Engineered Systems
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The Deadly Dozen
Many of your customers don’t give much thought to their conveyor systems until there’s a breakdown. Here are 12 of the most common material handling system maintenance mistakes and how to help your customers avoid them. By Thomas E. Betts. -
Servicing Conveyors
The importance of conveyor maintenance is often overlooked for by end-users and material handling professionals. However, conveyor maintenance is critical for both end-users and engineered systems distributors. By Chuck Frank. -
The Value of Safety
Lou Shelton, director of enginerring for AHS, Inc., demonstrates how to provide a safe and healthy environment to protect your company and your customers. -
RFID Takes New Directions, Different Approaches
A look at why RFID technology has become more popular in material handling, RFID’s benefits for material handling distributors and how RFID technology is changing. By Chris Bratten. -
Conveyors Sort It Out
Narrow belt conveyor sorters and sliding shoe conveyor sorters both provide benefits. Find out how you can help your customer pick the best conveyor system for them. By Gordon Hellberg. -
Tagging Along On The RFID Revolution
RFID technology and increased customer mandates for RFID-based shipments are revolutionizing the material handling industry. RFID Technology helps simplify flow control, security and quality control on conveyor systems. The future of the material handling industry lies in RFID tags. By Chris Bratten. -
A Marathon, Not A Sprint
Advances in RFID for conveyor, forklift and storage & handling applications will produce significant ROI for material handling distributors and their clients in pharmaceuticals, retail and more. By Andreas Somogyi. -
Custom Projects Create Profit
When a customer asks you to quote a product that is not straight out of the book, do you run away or dive in to provide a quotation? If you run away, you are obviously not meeting the customer’s specific needs. By Louis Coleman. -
Teamwork Scores Big When Assessing A Customer Site
When sales and engineering work together, solutions happen for the customer. By Darrell Griffin and Haynie Mayhew. -
My Favorite Installation
An installer, sales consultant and solution development manager talk about their favorite Engineered Systems project and what they learned. By Erich Gebhardt, Bob Frye and Eric Cameron. -
Implementing A Warehouse Management System
Material handling systems integrators provide top-notch conveyor and storage to their customers. However, sometimes they’re so busy providing end-users with great material handling solutions, their own warehouse gets neglected. By Michael H. Dubbs.
Industrial Trucks
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Breaking Down The Power Options
The pros and cons of using batteries and internal combustion engines to power lift trucks. -
Scrap Battery Disposal
How to properly dispose of scrap forklift batteries. -
Managing Customer Fleets
Distributors should communicate the value of fleet management services to customers. -
Tires As A Sales Strategy
Forklift tires can be both a profit producer and a sales differentiator for material handling distributors. By Michael Sain. -
The Major Players
Statistics about the major players in the forklift tire industry. -
Tires And The Material Handling Distributor
Material handling equipment distributors speak out about selling, distributing and handling forklift tires for lift trucks -
Fuel Cells Provide End-User Benefits
Hydrogen fuel cells are a good choice for large forklift fleets. By Warren Brower. -
Beware Fuel Cell Lift Trucks
Considerations before suggesting hydrogen fuel cells to customers. By Dan Dwyer. -
Regulatory Update: Emissions
With emissions regulations ready to change, four lift truck distributors discuss the impact. -
OSHA Requirements For Industrial Truck Examinations
Tips for lift truck distributors on how to best perform OSHA inspections on customers’ forklifts. By Bruce Dickey. -
Centralized Rental
The case for consolidating the rental and freight departments at an industrial truck dealership. By Dave Aylward. -
Differentiation Through Innovation
Distributors must constantly prove their value to the customer. The most effective way to do this is through thoroughly analyzing the needs of your customers and developing innovative solutions to their problems. By Ken Fearn. -
CARB Your Enthusiasm
Gray Lift, a California-based distributor, and other material handling dealers tell how they hired a lobbyist to fight a new bill. -
Managing Your Parts Department In A Downturn
Tips for managing a forklift and material handling equipment parts distribution center. By Marcel Vandentop. -
Used and Rental Equipment Recap
A review of MHEDA’s Making Money in the Rental & Used Equipment Business conference, held in September 2009. -
A Primer On Used Equipment
Leading up to MHEDA’s Rental & Used Material Handling Equipment Conference, three presenters talk about buying and selling used forklift trucks. -
Used Equipment Leads The Way
With its lower price, higher margins and faster sales cycle, used equipment sales can help dealers climb out of the hole that the economy has put so many companies in. By David Morrison. -
Parts and Service Management Conference
