The Mheda Journal

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.

I ran across this little nugget today while researching our wikiMHEDA headlines. With all the talk still circulating the industry about green technology, I found it interesting.

A company in Buffalo, NY, specializes in eco-friendly products, like turning scrap tires and computer parts into item like wheel stops and sign posts. They have turned their attention to recycling old industrial conveyor belts made of rubber. According to the blog post in Buffalo Business First, “We don’t want to have any waste or have effect on the environment so were taking scrap and making it into different products. We’re going to take old conveyor belts from quarries and mines and cut them out and we have a customer in Texas who makes them into dock bumpers.” The quote is from Deborah Robbins, VP of Rubberform Recycled Products. They expect the process to start as early as next week.

As you’re all aware by now, the theme for MHEDA in 2010 is The Rules Have Changed. This is another example of small business ingenuity at work. If you or your customers have any old conveyor belts lying around, maybe it can return to another customer’s factory as a dock bumper. Full-circle material handling!

Have a great Memorial Day weekend, everyone!

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?

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!

photo courtesy of Plug Power Inc.

I had the pleasure to interview Warren Brower, product marketing manager at Plug Power Inc., a Latham, NY-based manufacturer of hydrogen fuel cells, last week. Mr. Brower was fomerly the marketing manager at Raymond Corporation and joined Plug Power in 2007.

I knew a little bit about hydrogen fuel cells before speaking to Mr. Brower, but now I feel like almost as much of an expert as he is. (I’m not, though…not even close.)

One of the things I found interestng was the go-to-market strategy for his company:

Our intention is not to go out and replace every lead-acid battery out there. We understand that a hydrogen fuel cell is not for every application. The key with fuel cells is to focus on specific applications and specific opportunities in high-volume and high-throughput applications.

Such a strategy is important for distributors to know. Do you have customers out there who are eyeing this technology? Do they fit the “high-throughput” description. If not, they may not be a good candidate for hydrogen fuel cell forklifts.

Another interesting excerpt from our interview:

You’re going to see other applications start to surface where fuel cells make sense instead of using diesel generators, backup lead-acid batteries or whatever. So I think in the next couple to three years, you’re going to see a major push within this field.

So, apparently we’re just scratching the surface with this technology. Although it’s been “a few years out” for more than a few years now, it’s something to continue to keep an eye on.

Anybody out there doing anything interesting with fuel cells? I’d love to hear about it!

Is “green” still a hot topic in material handling? A couple of years ago, it seemed that everywhere you turned, there was an article about new green technologies like fuel cells or LED lighting or something of that ilk. It doesn’t seem to come up as often anymore, so I’m wondering if it is a trend that has fallen by the wayside.

Green projects, for those who may not know, are those that are environmentally friendly, loosely synonymous with energy-efficient, alternative fueled, and/or able to be recycled. “To go green” was the oft-cited response to why customers should switch from IC to electric forklifts, or order a remanufactured part.

At the time, I’m estimating late 2007-2008, material handling wasn’t the only industry touting its green-ness. Automobiles, restaurants, manufacturers, and other businesses touted the benefits of reduced carbon footprints, natural ingredients and all that. I don’t hear about that as much anymore.

So here’s my question: Why? Have green projects been fewer and farther between now that everyone’s in a financial crunch (after all, green solutions often cost more)? Is green expected as a solution, so there’s no reason to market it that way anymore? Was that just a trendy marketing gimmick in the first place? Maybe I’m just not listening and the message is still there? Or another reason?

I’ll leave it to the experts.  What do you think?

I just learned that the California Air Resources Board (CARB) is back in the news as it pertains to forklifts. Evidently, the organization recently posted a 25-slide presentation on its Web site regarding the fleet requirements of large-spark ignition (LSI) engine regulations. These regulations affect such off-road vehicles as farm machinery and industrial equipment with engines of more than 25 horsepower using gas or an alternative fuel (including forklifts). These regulations were passed in 2001, and the first phase of implementation went into effect this year. Read more here.

The new slideshow is designed to help operators and fleet owners better understand the requirements. My guess is they’ll also be helpful to distributors who are consulting end-users about what’s the best course of action for their fleets. An ARB spokesman says, “The slides contain images to help operators understand which classes of forklifts are, and are not, part of the ‘forklift’ definition” that is impacted by implementation of the regulation.

Thought it may be of interest to anyone doing business in California!

In my last post, I talked about how the environmental movement among the general population has had a profound impact on material handling. As more and more businesses look to reduce their “carbon footprints,” they are turning to their material handling equipment providers to help them.

Some of the time, this is done through regulatory measures, such as those implemented by the California Air Resources Board to curb emissions of forklifts and other similar-sized engines. Other times, the catalyst is a desire to spend less money on energy, particularly in times like these when it’s important to watch every dollar. Other companies simply want to be a good corporate citizen and have altruistic motivations for wanting to preserve their environment.

Whatever the reason, it’s a trend that is not going away anytime soon.  What can you do to help yourself or customers capitalize? Here are few articles that may be of use. One distributor describes how he helps customers convert their fleets to electric trucks. Another talks about the energy-efficient lighting systems he’s installed at customer sites. There’s a lot going on out there…hopefully this can help you and your customers save money, and the planet!

We’re always looking for “green articles” to publish in The MHEDA Journal. The sustainability/enviromentally friendly trend is a big one in the material handling industry and it’s something that members are definitely interested in talking about. Here’s a link to a few of the articles we’ve published on the topic.

So it was with great interest that I stumbled across this blog entry from MHEDA Member Ron Gilleland at Bluff Manufacturing. They are taking a stand against printed product literature by eliminating lengthy product catalogs and instead providing one short document for all their products and then offering all those documents online. Gilleland says:

“It does not matter if you and I can agree on the cause of problems, but we must recognize when a problem exists and do the right thing.”

I couldn’t agree more.

It’s just one example of the prudent things companies are doing to save the environment (and cut costs at the same time!). Kudos to Gilleland and Bluff! Any other examples out there, i’d love to hear them!

Today I actually got out to walk the show and meet a lot of MHEDA Members. It was a lot of fun.

We started the morning by dropping in on the MHEDA-sponsored Objective Based Selling seminar, where more than 20 distributors learned the ins and outs of successful material handling sales. Then we walked the aisles and saw all the displays, everything from pallet rack to spiral conveyors to ergonomic floor mats to reusable pallets to all kinds of lift equipment, hoists and cranes. A lot of MHEDA members, both distributors and suppliers, had booths, and we tried to make it around to all of them.

One of the interesting things I noticed was that a lot of “regions” had booths. It was strange to see a booth advertising Northern Alabama or Minnesota, but I guess it makes sense. If an attendee is looking to build a distirbution center, those regions or Chambers of Commerce or whoever can sell their area as a good place to build. So that was interesting.

While walking around the show, I realized I have a lot to learn about some of the new-ish technologies out there, particularly voice-activated technology and automated guided vehicles. In talking to some of the manufacturers of these products, I learned a little more about their capabilities. Really fascinating stuff. There were also a lot of booths devoted to sustainable packaging and green material handling practices. We’ve covered some of these issues in the magazine, and it’s a topic that’s not going away any time soon. I look forward to learning more about reusable packaging in the coming months.

There’s a lot more to say but we’re off to hospitality rooms right now to meet and greet more people! There’s more to come in a bit!