RFID tag

To continue on the back-to-school blog theme for the second straight post, I ran across two more interesting uses of radio frequency identification (RFID) technology beyond efficient warehouse operations. A school district in California has proposed attaching the tags to preschool children to keep track of their whereabouts at school. While I understand the importance of not letting kids wander off, it seems a bit much. According to a New York Times editorial, the school district claims the tags are simply to eliminate attendance paperwork and pay more attention to teaching. A noble goal, but it seems a bit much. 

In a less invasive and more practical application, a school district in Illinois is using a RFID-GPS technology combo to monitor when and where students get on and off school buses. The children are issued ID cards that attach to backpacks and an electronic “reader” is located near the front door of the school bus. The date, time and location is coupled with the child’s name when a student enters or exits the bus. That information is transmitted in real time to a secure database at each school and the superintendent’s office. Knowing if, when and where a student got on or off the bus accounts for a significant portion of calls parents make to schools. This, it seems, is actually a good use of the technology. Particularly considering an acquaintance of mine whose child recently missed his stop on his first day of school and a brief panic ensued when he didn’t arrive on time. What do you think? Are these good uses of RFID technology?

It seems there is no end in sight for uses of RFID technology. It’s come a long way in just a few years. What else is out there? Where is RFID headed?

McEachin is a senior studying for a B.A. in Industrial Distribution Logistics at East Carolina University.  He says that working in a factory in his hometown “opened my eyes to many different concepts of how one should value their education and how to plan out the proper steps in securing a successful role in the working world.” He is active in several campus programs, including the Professional Association of Industrial Distribution, the Institute of Supply Management, the American Society of Operations Management, and more. Congrats to LaDarius.

I don’t know how many of you are aware that MHEDA sponsors a scholarship each year. The Material Handling Equipment Distributors Association Honors Scholarship is awarded through the Material Handling Education Foundation Inc. (MHEFI). According to MHEDA’s website, “MHEDA’s Industry Advocacy Committee has established a scholarship fund to further the awareness and recognition of the material handling industry within the academic community. Each year, it is awarded to a worthy student enrolled in an industrial distribution curriculum.”

It’s certainly a worthy cause. I know in my days as a college student, any help I could get was appreciated, particularly if it came from the industry I planned to work in. Not that I was worthy of any such things, but that’s another discussion for another time.

This is just another way that your MHEDA membership dues are helping support your company and your industry. It’s a good reminder as we send kids back to school.

Summer certainly was a full one this year, especially for those of us in the material handling industry. The highlight for us here at The MHEDA Journal was the redesign of the website you’re currently reading this blog on, www.TheMhedaJournal.org. The launch coincided with our Third Quarter publish date on July 15. The Third Quarter issue, you may recall, featured MHEDA distributors who were able to earn Top Dealer status during 2009 despite the less-than-stellar economic conditions.  

MHEDA was also busy, making changes to its Career Center and holding its usual array of webinars and educational sessions. MHEDA members were busy hiring, expanding, merging and improving their companies as well. After the last couple years of dark clouds, the consensus seems to be a lightening of those clouds as we round out the year and push to 2011. Best of luck to everyone out there in doing so.

Happy Labor Day and enjoy your long weekends!

Speaking of rolling, one of the articles I’ve been working on is an analysis of how forklift tires reach the end-user. So far we’ve come up with 10 different paths. 10! It’s a much more convoluted market than I had anticipated. I’ve talked to several tire manufacturers, a few forklift distributors, parts departments and more to get as many perspectives on this interesting and often overlooked aspect of the material handling business as possible.

One person I spoke with was Mike Sain at Material Handling Inc. in Nashville. Mike’s company had a long history of providing tire service before getting out of the business about 15 years ago. Within the last year or so, he has gotten back in thanks to some help from his forklift manufacturer. Mike says, “We’ve used our tire service as a door opener into some large target accounts. We’ve worked deals with some local fleet users who previously weren’t using our trucks, service, parts or rental, but were unhappy with the local tire guy. We went in and offered better tire service. We delivered, and that has led to business in other areas of our company.” Read more of Mike Sain’s comments in the upcoming issue.

I’m still trying to round up some info on the market, so if you have any inside details about the forklift tire industry, let me know.

