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

Happy Thursday everybody! Thanks for stopping by. I’d like to take a minute to let all of you know that the new issue of MHEDA Edge is now available on the Web at www.MHEDAedge.org.

To be perfectly blunt, this issue has one main theme behind it—making money. The three On The Job articles are all about finding new ways to get paid. For instance, Springer Equipment Company’s Ted Springer contributed a piece about how AGV technology can open new doors for a company. Also, there is a “Social Media Spotlight” piece that focuses on tires. It will teach you how to convince your customers to buy premium tires. It also shows how to tell when its time to replace tires. Last but not least, there is an article about advanced Web search techniques which will help you find out more about your customers than you ever thought possible.

So take some time and look things over. Then, let me know what you think! I really do enjoy receiving your feedback. It’s what allows us to keep improving the magazine. If you have any comments, feel free to leave them here, or e-mail me at dan@MHEDAedge.org.

Before I dive into today’s blog entry, I’m hoping you’ll take a few minutes to watch this video. Basically, it’s about a study done by the National Consumer League that focused on contaminated pallets. The study found that about 33 percent of pallets were unsanitary, and 10 percent were contaminated with E. Coli. Now the NCL is advocating sweeping regulations for pallet producers. The video is from this morning’s “Early Show.” It’s national exposure for the industry, but not really the type you hope to have.

Watch CBS News Videos Online

So what do you think? In my humble opinion, it’s a bit sensationalistic. They spent 4:30 talking about how contaminated the pallets were and then about 5 seconds glossing over the fact that in 60 years nobody has gotten sick as a result of poisoned pallets. I understand why they did it, the scary stuff gets viewers, but the 60-year fact deserved a little more discussion.

Now, conversely, if the 60-year fact turned out to be a lie, my opinion would change drastically. If people are getting sick, then absolutely there should be new regulations in place to protect them. However, if that’s not the case, then I don’t think we should be burdening businesses with more regulations and ultimately higher production cost. We rely on pallets for nearly everything we ship. There are more than 2 billion floating around the country at this exact moment. If we’re going to institute some sort of regulations on them, we had better be sure we know what we’re doing.

So what do you think? Do pallets pose a threat? Should they be more closely regulated? Should the Government butt out? Let me know how you feel!

It’s been a while since I’ve posted one of my “Casual Friday” posts. For those of you who don’t already know, these posts are a collection of funny/interesting industry-related items that i’ve found on the Web.

Well today I’m back with a vengeance and four videos. They’re all worth a laugh or two, because nobody was injured. But on a more serious note, these illustrate some all too common material handling mistakes. What I’d like to hear from you is what you think each of these people did wrong.

#1

Whoops! The key is to keep all 4 wheels on the ground.

#2

Amazing that nobody was hurt. Keep your head on a swivel next time you’re at Sams Club.

Some Truck on Truck crime.

Communication people! Communication is key!

Like i said, some of these are funny, some are scary, some are both. They all could’ve been prevented though. But how? I’ll leave that one up to you.

Good morning everyone! I hope all of your week’s are wrapping up nicely. I know mine is! Before I dive into finishing up all of my work for the week, I wanted to take a second to fill you in on what I’ve been up to for the last few days. I just wrapped up editing on the batch of text for this month’s magazine. I’ve got a feeling that this one is a winner.

For June I wanted to spend some time focusing on specific, actionable, tips that are going to help all of you do your job better. For instance, in the spirit of Convention speaker Sam Richter (Who’s giving a webinar in June www.mheda.org for details), this issue includes an article about advanced search techniques and how they can benefit you. By using the tips in this article, you’ll be able to find out more than ever about existing customers and prospects.

The issue also includes the second edition of our “Social Media Spotlight.” Last month we focused on selling safety, this time its all about tires. We’re going to tell you how to find opportunities to sell tires and also how to spot the damaged or unstable tires. We’re also launching a first-of-its-kind tire-related contest through wikiMHEDA, but you’ll have to check out the magazine to find out what it is.

MHEDA member Ted Springer lent us his talent for this issue as well. He contributed an article on how diversification can help a company get through tough times.
Sound interesting? Well, keep your eyes peeled. The issue is going to hit the Web on Thursday, June 3rd, so don’t miss it. In the meantime, head over to www.mhedaedge.org and check out this month’s issue!