With parts and service departments making up a significant chunk of many distributors’ business, and every dollar becoming more and more important, MHEDA held its Parts and Service Management Conference September 11-12, 2009, at the Crowne Plaza Chicago O’Hare in Rosemont, IL. -
Me And My Service Truck
When it comes to what type of service vehicle for a forklift dealer to use, it’s not an easy decision. Material handling distributors want something that’s big enough to hold adequate parts inventory, but not so big that fuel mileage suffers. -
Aftermarket Parts Sales In A Slowing Economy
In the material handling industry, a slumping economy demands a shift in focus from distributor sales departments. Aftermarket parts sales can be a distributor’s saving grace, keeping cash-flow coming in. By Bill LeMeur. -
Forklift Service Departments Exposed
A well-run forklift service department can significantly increase a material handling distributor’s profitability. -
The Other Side Of The Coin
Lift truck distributors and service technicians have mixed feelings on the rise of proprietary software in lift trucks. While they understand why forklift manufacturers are headed that way, it still presents headaches for lift truck technicians. -
Proprietary Software
The lift truck industry is becoming ever more sophisticated and diagnostics are becoming easier. A side effect of that is that proprietary software in lift trucks is making it more difficult for lift truck service technicians to service brands that they don’t represent. By Clark Simpson and Dave Nicolette. -
Service Technicians in the Spotlight
When something goes wrong with a piece of equipment, the responsibility for a satisfactory response falls on a company’s service technicians. What type of person is cut out for this demanding profession? -
Help Customers Watch Their Fleets
Companies have the ability to dramatically reduce damage-related costs by adding forklift-monitoring technologies into their daily operations. By R.C. Greenberg. -
Profiting on Forklift Training
For many forklift dealers, safety training programs are an oft-overlooked profit center. With a renewed focus on forklift safety training as a profit center, dealers can significantly impact the bottom line. By Rob Vetter. -
Fuel Cells For Forklifts
Fuel cell technology is constantly increasing its presence in material handling circles, and MHEDA member LiftOne is on the cutting edge of fuel cell technology in forklifts. -
Lift Truck Diagnostic Software
Proprietary diagnostic software is making it more difficult for material handling distributors to service lines of lift trucks that they don’t represent. -
Don’t Short Sell The Charger
Lift truck battery chargers are constantly improving. Be it a ferroresonant, silicon controlled rectifier or isolated gate bipolar transistor charger they can help material handling distributors rack up lift truck battery efficiency. By Jim Keyser. -
Five Things A Service Technician Can Do With A Laptop
Laptop computers, long the must-have accessory for many business owners and on-the-road salespeople, are making an inroad into other departments of the dealership. For good reason. Laptops provide access to online company resources. By Dave Terhune. -
Sales Mix: The Key To Profit Improvement
For a forklift distributor to maximize profitability, much attention must be paid to the mix of new equipment sales and service revenue. For a forklift dealer to achieve optimum performance, 40 percent of revenue should be from parts and service. By Walter J. McDonald. -
When The Aftermarket Became The Beforemarket
In material handling sales, a dealer’s aftermarket capabilities haven’t always been a part of the initial sales pitch. However, selling a dealership’s capabilities is often the best way to grow market share. By Lee Hall. -
Polyurethane Or Rubber
In material handling, rubber wheels were once the standard choice for lift trucks until polyurethane options came on the scene 50 years ago. Today, the debate on which reigns supreme is still raging. By Reggie Collette. -
Liability And The Sale Of Optional Safety Equipment
In an ever more litigious society, forklift dealers must be careful to avoid lawsuits. One way to accomplish this is by offering forklift safety accessories to every single customer. By Diane Cashen. -
Solutions For Safety
Forklift safety products are not only helpful to end-users, focusing on forklift safety product sales can also help material handling distributors pad the bottom line. By Maurice Russo.
Storage and Handling
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Value Engineering
Mezzanines present an opportunity to grow material handling sales. -
Sales of Used Storage Equipment Benefits Both Customer and Distributor
Keeping an inventory of used equipment helps save customers money and reuses materials for sustainable business practices. -
On The Wire
A breakdown of wire decking, an often misunderstood pallet rack accessory. By Steve Johnson. -
Warehouse Safety
Warehouse safety products represent an under-utilized profit center in the material handling industry. Keeping an eye open for safety hazards can help storage and handling distributors turn a stroll through a customer location into a big sale. By Dany Dion. -
Do You Want Labels With That?