Jeff’s brother, Tom, lives in Big Bear, CA. Tom’s neighbor, Brad Floyd, is afflicted with ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease) and confined to a wheelchair. Brad’s wife Kay has a difficult time moving him in and out of the chair.  When Jeff heard about their situation, he called Gorbel, on e of his longtime suppliers, to see if they had anything to help. Although Gorbel does not make people-moving cranes, they happened to have a unit on site for evaluation made by another manufacturer. Gorbel Product Manager Mark Grandusky said that they would donate the lift if ESS Group would pay the freight. Ross agreed and the unit was delivered in mid-August.

As you can tell by the picture at right, both Brad and Kay are very happy with the end result. In fact, Jeff says, “Although Brad is a tough cowboy, the goodwill gesture brought tears to his eyes. This is a wonderful gesture by Gorbel and they did not blink an eye to help someone in need.”

Sounds like Jeff is selling himself a little short in there, too. Kudos to all involved and best wishes to the Floyds.

There was the one that featured 27 modular containers in excess of $4 million. There was the $600,000 one that came together in a crazy 48-hour window. There’s the $500,000 pallet rack installation that required inventive hose storage. Those are only a few. I think readers are going to find this year’s edition of Sales Success Stories both informative and encouraging. The market is still there if we look hard enough.

Another thing that always comes to mind when working on these stories, and it’s amazing that it still happens seven years in, is how many other industries rely on the material handling industry to operate. Just in this year’s stories, the clients range from automotive parts to a bakery to a furniture store to an electronics importer to a cold storage operation to a steel mill. It really just runs the gamut.

So keep your eyes pealed for the Sales Success Stories, which will be published in the Fourth Quarter issue on October 15. And you never know, some may be appearing at www.themhedajournal.org before then!

“We’ve decided to groom a team of five individuals who are comfortable with technology and the Internet and who also are ambassadors for the company. Each person has one day during the week when they are responsible for updating and monitoring our company Twitter account (@MayburyMaterial),” Cooney says. “It’s no one’s single job function—they’re managing multiple tasks in addition to Tweeting like accounting, billing, parts sales, and customer service.”

She has some other interesting strategies in the article as well, including how they come up with subject matter for their tweets, but I thought the team approach was interesting. A lot of small business owners are afraid to dive into social media because they don’t want to take their people away from revenue-producing tasks at the company. Frankly, it’s a legitimate concern. Especially in a down economy, people need to be focused on what they do best. But dividing the task among a committee, training people to be “ambassadors” for the company mitigates that concern, while also getting more employees familiar with the technology. Let’s face it, it’s not going away any time soon. So your employees may as well embrace it.

It’s rare to find many companies that make it even to a 3rd generation. In fact, an oft-cited statistic says that only one-third of family companies are passed down at all, and only 13% are passed down to the third generation. So to make it to 6, that’s pretty impressive. Another interesting fact: Pavone is not part of the family. He’s only the third Cross Bros. president in 165 years to not be part of the family. Apparently when they were looking for a new president in 2008, the family owners decided to look outside the family in order to inject some new perspective into the company. It’s an interesting position to be put in, though Pavone is making the most of it. He says the company has rebounded in 2010 after a subpar 2009 (who didn’t have a subpar 2009?) and is expecting big things in 2010.

As you can imagine, a lot of interesting things can happen in 165 years in business. Even though it didn’t start out in material handling (it started out in leather products), customer demand and company innovation have led it to become a full-service systems integrator. It’s really a fascinating business, and I urge you to read the Member Profile in the next issue of The MHEDA Journal when it comes out in October.

Hopefully by now you’ve taken some time to look at the new page and have noticed a lot of new articles going up. The site we launched on July 15 has already been updated with new content numerous times, including a host of new featured articles and member news. It’s going to stay that way all quarter, so keep coming back for more! And by all means, let us know what you think by sharing and commenting on articles, both positive and negative. It’s the only way to help us give you what you want!

But today I read one that proves beyond all doubt just how pervasive RFID is. Apparently, the Australian sheep industry is in the middle of a controversy about whether or not to track the animals using electronic radio means or stick with the current paper-based system. The Victorian government and local saleyards are supportive of the introduction of electronic tagging of sheep. However, the Sheepmeat Council of Australia and the national saleyards body maintain the current paper-based sheep identification system is adequate.

