An open forum for the readers and writers of Modern Materials Handling to share ideas, problems and solutions. en-us http://www.mmh.com/blog/700000470.html?nid=4135 Copyright 2009 Reed Business Information. Subject to its Terms of Use November 12, 2009 http://www.mmh.com/blog/700000470/post/860050486.html?nid=4135 True or false: Safety doesn’t sell, especially when it comes to selling lift trucks. Safety is dangerous, especially when lift truck dealers try to sell it. Finished with my quiz? Now compare your answers to those of your colleagues who answered Modern’s recent Lift Truck … http://www.mmh.com/blog/700000470/post/1880050388.html?nid=4135 Looks like I kicked up some dust with my recent blog on OSHA’s warning about dusty work environments. I told you that OSHA was sending out notices warning work sites about lift trucks being operated in areas classified as hazardous. That includes places where dust is prevalent. “Th… http://www.mmh.com/blog/700000470/post/1310050331.html?nid=4135 Well, I can finally talk about it. A few weeks ago I attended a media-only introduction to the C-5, Crown Equipment Corporation’s first company-manufactured internal combustion (IC) forklift. It features an industrial engine that was jointly developed with John Deere Power Systems (John … http://www.mmh.com/blog/700000470/post/1790050179.html?nid=4135 In my last blog I addressed under-ride, a particularly ugly and often fatal type of lift truck accident. I also told you that the House Education and Labor Committee would soon be delivering a full markup of the Protect America’s Workers Act of 2009 (S. 1580/H.R. 2067) to the Senate. This… http://www.mmh.com/blog/700000470/post/1090050109.html?nid=4135 The operator of a standup order picker was killed on the job recently. The circumstances weren't unusual. OSHA arrived on the scene asking all the right questions. But there's one question all lift truck operators and fleet managers need to ask themselves: Did this man die in vain? Wha… http://www.mmh.com/blog/700000470/post/1980049998.html?nid=4135 The worst insult you could pay a warehouse manager is that his facility is a black hole. That implies a huge cosmic point of no return. Well if logistics can borrow scientific terminology to imply chaos on a cosmic order, why shouldn’t science be free to use a logistics glossary to bring cosmi… http://www.mmh.com/blog/700000470/post/1220049922.html?nid=4135 The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that 47 million Americans, or 20 percent of the population under the age of 65, were without health insurance last year. That doesn’t have anything to do with lift trucks. This does: According to OSHA, approximately 95,000 employees are injured every y… http://www.mmh.com/blog/700000470/post/1890049789.html?nid=4135 While visiting Crown Equipment Corp.’s headquarters in New Bremen, OH, last week, I toured the company’s manufacturing sites. The fact that Crown is a vertically integrated manufacturer and makes roughly 85% of its trucks’ components is old news. But what surprised me was the numbe… http://www.mmh.com/blog/700000470/post/1320049732.html?nid=4135 In this exclusive interview, Senior Vice President Jim Moran explains what Crown's entering the internal combustion engine lift truck market and its applying new information management capabilities will mean to customers.—Tom Andel Q: Before getting into Crown's IC strategy,… http://www.mmh.com/blog/700000470/post/460049646.html?nid=4135 There’s a lot of old fashioned thinking among old material handlers. For example, many lift truck makers and sellers have always seen hoists, cranes and overhead conveyors as competitive products. They bought into a huge case of “Either/Or.” A new generation of material ha… http://www.mmh.com/blog/700000470/post/500049450.html?nid=4135 In this excusive interview, James Malvaso, president &CEO of the Raymond Corporation, analyzes strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats for lift truck sellers and buyers.