Hey, I hope all of you are wrapping up your weeks and heading off for a great weekend. I wanted to take a second to call an article in this month’s Edge to your attention. It’s a first-of-its-kind story for the publication. The article, entitled “In Material Handling, Safety Sells,” is the first edition of the magazine’s “Social Media Spotlight,” a column that will run periodically throughout the year. The Social Media Spotlight is in line with the recent trend toward user-generated content as it uses suggestions from LinkedIn, Twitter and The Material Handling Edge Blog as the basis for its content.

The article’s message is a simple one. There isn’t a distribution center or logistics operation in the country that doesn’t claim safety to be its number one priority. It’s not just idle chatter either; most reputable companies invest significant capital into safety education programs. However, they still struggle with keeping employees free from harm. There are countless regulations implemented by groups like OSHA to help establish safety guidelines, but they can be cumbersome and difficult to understand. Thus, as evidenced by the Top 10 OSHA violation lists in this magazine, many well-intentioned companies struggle to comply. What they really need is a partner that can help them navigate the regulations and create the safest possible warehouse environment.

The article goes on to offer three concrete examples of how any company can become that partner. They include:

•           Improving a customer’s improvisation

•           Simplifying their safety compliance

•           Providing value without pushing products.

The article has some great information, so please take a minute to check it out. Then, let me know what you think of the “social media spotlight” concept. Is it worth continuing? Could it be tweaked?

Let me know what you think! It’s your magazine and your opinion matters.

I’m going to do something that I’m not normally able to do for my readers today. I’m going to give you some inside information on a new NBC reality show that’s set to premiere this fall. The show is called “School Pride” and it centers around Extreme Makeover: Home Edition-esque remodeling projects. This time, however, it’s not a home that’s getting rebuilt, it’s an entire school.

Former Extreme Makeover producer Denise Cramsey is helping to head up the project. In a release from NBC, she explains her motives. “The success of a school transformation doesn’t just help one family or one group of students. It helps multiple families, and helps them for generations to come,” said Cramsey. “The transformation will help teachers achieve greater success in the classrooms, raise property values, and give the community a reason to be proud of their schools again. This special will be proof of what a small group of Americans can accomplish when they work together.”

When the rebuild starts, Cramsey won’t be acting alone. The goal is to get the entire community involved with these rebuilds. She will also be enlisting help from local and national businesses to donate supplies for the builds.

Well, as it turns out, I learned last week during MHEDA’s Convention that an association member is directly involved. Lyon Workspace Products will be donating one of the most fundamental pieces of equipment that every school needs—lockers. The Lyon lockers will appear in the first episode of the show, so be sure to keep your eyes peeled for them. Also, Kudos to Lyon for throwing your support behind such an incredible concept!

For those of you who want to know more about the project, I’m including a video that will show you exactly how this whole thing got started and what it’s going to mean for schools.

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Good afternoon everyone, I’m back from Convention and in the office today before I head off on a long weekend. I’d like to take a second to thank everyone at Convention who helped us out by giving a quote or posing for a photo. As always, it was your participation that made our first-ever daily Convention newsletter a success.

Today, instead of further recapping the event (that will come elsewhere), I wanted to take a few minutes to talk about an event from early in the week that I never mentioned. During one of the event’s first sessions Narrow Aisle/Sunbelt Industrial Truck’s Warren Cornil took the stage and in his own signature style told the sobering story of his battle with heart disease and the transplant that saved his life.
Warren’s new heart came from a 26-year-old victim of a motorcycle accident. The young man was on life support, brain dead from the impact of the crash. His mother made the difficult decision to remove her son from life support. Then, somehow, in the midst of her suffering, she made another decision—to donate her son’s organs. Those organs went to 8 people including Cornil. Thanks to this woman’s selfless act, Cornil and 7 others received potentially life-saving treatments.

Cornil went on to explain that one of the most selfless things a person can do is to register as an organ donor, or agree to donate the organs of a lost loved one. He asked that we all look into supporting the organ donation cause.

As of 4/27/2010, there are 107,173 names on the waiting list for organ or tissue donation, and only 1,138 sets of organs were donated last month. People are literally dying because of a lack of education regarding organ donation. If you are at all interested in learning more, I implore you to head over to www.donatelife.net and see what you can do to help.

I’m going to break from my streak of summary entries and use this Convention blog entry to put a question out there to all of you. This morning during breakfast I sat with several lift truck manufacturers and distributors and eventually the conversation turned to a great topic—ways customers misuse forklifts and their attachments.

Mid Middleton of Carolina Material Handling told me a great story about a class V truck that he sold to a lumber yard. After only a few weeks, a rather sturdy component of the mast on the truck broke. He couldn’t figure out why, so he replaced the part. Then, he went and observed the truck in action—from a distance. What he saw was the company’s 80-year-old owner taking the truck and running it full-speed into a stack of logs, slamming into it and pulling away with whatever happened to be on the forks.