Warehouse labels represent the ultimate add-on opportunity for storage and handling distributors. Salespeople who can consistently sell labels stand to see a significant increase in the bottom line. By Kevin Marrie. -
Warehouse Designs Are Getting A Makeover
The world of warehousing is rapidly changing. Material handling distributors and end-users are constantly tweaking warehouse design to maximize efficiency and use of warehouse space. -
How Liable Are We?
Racking isn’t the only type of storage & handling equipment that needs to meet standards. Wire mesh pallet rack decking standards are equally as important for distributors in avoiding liability in the event of an accident. By Craig F. Chamberlin. -
Wooden Pallets
Wooden pallets are used to ship more packaging products than any other pallet type. Amongst their many advantages, wooden pallets are a greener, more sustainable form of pallet than plastic. By Bruce Scholnick. -
Building Codes Continue To Rack Up Issues Nationwide
Building codes for rack installations provide a constant challenge for storage and handling engineers and distributors. RMI specifications give guidelines for rack manufacturers to follow. By Sal Fateen. -
The FIFO Myth
For a long time, the material handling industry has assumed that first-in, first-out (FIFO) is the way all pallet-flow installations must be handled. This is not always the case. By Kevin Minkhorst. -
Paper Pallets
With the current push toward green technology and sustainable shipping, many material-handling end-users including Wal-Mart are exploring the use of paper pallets. By John Burnsworth. -
Plastic Pallets
More and more material handing companies are switching to plastic pallets to reduce transport packaging costs with their high reuse and recovery rates provided through internal accountability. By Bill Bloch. -
Why Outsource?
As part of the push toward being leaner and meaner, many material handling distributors are looking toward outsourcing their storage and handling installation work. -
Selling Casters
Casters are often overlooked as a value-added selling opportunity. In the competitive price market that is material handling, a little extra selling effort on features and benefits can net distributors increased margins on casters. By Brian Hakeem. -
Import vs. Domestic
Is there a difference between imported and domestic products? A breakdown of the details. By Dustin Nielson. -
Wire Mesh Deck Capacities
Understand the ANSI standard for wire decking. By Steve Marcozzi. -
Commoditized Products And The New Buyer
Commoditization of material handling products and services results in increased offshore manufacturing, declining commitment to local service-based dealers and availability of inexpensive look-alike products with similar claims. By Nathan Andrews. -
Interfacing Storage & Handling Equipment
The most efficient operations employ a hybrid of storage and handling equipment, rather than depending on one application. By Scott Hennie. -
High-Performance Doors
In material handling, high-performance doors have been big in Europe since the 1980s. However, these doors have only begun to catch on in American warehouses during the last decade. By James F. Bennett. -
Selecting The Right Caster
In material handling, casters are one of the more diverse product lines out there. For material handling salespeople, the biggest challenge is often finding the right caster for your customer’s application. by Ken Otmanowski and Al Rounds. -
Mezzanine Systems
Even the best distribution centers run out of space eventually. This presents an opportunity for material handling distributors to serve their customers by providing a mezzanine system to improve space utilization. By Jim Mierke.