A PriceWaterhouseCoopers report earlier this year indicated “a number of faults” with the current system, but change is slow to come. Sheepmeat Council of Australia President Kate Joseph, on the other hand, points to “the current high implementation and ongoing costs” of widespread use of RFID devices. So it’s a standstill at the moment.

I’d say “I’ll keep you posted,” but I doubt many of you have the means to capitalize on the burgeoning RFID market in Australian sheep. But it’s certainly an interesting application.

I wonder what the sheep would have to say?

With all the change going on, it’s important that we get your feedback on the new website so, if you don’t mind, take a minute to let me know what you think. Do you like the layout? Is it easy to post comments? Were you able to find everything you were looking for? We take your opinion seriously and if something’s not to your liking, we want to fix it. So please take a second to leave a comment or send me an e-mail at dan@datakey.org!

So what does all of this have to do with material handling?

I’m glad you asked. When Wade and his new sidekicks hit the stage, they were lifted up from below, rising over the crowd. So how were they able to make this grand entrance? It was with the help of the material handling industry of course. Apparently a forklift hidden behind the stage lifted them up on a platform. Once again, your industry is the substance behind the spectacle.

Here’s a video of the entrance. Cleveland fans, you may want to hide your eyes.

<a href="http://msn.foxsports.com/video?vid=dd795554-f70f-4803-8439-ab30891d89ae&amp;from=IV2_en-us_foxsports_articles" target="_new" title="Miami heats up with welcome party">Video: Miami heats up with welcome party</a>

If you want to know all of the details regarding the new site, and what it will mean for you, head over to www.mhedaedge.org and check out the FINAL issue of the magazine.

For those of you wondering about the future of this blog with the Edge going away, fear not. It will continue to exist on the new TMJ site. I look forward to continuing to communicate with all of you in this new venue.

In the meantime, if you have any thoughts on what you would like to see us write about on the new site, don’t hesitate to let me know. I can be reached via e-mail at dan@datakey.org.

The new TMJ site represents the evolution of business-to-business magazine technology. It is a flexible, interactive community that allows for real-time news posting and reader interaction. The new format will allow for the TMJ editorial staff to post articles and stories as they come in. No longer will you have to wait until the end of the month or even quarter to find out about the latest industry trends and best practices. You will have instant access to read and comment on these valuable stories.

In addition to being updated with new articles and news stories several times a week, social media will be fully integrated into the site. The Editors’ blogs will be on the site, with the most recent entries featured on the homepage. A live Twitter feed will show visitors everything that’s being said about the association and its publications. A comment section will be included with each article, with the most recent postings being highlighted on the homepage. There will be icons that allow visitors to easily share site content with e-mail contacts and social media followers. It’s all part of the site’s effort to be a vehicle for participation instead of merely the consumption of information.

The Centerpiece
The real power of the new TMJ site doesn’t lie in any flashy feature—though it boasts many. What makes the site truly extraordinary, and what has always made MHEDA publications stand out, is the input of the association membership. It’s the content that all of you provide, whether it be through granting an interview, appearing in a profile, writing an article or suggesting a topic, that will push the site over the top. It’s in that spirit that the entire Edge staff salutes you. It’s been an outstanding experience these last five years working with and for all of you. You have educated us on the industry and truly enabled us to make the magazine the best it can be. I would also like to thank the MHEDA Edge Advisory Board members for their outstanding service these last two years.

We are very much looking forward to the privilege of continuing to work with all of you as we complete this transition. If you have any questions or comments, or if you there is something you’d like to see us write about on the new site, don’t hesitate to let us know. Edge editor Dan Vest can be reached via e-mail at dan@MHEDAEdge.org or by phone at 315-445-2347.

Also in this article, you’ll find everything you need to know about using the Web to help grow your business. We’ll show you strategies for building a more effective online store and tips for using a Web browser as a user interface. Also, there is an in-depth feature on the new Modern Group website. We talked to the team responsible for taking the company’s site into the next generation. The trials and tribulations they went through will help you prepare for the next phase of your company’s digital existence.

The “Meet A Young Leader” feature this month profiles Jeremy Breed, a salesperson with Sunbelt Industrial Trucks. He joined the industry last year in the middle of the recession, but he has prospered in spite of it. Be sure to read up and find out how he did it.