He had to go in and gently tell the owners son that next time, he wouldn’t be able to fix the mast for free and that he may want to consider adjusting their methods. That’s quite the understatement! The interesting thing was that the story surprised me, but not anyone else at the table. Apparently lift truck and lift truck attachment abuse is pretty common among end-users.
So I want to put it out there to you guys. Feel free to post anonymously if you wish, but I want to hear your best customer/truck abuse stories. I want to hear about the dangerously rigged attachment or the improperly operated lift truck—and what you did to help correct the problem. I’ll put the best three stories in the magazine!

Day 3 of MHEDA’s Convention has proved to be one of the most action-packed days of the entire show. After breakfast, the event kicked off with the annual business meeting where Greg Morrison explained how MHEDA was able to finish 2009 in the black despite serious economic hardship. Then, he called up Duncan Murphy and Duncan’s wife Rozanne to thank them for their service during Duncan’s presidential term.

Next, the week’s first speaker hit the stage—Dr. Lowell Catlett. Catlett was a fantastic speaker. He was able to effectively blend humor and entertainment with quality information and great economic stats. I talked to quite a few distributors in the hallway and everyone thought he was great. I have to concur. He set the bar high for Convention presenters.

Once Catlett wrapped things up, we headed over to the hotel ballroom for one of the most anticipated events of the week—the annual Exhibitors showcase. This year there were around 90 exhibitors and countless distributors walking around. Myself, I split my time between walking the show with our company President Judy Flanagan and manning the wikiMHEDA booth with TMJ editor Chris Powers. It was a blast spending time talking to a lot of really sharp industry vets. That’s been a theme this weekend, everyone knows their stuff and is willing to share the knowledge.

After the show winded down, we headed to lunch, which was followed by roundtable discussions. For me, someone who isn’t “in” the industry, this was a really helpful session. I sat with a group of industrial truck dealers; the mix was about 3 suppliers and 4 distributors. There was a lot of discussion about the Internet, specifically how its created an educated consumer who might go online and find a truck and expect a dealer to match the price. They discussed a couple of strategies for dealing with this, but out of respect for the confidentiality of the roundtable event, I won’t go into details on the topic.

The group also discussed the unique situations that arise when one parent company represents several lines. Apparently, it can create some tricky situations. In the lift truck industry it hasn’t been as big of a problem, but some battery dealers are struggling with it.

When the session came to an end, there was another well-received speaker named Mike Minks who discussed how to truly understand and meet your customer’s need. All in all, it was a very busy, productive day and I can’t wait to do it all over again tomorrow.

Today was the second official day of Convention, but day two is always when things start to kick up. The morning started off at the absolutely gorgeous Rookery golf course in Naples. Teams of four competed in a scramble competition and the team of Duncan Murphy, Tim Hilton, Jeff Long and Robert Edwards won the event. Everyone had a great time taking in the scenery, which included a few alligators and a bald eagle. Chris Powers of The MHEDA Journal and I saw an osprey dive-bomb a fish about 10 feet from us!

For me, however, the highlight of the day came in the early evening at the Newcomers reception. Being a first-time Convention attendee myself, it was great to get to sit down and talk to some people in a similar situation. My group was facilitated by Scott Lee of Conveyor Solutions. Scott did a great job making everyone feel comfortable and getting things moving.

We spent a little bit of time introducing ourselves and then a little more talking about the state of the industry. My group included people from Nissan, Lyon Workspace Products, Conveyor Solutions, Riekes Equipment and Texas A&M.

Afterward, I sat down with Chris Rudella, Lyon Workspace Products’ Marketing Manager. He had just come from NA 2010 and went straight to Marco Island. He gave me some insight into why MHEDA’s Convention offers unique opportunities in comparison to some of the other, larger, trade shows. MHEDA’s convention provides a more controlled environment, he said. Instead of meeting with lots of people and talking in very broad strokes, you get to spend significant 1-on-1 time with a very specific group of educated dealers. It really gives more bang for your networking buck.
I think that might be part of the reason why the Exhibitor’s Showcase sells out so quickly. People know they’re going to be talking to some of the best dealers in the business, and they’ll be talking to them in-depth.
Another place where in-depth networking was going on was at MHEDA’s Convention Opening Party. It was a fun night full of music, sports, games and contests. Keep your eyes peeled for photos of everything that went down!