The Mheda Journal

It’s a Summer Friday, so I thought I’d take a cue from my colleague Dan Vest and post something a little more fun today. Pallets have been in the news for many of the wrong reasons in recent weeks, but I ran across something that may help the wooden shipping pallet restore its image a bit.

Apparently, it’s common practice in Austin, Texas, to build houses out of shipping pallets. (See the photo, below left.) According to the website apartmentthearpy.com (that’s where the photos are from, too), these shipping-pallet houses were created by the architecture firm I-Beam, and “designed as temporary homes for refugees.” Advantages are they can be easily assembled and taken down and can be built with a wide array of features (see flower box in the second photo). I’m guessing price is also a huge advantage. Disadvantages include, well, living in a house made of shipping pallets. As the site says, “While a bit drafty in this incarnation, the houses can be made into more permanent dwellings using local materials like mud and adobe.” Good to know. 

Have a great weekend, everyone. Don’t forget to visit the new online home of The MHEDA Journal Online!

A while back, I posted an update on the state of the pending lawsuit regarding anti-dumping duties on imported Chinese wire decking.

More than a year ago, a group of wire decking manufacturers that included AWP Industries, ITC Manufacturing, J&L  Wire Cloth, Nashville Wire Products and Wireway Husky Corporation filed a petition with the International Trade Commission to institute antidumping duties because Chinese imports were priced so low that it was difficult for these U.S. manufacturers to compete. Last July 20, the Trade Commission made a preliminary ruling that there was “a reasonable indication of material injury to the U.S. industry producing wire decking caused by unfairly traded imports from China.”

Late last week, however, the Trade Commission did an about-face on this ruling, denying the Commerce Department the opportunity to enforce any duties at all. In its ruling on July 1, 2010, the ITC said manufacturers were “neither materially injured nor threatened with material injury” because of the imports. I don’t know enough about this to know what caused the difference in opinion and why this ruling was reversed, but I do know that it is a setback for the five suppliers. If anyone out there has more info, please let me know about it. What happens next?

This isn’t my typical blog style, and I promise to get back to more pressing industry news with my next one, but I am so fascinated by this story that I could not pass it up. (It takes place in a warehouse so, techincally, it’s industry related.)

Apparently there is a guy in Brooklyn named Mark Suppes, a web developer for Gucci (the fashion designer), who built a nuclear-fusion reactor in his spare time. Yes, you heard me right.

It is housed in a Brooklyn warehouse, and Suppes has spent more than $35,000 to build his reactor, the 38th independent one ever built. His goal, he says, is to “help solve the world’s energy crisis.” It’s a noble idea, I suppose, since an article on yahoo.com called fusion energy the “holy grail of green technology, since it produces no nuclear waste or greenhouse gases.”

There a lot of ways to go with analysis of this story, but I’ll just say, “Wow.” With all the talk in our industry of green technology and ways to build more efficiency into a warehouse, this isn’t the angle I thought I’d find.

Best of luck to Mr. Suppes and all the “fusioneers” out there.

As I have mentioned before in this space, the next issue of The MHEDA Journal (set to publish on July 15) recognizes Top MHEDA Dealers—those distributors who were honored by their manufacturers as a top-performing partner.

Earlier this week, I spoke with Mary Lou Jacoby, owner of warehouse1 (Kansas City, MO), a distributor of storage & handling products who earned Top Dealer honors from Tri-Boro Shelving & Partition Corp. Mary Lou had an interesting thing to say about how the poor economy impacted the market for allied products.

“Everything that we sell is made out of steel. As the market went down, so did the price of steel and, in turn, the price of new products. Therefore, revenue went down. If the price of new product was off 20%, then you could certainly expect sales volume to go down 20%. That was something about the year before that most people don’t take into account. In 2008, the steel market increased in price, so our equipment increased in cost. When you say your sales volume in 2008 was up 20%, really you were just breaking even because steel was up 20%. So for us, 2009 was down, but a part of that difference in revenue is based on the cost of the material.”

Most people, myself included, have thought about the economy in terms of a lack of customers with capital to spend and that’s why sales are down. Or, prices have been reduced by the seller in an attempt to spur sales. I hadn’t given too much thought to the actual cost of the item itself. Obviously, if that goes down, the retial price goes down, which impacts a distributor’s revenue. Thanks, Mary Lou, for the perspective!

Earlier this week, I sent an e-mail to every MHEDA Member who I know earned a “Top Dealer” award from a material handling equipment manufacturer in 2009. Now is the time of year when those lists start making the rounds, and once again, they are littered with MHEDA-member distributors. (If you won an award but did not receive an e-mail from me, that means I don’t know about it! Send me a message at editor@themhedajournal.org or leave a comment here to inform me!) It is our goal in the July issue to highlight some of those dealers who were able to acheive success in 2009 despite the conditions.

In the e-mail, I asked distributors how they did it? What was their strategy going into 2009? How did they implement it? How did they meet the award criteria? A smattering of the responses so far:

• “Our strategy was to keep all our salespeople and push service and units in stock for sale. We maintained stock levels in parts and rental fleet. We made ourselves a ‘one-stop shop’ by adding additional product offerings.”
• “We changed our sales force structure to an account management basis with each sales rep being assigned a minimum of 150 customers and target accounts. For each account, they developed their strategy to support the accounts. We provided incentives to our sales staff for doing new business, including equipment and aftermarket sales. We provided special service packages to our customers to assist them during these recessionary times.”
• “We simply listened to what customers needed to have done on their projects and made sure we met their goals with our finished prducts. We were not worried about meeting any special criteria, just stayed focused and kept everyone in the company busy.”

