Material Handling Management articles from June 2008

Material Handling Management archives from June 2008

Future electronics adds DC in Leipzig.(Automation)
June 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The Canadian trading company, Future Electronics, is the third-largest distributor of electronic components worldwide. It has more than 6,000 staff members employed in 220 subsidiaries spread over 34 countries. In...

Dock equipment good news for news business: when the news is breaking, it's not out the door until it's out the door--the dock door, that is.(Facility Operations)
June 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] While the coffee is perking on Sunday morning, one ritual repeated in homes across the country involves digging through 20 or more ad sections that arrive when the paper hits the doorstep. In the Dallas metro area,...

Less bang for the buck.(Facility Operations)(Column)
June 1, 2008... "It's hard to say how many lift truck collisions we've had," says Jeroen van de Brug, facilities manager at DistriQ, a newspaper distribution company in Holland. "It was at least several a month. We knew we had a problem, and it was my job to...

When inaccuracy can kill.(Facility Operations)
June 1, 2008... MEDRAD Inc. (Warrendale, Pa.) has a corporate maxim with a meaning deeper than the marketing hype: Performance. For Life. As a producer of injector systems used in hospitals, imaging centers, clinics and physicians' offices around the globe,...

Lift tables save labor, increase safety: this ergonomic system streamlines the transfer of steel to saws and makes handling of awkward parts safer.(Facility Operations)(Power Curbers Inc.)
June 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The assembly line at Power Curbers (Salisbury, N.C.) shapes steel into more than 1,000 different parts for the products the company has been turning out, and improving, for more than 54 years. Among other items, the...

Green breeze: HVLS fans can help a facility go green and improve employee productivity at the same time.(Facility Operations)
June 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Like most companies, third-party warehousing provider WOW Logistics was struggling with rising energy costs. Based in Appleton, Wis., WOW Logistics serves 300 customers in nearly 60 industries with facilities in...

Answers to questions about going green? Here's information to make you smarter about green technology and LEED certification.(Sustainable Buildings)
June 1, 2008... The U.S. Green Building Council's Web site (www.usgbc.org) has a plethora of usable information for understanding technical terms as well as practical knowledge you can use to make informed decisions about green buildings. Here are some...

Big can be sustainable: Kraft Foods and Prologis have created an 800,000-square foot building said to be the largest facility of its kind.(Sustainable Buildings)
June 1, 2008... ProLogis, an owner, manager and developer of distribution facilities, and Kraft Foods, one of the world's larger food and beverage companies, have opened an 800,000-square foot building near Chicago. The building was developed by ProLogis and...

USGBC proposes improvements to building rating system: LEED 2009 focuses on energy and carbon performance of buildings, transparent "weightings" and regional LEED credits.(Sustainable Buildings)
June 1, 2008... The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) has opened the first public comment period on LEED 2009, the next evolution of the LEED green building certification system. LEED 2009 represents a reorganization of the existing LEED rating systems...

Raising the roof on sustainability costs: there are many facets to sustainability. Polishing one of those facets--the face of what you already have--is a good way to control costs and improve your facility.(Sustainable Buildings)
June 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] When it's time to grow and you don't want to go, an increasingly popular way to get a larger building is to pop the top. Brian Holroyd, vice president of Rooflifters, Toronto, Ontario, says commercial property values...

Industry standards needed for product recalls: a new survey by RedPrairie indicates a lack of consensus on the best approach to reverse logistics--getting products back.(Information Management)
June 1, 2008... RedPrairie Corp. announced the results of its 2008 survey of industry leaders on the impact of legislation regarding recalls recently proposed by the U.S. Congress. The RedPrairie survey of industry-leading retailers, grocers, consumer packaged...

Overlooked tram offers transportation solution.(Industry News)
June 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] YORK, Pa. -- Amsterdam took an historic step in joining the green movement when it conducted material handling experiments using its tram system and electric vehicles to move products into the inner city. ...

Young distribution professionals conference.(Industry News)(Conference notes)
June 1, 2008... ITASCA, Ill -- A conference designed for young, career-oriented material handling professionals with less than 10 years experience is being sponsored by the Material Handling Equipment Distributors Association (MHEDA) beginning Aug. 3 in...

Honda honors WEK Industries.(Industry News)
June 1, 2008... AKRON, Ohio -- WEK Industries, a Myers Industries company, was presented with Honda's Productivity Improvement Award at this year's North American Executive Honda Supplier Conference. The Productivity Improvement Award is given to Honda's...

Honeywell acquires Norcross safety products.(Industry News)
June 1, 2008... MORRIS TOWNSHIP, N. J .-- Honeywell has completed its acquisition of Norcross Safety Products LLC, a manufacturer of personal protective equipment, for approximately $1.2 billion. Norcross, based in Oak Brook, Ill, will form a new line of...