—Tom Andel Q: What are the threats and opportunities of the global lift truck market? Malvaso:… http://www.mmh.com/blog/700000470/post/1830049383.html?nid=4135 In a recent blog I let off some steam about people who have no right to be lift-truck-ignorant. I’m sorry if I came off as a petulant snob. But I’m not sorry that my passion resulted in an opportunity to learn a little more about the “small electric trucks resembling forklifts&rdqu… http://www.mmh.com/blog/700000470/post/1420049342.html?nid=4135 In this exclusive interview, Don Chance, President of NMHG Sales (Nacco Industries Inc.'s materials handling group) gives his vision of the shared stake lift truck makers and dealers hold in keeping customers. – Tom Andel Q: Let’s start with the economy. Are there good thin… http://www.mmh.com/blog/700000470/post/660049266.html?nid=4135 I realize lift trucks aren’t the center of most people’s lives. They hardly come up in polite conversation at dinner parties—unless geeks like me are there. Still, most people know what a lift truck is. Most. You wouldn’t think a Wall Street Journal writer would be a… http://www.mmh.com/blog/700000470/post/1740049174.html?nid=4135 With more and more Baby Boomers reaching the age of 60 every day, a rallying cry has accompanied that milestone: "60 is the new 40!" No it isn’t. It’s a new opportunity to deny mortality. Even Boomers like me, who are just entering their mid-50s, know denial when we se… http://www.mmh.com/blog/700000470/post/1190048919.html?nid=4135 So one day on your lunch break you’re reading an engineering magazine and an article stops you in mid-chew. It’s about a new unmanned remote-controlled forklift being developed by MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab. It shows how the same kind of forked workhorses used… http://www.mmh.com/blog/700000470/post/1360048936.html?nid=4135 TMHU’s chairman and CEO gives Modern Materials Handling a glimpse of what's ahead for him and unfolds a success roadmap for the industry in this exclusive interview.—Tom Andel Q: This is a tough time for all industries, and the lift truck industry is tied to all of them. Your ex… http://www.mmh.com/blog/700000470/post/20048802.html?nid=4135 Some time in the future, car owners will plug into the electrical grid through "smart meters." They’ll be able to choose when their vehicle's battery will recharge, for how long, and at what utility rate. If only some lift truck fleet managers could do that today, many of th… http://www.mmh.com/blog/700000470/post/490048649.html?nid=4135 "Grant" is a loaded term. In its simplest form it means "to give or fulfill." But it’s also commonly used with "wish," as when the Genie told Aladdin he’d grant him three wishes. As I told you in my last blog post, Wegmans was granted $1 million by … http://www.mmh.com/blog/700000470/post/1040048504.html?nid=4135 What do you get when you cross Mickey Mouse with Spider Man? A heck of an exterminator bill. Except it’s Walt Disney Co. that hopes to exterminate its competition by buying Marvel Entertainment and all its franchised heroes for $4 billion. Disney is betting that this investme… http://www.mmh.com/blog/700000470/post/1260048326.html?nid=4135 Death always gets your attention. That’s why the following headline that appeared in The Wall Street Journal recently worked on me: “Workplace Deaths Fell 10% in 2008” On the surface, falling fatalities is great news. But when you realize that unemployment was goi… http://www.mmh.com/blog/700000470/post/780048278.html?nid=4135 Ever hear of the "Oscar Curse?" A big Hollywood star wins an Oscar for an un-toppable role then their career goes into a tailspin. Sometimes that happens to manufacturing stars. A company is recognized for a major achievement and a change in management or in the economy makes it lose … http://www.mmh.com/blog/700000470/post/1370048137.html?nid=4135 Maintenance is hard work. Commute back and forth on any highway during the heat of summer and you’re bound to drive past cars parked by the side of the road--smoke billowing from their hoods. If those drivers hollering into their cell phones for a tow had invested the time and money to check t… http://www.mmh.com/blog/700000470/post/1730047973.html?nid=4135 This recession has us thinking in weird ways. Sales and hiring numbers have been down so low that economic analysts are saying that could be a good thing. The Wall Street Journal recently quoted James O’Sullivan, an economist with UBS Securities, as saying: “Firms were unusually aggressi… http://www.mmh.com/blog/700000470/post/1630047563.html?nid=4135 I write a lot about lift trucks. Lately, however, I’ve been thinking I’m in the wrong business. Just by writing and blogging about them I periodically get orders for them. If I’m that influential using this medium, imagine the money I’d make by actually trying to sell them! …