The issue hits the Web July 1, be sure to check it out. After this month, the Edge will never be the same.

Today was one of those times. I stumbled upon a YouTube video involving something called LEGO Mindstorms. Apparently, this high-tech toy comes with 600 pieces and a lego NXT micro-computer. They combine to allow the user to basically engineer his or her own fully functional LEGO robot. Well this kid in the video that I found built a forklift out of his kit. The truck can move, pick up items and then place them based on color. When I had a LEGO set, I built cabins with no doors or windows. Things sure have come a long way. By the time I have children, they’ll probably be building AS/RS systems out of Lincoln Logs.

Here’s the video.

As its moniker suggests, the event is a contest made up of logistics-based events. Well, of course, I had to find out more, so I did some digging and I found this gem. It features video of the box put, pallet relay and what appears to be a dance-off. Enjoy!

Don't let this happen to your customers

Today is a dark day for college football fans in Southern California. For the past four years, the NCAA has been looking into possible transgressions committed by former USC Trojan running back Reggie Bush. Reports have been slowly leaking out and it appears that the NCAA is ready to bring the hammer down on the proud college football powerhouse.

The alleged violations center around a house that Bush’s parents lived in during his stay at USC. It was allegedly financed by an agent, which is a huge no-no for the NCAA. First reports are that sanctions against the program could include a forfeiture of all wins accumulated during the 2004 season (a 13-win, NCAA Championship season for the program), the loss of up to 20 scholarships over the next few seasons and a two-year ban from postseason play.

While harsh, it’s hard to argue that the sanctions aren’t deserved. The USC program violated the rules and it must be punished. Even if the coaching staff and athletic directors weren’t aware of the violations, they still occurred under their watch and thus they are accountable.

It’s a lesson that can be taken into any business, including material handling. A great example of this phenomenon is  OSHA violations. I’m not necessarily talking about violations committed by material handling distributors, but by their customers.

Often times companies can get cited for OSHA violations without even knowing one occurred. These citations often bring significant fines—an especially grim prospect considering the current financial markets.

As a distributor, it’s your job to be looking out for your customers. You have to find the violations that they miss. You’re the expert, you have to act like it. Keep a keen eye open when touring a customer or prospect’s facility. Can you imagine how grateful they will be if you find something and fix it, saving a fine and making their employees safer. Not only will you make money fixing the problem, but your customer will see you as an expert who has its best interest at heart.

The trucks will be used for preparking hospitality suites, concession stands and other visitor facilities in and around the venues. The trucks were also used during the final construction and fit out phases of the construction of Soccer City, Johannesburg, the 94,000-seat stadium that will play host to the first and final games of the tournament. Other venues featuring the forklifts include Royal Bafokeng Stadium at Rustenburg, Free State Stadium, Bloemfontein, Peter Mokaba Stadium, Polokwane, the Durban Stadium and Green Point Stadium at Cape Town.

So when you’re watching all of the action, keep your eyes open. Who knows, you just might see your industry in action.

Well, yesterday during my news gathering, I came across a news story that showed just how important lift truck maintenance truly is. On Tuesday, employees in a blueberry plant in Wilmington, North Carolina were forced to evacuate the premises after a mysterious gas permeated the plant, creating toxic air. In total, fifty people were taken to the hospital.

As local news station WECT 6 reported the cause wasn’t what you might have expected.

“At first, law enforcement officials believed an accidental mixing of chlorine and another substance, thought to be sodium hypoclorite, may have caused the asthmatic respiratory reactions among workers. That was not the case

HAZMAT workers were able to get into the building just after midnight and found the oxygen level in the building at zero.  Crews used hand held monitors to test two forklifts that were inside. One was found to be faulty due to incomplete combustion, which caused propane gas and carbon monoxide leakage.”

It’s astounding really. Fifty people were hospitalized because of a leaky forklift. That should NEVER happen. Obviously, I can’t say for certain, but it’s highly unlikely that all of the mandatory pre-operation checks were happening on these trucks. Also, they probably weren’t receiving regularly scheduled maintenance. If they were, maybe this could’ve been prevented.

Do you have a truck that needs repaired in your facility? Don’t put it off any longer. To find a certified technician from a MHEDA member company in your area, head over to www.wikimheda.org and check out the buyers directory.