Fork over the cash.(Industry News)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... CLEVELAND -- As singer Woody Guthrie noted, more people have been robbed with a fountain pen than a gun. Well, now, thieves are adding a new weapon to their arsenals--the lift truck. This heist also required two stolen pickup trucks for an...

Raymond receives supplier of year award.(Industry News)
June 1, 2008... GREENE, N.Y. -- The Raymond Corp., a North American manufacturer of material handling solutions, was named Warehouse Capital Equipment 2007 Operations Supplier of the Year by Sysco Corp. The award honors Raymond for its ability to efficiently...

2008 Material handling and logistics conference.(Industry News)(Conference news)
June 1, 2008... NEW BERLIN, Wis. -- The 2008 Material Handling and Logistics Conference, sponsored by HK Systems, provides an unmatched practical curriculum of contemporary strategies from thought leaders, best practices from process experts, tactical...

CARB proposes new air quality regulations.(Industry News)
June 1, 2008... CHICAGO -- The California Air Resources Board (CARB) is circulating a draft regulation that would require heavy-duty tractors and 53-foot box-type trailers to be equipped with devices that would reduce drag and rolling resistance in an effort...

Seegrid announces founding distributor program.(Industry News)
June 1, 2008... PITTBURGH -- Seegrid Corp., a provider of industrial mobile robots for the material handling industry, announced that Bastian Material Handling (Indianapolis) has joined its Founding Distributor program, a distribution network of dealers and...

3M Sells HighJump Software.(Industry News)(Company overview)
June 1, 2008... ST. PAUL, Minn. -- 3M announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to sell HighJump Software to Battery Ventures, a technology venture capital and private equity firm. The transaction will result in a standalone company focused on...

Ben & Jerry's solves a cold case: harsh conditions and high-throughput needs led Ben & Jerry's to revamp its lift truck fleet.(Powered Vehicles)
June 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Americans love ice cream. And, they love it more each year. Companies produced more than 1.5 billion gallons of ice cream and frozen desserts over the last 10 years, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture....

How to choose the right lift truck: choosing the right lift truck can save a company money. However, making the right decision is often easier said than done.(Powered Vehicles)
June 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] With costs for a single truck ranging from $15,000 to $100,000, many buyers are tempted to select a truck on the basis of the sticker price. However, companies that choose a certain model without thought to the costs...

Brains and Brawn: old-fashioned spirit and high-tech lift trucks keep Hanover Terminal moving.(Powered Vehicles)(Company overview)
June 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Hanover Terminal (Hanover, Pa.) receives, ships and tracks orders--consisting of everything from Romanian glassware to mandarin oranges from Israel--for more than 12 million cases of product a year. Over the years,...

Lift truck tires: getting that perfect fit: selecting the right tire for the right material handling application will reduce downtime and overhead costs and keep vehicles moving.(Powered Vehicles)
June 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Tires are all about compromise. A tire with exceptional mileage will not have the best traction. And, a tire that grips surfaces well will have a shorter life. There's no such thing as a perfect tire with optimal...

Lift trucks handle odd-shaped material: having the right equipment to move material is essential for specialty processors.(Powered Vehicles)
June 1, 2008... Yarde Metals (Southington, Conn.), a division of Reliance Steel and Aluminum, is a metals processor and distributor specializing in odd and hard-to-find sizes of stainless steel, carbon steel, aluminum, copper and brass. With clients in the...

Going 'green' in more ways than one: one of the poster children of environmental concerns got a facelift and a new lease on life.(Transport Packaging)
June 1, 2008... For years, consumers have praised and condemned the plastic 'peanut.' Ubiquitous in many packaging operations, they stick to clothes as well as anything they touch and are a mess to clean. That's changing, with a product from Storopack (www....

How to exceed customer expectations.(Voices of Industry)
June 1, 2008... Federal tax stimulus checks have already started mailing to consumers. While some companies may be looking forward to capturing some of the additional consumer spend, the anticipated increase represents a blip in a perennial continuum of demand...

Thinking: no box required.(Witt's End)(Editorial)
June 1, 2008... Recently, I was reading an article about why and how and when people in the business world will start taking this whole sustainability thing seriously. The author (and I hope it wasn't me) sort of concluded that it will require some...

Whatever happened to old ...(Transport Packaging)
June 1, 2008... Several months back, I had a call from a reader asking if there was anything new in slipsheets. For whatever reason, I've not seen many slipsheets (and you can also spell it as two words or hyphenated) while visiting distribution centers in the...