Few things limit a persons ability to live and work comfortably as much as a back injury. By definition of what we do (lift, move, bend, repeat) in the warehouse environment, we are very susceptible to such injuries.
Back belts or back supports have been used for many years to protect workers from back injury by restricting bending motion, increasing intra-abdominal pressure, reminding the wearer to lift properly, etc. However, there is insufficient scientific evidence that they actually work to prevent injury. In fact, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) does not recommend the use of back belts to prevent injuries among workers who have never been injured.
Automating your warehouse can lower the risk for back injury substantially by reducing... Read more »
It seems like everyday we hear about another product recall – eggs, pain relievers, peanuts, auto parts, etc. Nothing can damage a company’s reputation more than the negative publicity generated from a dangerous or defective product. The cost of an incident can also be harsh. A Food Industry Report from 2009 found that the average cost of a recall to food and consumer product companies was $10 million, not including residual brand damage and lost sales. In addition, the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), adopted in 2011, increases the FDA’s authority over food recalls. It requires companies to enhance their track and trace capabilities - rapidly tracing back from where a product was received and tracking forward to the point of sale. This has created massive amounts of information that companies have to manage to provide complete traceability across the supply chain. If you haven’t reviewed your traceability practices lately, you may be at significant risk of being a recall statistic.
One of our customers added more depth to their traceability function when they modernized their warehouse facility recently. The system had... Read more »
Prior to seeking out a Warehouse
Management System (WMS) vendor to run your automated warehouse, you should step
away from investigating a particular software solution and focus on the current
and future needs of your business first.
Here’s a
different correlation that might make this concept easier to understand...Read more »
GUEST BLOGGER:
I’m Ray Grifa, Director of Operations at Retrotech, Inc. I’ve been in the materials handling industry
for over 30 years.
Last week I began my blog
with tips on how to effectively listen to your customers. About being flexible
and sensitive to their preferences on communication methods and about making
sure you obtain input from all levels of the organization. To continue, here
are more principles to consider: Read more »
GUEST BLOGGER:
I’m Ray Grifa, Director of Operations at Retrotech, Inc. I’ve been in the materials handling industry
for over 30 years.
There are so many exciting
things happening in our industry today that deciding what topic to discuss as a
guest blogger was difficult! I decided
to hone in on an important feature of our organization – really listening to
customers and gathering information before offering solutions. I will break
this in to two parts because there is so much information to share.
While at work and at home,
true listening is a hard skill to develop and maintain, especially when human
nature takes over and we start solving a problem before the whole problem is
heard. Here, at Retrotech, we use a few
principles here to help keep us focused on this: Read more »
