Material Handling Edge Blog 
 A blog for young professionals in the forklift, conveyor and general material handling industries.  

In another positive sign for material handling distributors, my colleague Amy over at wikiMHEDA just posted an article about supply chain management’s recent growth in popularity amongst CFO’s.

The economy has caused many companies to take a long look at the way they run their businesses, and over 1/3 of the 550 CEO’s that the study talked to plan on reimagining their supply chain in order to cut costs and improve efficiency.

That means that there’s going to be quite a few material handling distributors out there making money while these big companies are trying to save. To make sure you’re in the best possible position to snag these sales, keep an eye out for the July issue of MHEDA Edge (available Thursday).

This issue is all about sales and it will give you countless ideas and strategies to snag this and other available business. We’ll also show you how to cash in on several free sales training webinars and podcasts from MHEDA. In the meantime stop by wikiMHEDA to read the full text of this and other material handling news items.

Yesterday when news of Michael Jackson’s passing first broke, the internet was inundated with hordes of information seekers, grinding some of the world’s most massive Web sites to a screeching halt.

Twitter saw updates peak at 5,000/min, causing countless visitors to see the sites famed “Fail Whale” (a message/image that appears when the site is over capacity). The Los Angeles Times saw its site slow to a crawl. Facebook saw status updates triple in frequency and at the peak of interest, news Web sites were receiving an astounding 3,566,495 visitors/min.

So what lessons can the material handling industry take from this? The internet train is coming and you need to either hop on or get run over by it. I know it doesn’t seem like that long ago that Al Gore first invented the internet, but its growth and rise to prominence has been astounding. This is where people go for information now. People didn’t wait for the six o’clock news, they didn’t wait for the morning paper, they wanted information and they wanted it RIGHT NOW. Those who were able to disseminate it, they were the ones who got the traffic.

It’s time to start adopting that same mindset in the business world. Customers aren’t waiting around for you to find them. They’re out there on the internet actively trying to find you, and guess what, if you’re not focusing on your Web presence, it’s not going to be you that they find—it’s going to be your competition.

This is why for the last 3 months the staff of The MHEDA Journal has been tirelessly researching ways for material handling distributors to use the Web to drive sales. The fruits of this labor will be shipped out July 17 in the 3rd Quarter issue of the magazine. Read closely, it’s a thriller.

In the meantime wikiMHEDA is still pumping out breaking industry news each and every day, so stop by and stay caught up.

For today’s blog entry I thought I would do something a little bit different. I’m going to offer my fiercely loyal readership a preview of an article that will be running in the July issue of MHEDA Edge. This particular article is about used equipment sales and it isn’t written by me (I know, I know, try to hide your disappointment). It was written by David Morrison, used equipment manager at Morrison Industrial Equipment, and someone who certainly trumps my knowledge on the subject.

Here is a little preview of what to expect on July 2nd.

“Used equipment sales can be a huge source of income for your dealership if handled correctly. However, overstating or misrepresenting the equipment’s capabilities can lead to big trouble down the road.

It’s critical is that the customer understands the limitations of used equipment. As a dealer, it is your responsibility to manage their expectations. They need to know that if they’re paying 50 percent of new for a truck, they are getting 50 percent of a truck, and they must adjust their expectations accordingly. It’s best to handle this up front or else you run the risk of misleading your customer, which is something neither party wants.”

This excerpt seems to me to be something that lots of salespeople may have to deal with. Has this ever happened to you? How did you handle it? Let me know! Then, next Thursday, be sure to check out http://www.mhedaedge.org/ to find out David Morrison’s advice for handling this and other issues involving used equipment sales!

Well, not my death necessarily, but recent news seems to suggest that reports of the death of the U.S. manufacturing industry may have been premature.

During the lowest points of the recession it seems every major media outlet was spending time shoveling dirt on the American manufacturing industry. Meanwhile, MHEDA suppliers and other material handling manufacturers kept plugging onward, far from any need for life support.

Now it appears that there is positive news on the horizon. According to a headline news item in wikiMHEDA, the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia reported that the numbers for June indicate that the manufacturing sector is having its best month since September 2008. While the economy still has a long way to go before any recovery can be considered complete, news like this serves to remind us all that regardless of how slowly it’s moving, a recovery is coming.

Now we can only hope that the media will be as diligent in reporting the resurgance of the American manufacturing industry as it was in proclaiming its downfall.

So what does this news mean to you? Is this a sign that things are turning around? Leave a comment below, or shoot me an e-mail at Dan@MHEDAedge.org

As any reader of this blog knows, MHEDA Edge has been going through some big changes in recent months. We’ve redesigned the On The Job section of the magazine, we’ve changed up the Edge forums and, of course, we launched this blog. What’s exciting to me is that this is just the beginning of what is to come as Web 2.0 leads to Edge 2.0.

In an effort to continue in this direction, I overcame my disdain for its name and posted my first “tweet” yesterday. That’s right; MHEDA Edge is now on Twitter @MatHandlingEdge. I will be posting clever, thoughtful and truly insightful messages in 140 characters or less several times a day. So if you’re on Twitter, be sure to follow!