Technology
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Building A Modern Website
Modern Group was one of the first companies in the indsutry to fully embrace LinkedIn. Read how it stays on top technologically with an enhanced Web presence. -
Distributor Business Systems
Tips for selecting the best software for material handling equipment distributors. -
The Browser As User Interface
Originally thought of as the interface for hosted software systems residing on the Internet, browsers are now being used as the user interface (UI) to access and deliver information. -
Field Service Automation
Field service automation software is streamlining age-old processes and simplifying complicated operations. By Ron Rogers. -
MH007
An inside look at six top-of-the-line gadgets for material handling salespeople that would make even 007 jealous. -
The Software Challenge
Distributors look for efficient material handling software. The Software Challenge -
Creating An Effective Online Store
Ways to make your online material handling catalog profitable. By Chris Doyle -
YouTube 101
YouTube video helps material handling distribution. By Eric Brunkow and Aaron Kleyla. -
Internet Marketing Techniques
Material handling distributors are replacing old-school marketing methods with CRM programs and online marketing strategies. By Art Arellano. -
The Next New Thing
Technological advances are impacting the business world and the material handling industry is no exception. Distributors of forklifts, conveyors, rack and the like are becoming ever-more reliant on technology. -
Making Technology Work For You And Your Customer
Careful adoption of technology can increase dealers’ revenue, provide a value- added service to customers and stay above the rest with a technological edge over their competition. By Arun Patel. -
The Ultimate Material Handling Website
Edgers share their thoughts on what the ultimate material handling website would look like: one that would not only drive customers to your site and business, but also which would make your business and its website more user-friendly. -
Computer Security For Small Business
For material handling distributors, computer security is of the utmost importance. A poorly secured network can end up costing a material handling company some serious cash if a virus finds its way into the system. By Chris Dominiak. -
Making Your Web Site Work For You
In this day and age, almost every material handling distributor has a Web site and participates in e-commerce in some way. The key is optimizing your material handling Web site so it works for you. By Art Arellano. -
Position Yourself For Success
GPS technology is revolutionizing the way material handling distributors do business. Not only does GPS allow for efficient routing of service vans, it increases productivity by keeping service technicians and salespeople where they’re supposed to be. -
Software Solutions
The pace of technological progress is astounding and material handling distributors are reaping the benefits. Here, two MHEDA distributors recount their experiences with technology upgrades. -
Buying A New Business System
In a rapidly-changing marketplace, new business systems are constantly becoming available to material handling distributors. The key is selecting the right business system for your material handling distributorship. By Lisa Anderson and Jed Cavadas. -
Don’t Fight The Speakerphone!
When teleconferencing with a small number of material handling peers or customers, speakerphone is a viable option. However, there are certain groundrules that you should abide by. By Nancy Friedman. -
Controlling Company Cyberspace
With the internet becoming more and more prominent in everyone’s lives, material handling companies are being forced to develop policies regarding employee use of the internet and e-mail. -
What Is A Blog?
Blogs or Web logs are becoming more and more prevalent in the business world, and material handling is no exception. Material handling distributors should know the basics of blogging and what it can do for their company. -
Software Solution Brings Together Distributor and Manufacturer
More than 20 years ago, a group of material handling distributor companies worked together with its forklift supplier and partner to create a universal custom software system to benefit both parties. By Wes Alt and Rick Liley. -
Five Things A Service Technician Can Do With A Laptop
Laptop computers, long the must-have accessory for many business owners and on-the-road salespeople, are making an inroad into other departments of the dealership. For good reason. Laptops provide access to online company resources. By Dave Terhune. -
The Digital Distributor
It once was the cliché in material handling that technology would ease distributor’s workloads, but that has been far from the case. In fact technology has cranked up the speed of the material handling industry significantly. -
Leveraging The RFID Phenomenon To Build Client Relationships
The RFID revolution is well underway, and as a material handling distributor, to serve your material handling clients to the best of your ability, you must be able to leverage this technology. By John M. Hill. -
Webinar Training Expands Small Company Programs
Material handling professionals are benefiting from an exciting new online technology for training. MHEDA-sponsored webinars are great sources of cost-effective training for material handling distributors. By Loren Swakow. -
Material Handling Personnel Share Reverse Online Auction Experiences
In the material handling industry, reverse auctions are a troubling phenomenon. The pratfalls of this process are well-documented, but they are still occurring. -
Today’s Business Demands Innovation, Not Giving Away Our Product
There are many industries in which reverse auctions fit. Material handling is not one of them. They are detrimental to relationship, and not good for the buyer/end-user. By C. David Weaver. -
What About Lack Of Support And Its Cost To Operations?
The material handling industry’s new reverse auction phenomenon is not only a detriment to distributors, but also to end-users. The end-user is sacrificing service and expertise which often ends up costing more in the long run. By Jeff Long. -
Everyone Pays A Price When Low Bid Takes All
A new phenomenon has begun in the material handling industry, one that distorts our core ability to offer and sell value-added services. These electronic reverse auctions focus only on price, not quality or service. By Evan Wescoe. -
Reverse Online Auctions Raise Concerns
In the material handling industry, the internet has brought about a dangerous trend in reverse auctions, a process in which bidders haggle over the lowest proce from an amount set by buyer. By Stephen Cloud. -
Establishing E-Commerce Territories
In the material handling industry, the e-commerce explosion is having a significant impact. Thus, adjustments must be made, such as establishing e-commerce territories for lift truck dealers. By Mark Mahovlich. -
Three Steps For Keeping Your Employees’ E-Mail From Landing Your Business In Court
For material handling distributors, e-mail is an invaluable tool. However, if not properly managed, employees’ e-mails can land a distributor in serious legal hot water. By Patricia S. Eyres.
