling USA (TMHU) Inc. has donated $10,000 and the use of a lift truck to the American Red Cross to assist in flood relief efforts in the Columbus, Ind., area. Toyota Industrial Equipment Manufacturing...

Tusk lift trucks announces top dealers.(Powered Vehicles News)
July 1, 2008... COVINGTON, Ga. -- Tusk Lift Trucks has announced its top dealers for 2007. The top dealer awards, based on market size, recognize dealers that have excelled in sales and market share growth for Tusk within their areas of primary...

Lift truck dealer celebrates milestone.(Powered Vehicles News)
July 1, 2008... GREENVILLE, N.C. -- Lift truck dealer VBS Inc. Material Handling Equipment celebrated its 60th anniversary of distributing Hyster trucks on March 16. VBS, which has multiple locations in Virginia and northeastern North Carolina, plans to...

Lift truck dealer raises money for leukemia.(Powered Vehicles News)
July 1, 2008... FORT WORTH, Texas -- Toyota Material Handling USA dealer Shoppa's Material Handling has partnered with the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society to host the 2008 Shoppa's Golf Tournament on June 6 at the Texas Star Golf Course in Euless, Texas. ...

Employees learn about lift truck financing.(Powered Vehicles News)
July 1, 2008... BEDFORD PARK, Ill. -- At an open house themed "Get the Scoop on Commercial Finance," Toyota Financial Services provided information to 400 of its employees about large-capacity lift truck retail financing programs for Hoist lift trucks. The...

Raymond recognizes lift truck dealers.(Powered Vehicles)
July 1, 2008... GREENE, N.Y. -- At its recent dealer management meeting, the Raymond Corp. presented nine of its dealers with the Dealer of Distinction award and 10 dealers with its Dealer of Merit award. The lift truck manufacturer also presented its...

CHEP launches sustainability Web site: check the environmentally sound choices available in pallets.(Transport Packaging)(Website overview)
July 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] CHEP, a global provider of pallet and container pooling systems, has unveiled a new Web site that shows the impact of shipping platform choices on the environment and supply chain. Located at...

RFID tracking manages medical records.(Transport Packaging)
July 1, 2008... 3M has completed the development and installation of an RFID Smart Shelf system to track and manage the more than 150,000 medical files of U.S. Army personnel and their family members at Fort Hood, Texas. Under the terms of a three-year,...

New plastic pallets pass test.(Transport Packaging News)
July 1, 2008... ORLANDO, Fla. -- Intelligent Global Pooling Systems (iGPS Company LLC) announced that Dole Fresh Vegetables has successfully completed testing and will begin expanding its use of iGPS pallets. Dole has also successfully completed testing of...

UHF RFID label for returnable plastic containers.(Transport Packaging News)
July 1, 2008... FINLAND -- Confidex announced the introduction of Confidex Carrier, the company's new, UHF RFID label for returnable plastic containers. Confidex Carrier is a special label designed to adhere to plastic surfaces. Millions of plastic transit...

It's a visual thing: the premise of pooling is that it's primarily about source reduction.(Transport Packaging)(Editorial)
July 1, 2008... In my spare time, I've been writing a screenplay. Since we've just passed through another graduation season, I think this should play well, especially with younger movie goers. My working title is, The Pallet. The setting: a dinner party...

Deadly dust: recent disasters have put combustible dust in the headlines and on OSHA's watch list. A new regulation may be on the way, and it's time to get ready.(Special Feature)
July 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Thirteen employees were killed when the Imperial Sugar facility in Savannah, Ga., exploded into an inferno on Feb. 7. The tragedy was the latest in a series of similar deadly accidents that had occurred since 2003....

Facing the new challenge: human capital management.(Special Feature)(Cover story)
July 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] What's so new about the new workforce? According to experts in the human resources field, just about everything. An overriding issue is, or will be, the skills gap developing as Baby Boomers leave the workforce and...

Staying productive and competitive in the food industry: the Mt. Olive Pickle Co. maximizes uptime and minimizes labor with a self-cleaning filter system.(Facility Operations)
July 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] As the largest privately held U.S. pickle company in an industry that's undergone widespread consolidation, the Mt. Olive Pickle Co. understands it must operate more efficiently than the competition while producing...

Pallet flow racks boost capacity.(Facility Operations)
July 1, 2008... To expand business and capacity, U.S. Gypsum Co., a manufacturer of gypsum-based products, added a new production line to its Baltimore facility. "We had plenty of overhead warehouse clearance but not enough pallet rack storage," says Adam...

Onset tracks its energy use.(Facility Operations)
July 1, 2008... In an effort to protect the environment and reduce its energy consumption, Onset Computer Corp., a supplier of Web-based energy and environmental monitoring systems, has signed on to the EPA's Energy Star Partnership program. The company's...

Critical connections: MHEDA's new Gateway Web site offers much more than job postings.(Workforce)
July 1, 2008... The search for talent has never been tougher. Changing demographics and an aging workforce are widening an already existing skills gap in manufacturing and distribution. As the labor storm gathers momentum, the situation looks bleak. ...

A conversation piece.(Workforce)
July 1, 2008... Cook & Associates, an industrial engineering management consulting firm in New Brunswick, N.J., has created a forum on the Web where managers can discuss labor management systems with their industry peers. Accessible at www.thepepblog....

Seven ways to fit the task to the worker.(Workforce)
July 1, 2008... According to OSHA, cumulative trauma disorders like carpal tunnel syndrome and tendonitis account for more than 16 million lost work days in the U.S. each year, at a cost of more than $40 billion. To help companies reign in some of these...

High-tech human resources.(Workforce)
July 1, 2008... One of the latest advances in human capital management (HCM) systems is biometric identification. Biometrics is the identification and verification of an individual based on the recognition of unique physical characteristics. Examples of...

Another reason to go green.(Workforce)(Brief article)
July 1, 2008... John A. Challenger, chief executive officer of Challenger, Gray and Christmas Inc. (Chicago), an outplacement consulting company, says employers that publicly discuss their commitment to being green are likely to gain a significant recruiting...

Cast the widest net: the wider the net is cast, the greater the chances of finding food people.(World of Difference)
July 1, 2008... Each time I attend a conference or trade show, I get the same question: "So, how did you end up in material handling?" At the risk of sounding cynical, I suspect the same question would not be posed to a man. Women are still rare, both on the...

It's 3 a.m....(Data Intelligence)
July 1, 2008... Do you know where your inbound containers are? More importantly, do you know if they've been tampered with? Can you trace everything in them back to a specific batch/lot and manufacturer with certainty? With more and more raw material and...