It’s all sound advice. Congrats to the winners, and I’d love to hear from even more of you! There’s still time. Now’s your chance to be included in the “How I Did It” issue of The MHEDA Journal, coming soon to your mailbox.

An op-ed piece in Thursday’s The New York Times provided an interesting perspective on green buildings and LEED certification, a topic we’ve covered in this space and in The MHEDA Journal before.

The Times article, titled “Don’t LEED Us Astray,” talks about how LEED certification (a U.S. Green Building Council certification given for incorporating eco-friendly design) has become a bit misguided. “While the standard is well-intentioned, it is also greatly misunderstood. Put simply, a building’s LEED rating is more like a snapshot taken at its opening, not a promise of performance.”

The article suggests that because once a building is built, it’s so difficult to predict what it’s actual green impact will be—after all, a bike rack doesn’t make people ride bikes—follow-up requirements should be implemented. “A number of local, state and federal agencies require LEED certification for their new buildings — so why not have them institute follow-up requirements as well? Buildings that efficiently generate on-site power should be able to claim tax credits. Tenants who reuse paper or install efficient lighting could claim rebates. At the same time, agencies should conduct regular energy-use checkups to ensure that landlords and tenants live up to the promise of their LEED certification—and those that don’t should lose their subsidy.”

I don’t really know enough about LEED to have an opinion, but I did find the argument compelling. I’ll throw it out to all of you: what do you think?

With MHIA’s NA 2010 getting underway in Cleveland, OH, today (anyone out there attending? I’d love to hear how it’s going!), it’s a reminder that there’s only five more days until we leave for MHEDA’s 55th Annual Convention and Exhibitors’ Showcase, to be held May 1-5 in Marco Island, FL. It will make a busy week for some who are traveling straight from one to the other, I’m sure.

Even though we’re not attending in Cleveland, we will be in Marco Island in full force. For the first time ever, we will be producing a daily newsletter at the Convention, recapping previous day’s events and previewing what’s to come. MHEDA members, both attendees and non-attendees alike, will receive a daily morning e-mail with a newsletter that looks eerily similar to The MHEDA Connection e-newsletter you’ve all come to know and love. So if you see me (see the picture, below right) or my colleague Dan Vest in the hotel hallway, feel free to introduce yourself and give us a comment for the newsletter. You’ll be a rock star in no time!

There’s a lot happening in Marco Island, beginning Saturday, May 1. I hope to see you there!

Today is Earth Day; it’s the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, in fact. I learned yesterday that the impetus for Earth Day was the day when my hometown Cuyahoga River notoriously caught on fire near Cleveland, Ohio. Can’t say I was proud to learn that fact, but at least something positive came out of that debacle. (Well, two things, if you count the song “Burn On” by Randy Newman.)

Earth Day seems like as good a time as any to talk about the continuing efforts of our industry to go green and help end-users of material handling equipment (which is virtually everyone) do the same.

The material handling industry is at the forefront of the sustainability movement, whether it’s:

• Reducing forklift emissions
• Warehouses that go up instead of out and preserve more green space
• Turning off power to certain parts of a customer’s warehouse when not in use
• Encouraging adherence to green building codes
• Embracing alternative fuels
• Increasing remanufacturing opportunities.

And just today, I read about a study finding that logistics companies made commitments to sustainability during the recession.

Consider this a tribute to our industry. Keep up the good, green work! (Editor’s note: See The MHEDA Edge Editor’s Blog to read another perspective on Green Material Handling.) Happy Earth Day, everyone!

At long last, the Second Quarter (April) issue of The MHEDA Journal is back from the printer and being distributed to MHEDA members. Those of you traveling to upcoming material handling equipment trade shows can also pick up a copy at NA2010 in Cleveland in two weeks or at the MHEDA Annual Convention & Exhibitors’ Showcase next month.

This issue plays off the MHEDA Convention’s theme of “The Rules Have Changed,” and is chock-full of articles from distributors about how they’re changing the rules at their companies to drive profits. See how M & G Materials Handling (East Providence, RI) President Ken MacDonald has improved productivity by implementing 5s procedures. Read how Bill Rowan, president of Sunbelt Industrial Trucks (Dallas, TX), has instituted more strict credit policies to ensure better cash flow. Learn what Ted Springer, president of Springer Equipment Company (Birmingham, AL), is doing to diversify his product mix, and many more!

This issue also features articles from speakers at the Annual Convention, on topics from marketing to sales intelligence to thinking creatively and more. So even if you can’t make it to Marco Island, you can still receive some of the benefit by taking a look at this quarter’s issue.

It’s all available online now and is being mailed to subscribers this week. I’d love to hear your feedback. Leave a comment here or send an e-mail to editor@TheMhedaJournal.org. Thanks for reading!

I was on vacation for a few days last week and spent some time cruising around Southern California. I had been there before but always had a destination and a reason in mind, and never really took any time to explore beyond my immediate destination.

This time, though, I had some free time to relax and soak it all in. Looking back on it, it’s amazing how much material handling I saw, really in every way. Traveling around Long Beach, i saw the port filled with huge barges loaded with hundreds of shipping containers. I saw cranes and hoists being used to unload those ships.

I saw forklifts in action, at every size business, from a tattoo parlor in Venice Beach using a truck to unload what looked to be large ink canisters, to the Hollywood Walk of Fame using one to haul some new granite for a new sidewalk star (I think it was Russell Crowe’s), to a shipyard in San Diego.

I saw industrial storage rack in the place where we picked up our rental car, and I saw conveyors both at the airport and at a cruise ship boarding station we rode our bikes past.

Most people don’t know it, but material handling is everywhere! Making that awareness more prevalent is the purpose of MHEDA’s Industry Advocacy committee, and the good news is, they have a lot of material to work with. Even on vacation, I can’t escape it!