I must admit, Twitter confused me at first, but at least now I can finally say that I have “followers.” I’ve always wanted some of those.

Until next week, enjoy the magazine and if you have any questions/comments that you would like to address, post a comment below (you don’t have to register), or drop me an e-mail at Dan@MHEDAedge.org.

Have a great weekend everyone!

The New York Times ran an article this Sunday that I found rather interesting. In Croton Falls, NY, an artist named Tom Christopher has turned a former forklift service and sales building into a thriving…art gallery. The former B. Hawley Smith Company building is now home to Lift Trucks Project, a 5,600 sq. ft. art gallery displaying the works of silk-screen artist Gary Lichtenstein.

Now seeing as I’m the type of artist that can’t draw a straight line with a ruler, I would’ve never thought a forklift repair building would translate into studio space for fine art, but Christopher saw the potential from the get-go. In the Times article he says, “I found myself surrounded by all this room and realized what a great project space it was. I thought, ‘I’ve got to get some artists in here.” And I’ve got to admit; from the pictures that I’ve seen he was right.

If you’re interested in reading the full article, visit this page. To view the Lift Trucks Project home page, follow this link. Check them both out and let me know what you think.

Today’s lead story in The MHEDA Connection was about a report suggesting that the economy is beginning to turn upward. According to the report, in May the U.S. consumer confidence level grew by 28 points(to 54.9 percent), its highest margin in six years. While that level isn’t as high as some would like, it’s still a massive improvement over the index’s low-point of 25.3 percent in February.

Now obviously I’m not predicting that the economy has switched into full-blown recovery mode, I’ll leave that to the economists. However, a little good news is nice to have once in a while. What I do think this report does is remind us all that a recovery is going to come—and the material handling industry needs to be ready.

This is precisely why both The MHEDA Journal and MHEDA Edge spent so much time focusing on “powerful positioning” in recent months. Soon there is going to be lots of business out there for those companies prepared to grab it. So poke around a little bit, read some of our insights and opinions, then I want to hear from you. Do you think the economy is starting to turn? If so, how are you preparing to capitalize on it? What opportunities will the recovery present to you as an individual and to your company? I’d love to hear your take.

It seems like lately you can’t turn on the TV without seeing something about the next social network that’s going to change all of our lives. While I’ll admit they have, to some extent (For instance, thanks to Facebook’s birthday reminders I’ll never again forget when it’s time to buy the girlfriend a gift), I still have trouble seeing practical business applications for some of them. Again, I can see business applications for something like LinkedIn , but a lot of these other services just seem like time-wasters.

This is a topic that the MHEDA publications have covered extensively. You can read all about it in this issue of MHEDA Edge or in the upcoming issue of The MHEDA Journal (available July 17).

Take some time, read the articles. Then I’d like to put the question out there to you, the experts. What social networks do you think are worth it? Can something like Twitter help YOUR business? What potential do you see from a site like LinkedIn? Let me know, I’m anxious to find out. If I get any good responses, I’ll include them in the blog.

Finally, I’d like to end the week on a light note with a video submitted by Nate Andrews of Morse Manufacturing in response to last week’s post (No, it’s not him in the video). Thanks for sending this, Nate. I think people will enjoy it. I know I did!

Over the last few weeks, I’ve been working on a pretty interesting topic for both the Edge and The MHEDA Journal—used equipment. Now while used equipment itself might not be the most fascinating thing in the world, what I’ve been hearing about it is pretty exciting.

Every last person I’ve spoken to agrees on one thing—used equipment sales will be what leads the material handling industry out of the recession. The idea is that end-users will eventually have to upgrade equipment, and they’ll be looking to do it in the most cost-effective way possible. That’s where used equipment comes in. It provides a cheaper, short-term solution that can serve as a stop-gap until the end-user is stable enough to invest in new.

Because of this, it seems that lots of dealers are trying new things to bolster their used equipment departments. Whether it be offering extended warranties for the first time or finding new ways to negotiate pricing, everyone is looking to optimize.

What do you think? Do you agree that used equipment sales will lead us out of the recession? Is your company increasing its focus on used equipment? Let me know, I’d love to hear your take.

The size of the new stadium and the amount of concession stands/souvenir shops/restaurants undoubtedly provide staggering logistical issues, and that’s not even touching on the logistics of building the whole thing. That’s what I’m hoping to uncover for this article.

Obviously, with a construction project like a new stadium, there’s bound to be lots of material handling equipment involved in the process. Have any of you been involved with stadium construction projects? If so, how? I know last year Kenn Harper of Southwest Materials Handling Co. (Dallas, TX), provided a 120’ JLG boom lift for the new Dallas Cowboys Stadium as seen here.

If your company was in any way involved with the construction of Yankee Stadium (or even that other new ballpark in Queens), let me know, I’d love to talk to you about it. In the meantime, I’ll be heading home tonight and doing more “research” as I watch the Yankees put a hurtin’ on the Tampa Bay Rays in the new ballpark (apologies to our members in Tampa, you’re still the AL champs for now).