inbound
Giving back to the community
Here’s our monthly roundup of some of the good deeds being done by companies in the logistics and material handling community.
▪ Old Dominion Freight Line honored
claims specialist Christine Goodman with the
third annual John Yowell OD Family Spirit
Award for her work as a court-appointed child
advocate and providing support for homeless
and battered women in Erie, Pa.
▪ IFCO Systems will provide containers to
Feeding America San Diego to help that program transport grocery products
to partner organizations that feed schoolchildren during the summer.
▪ VeteransPlus has selected Ryder as the first recipient of its “Foundations in
Support of Heroes” (F.I.S.H.) award. The award recognizes organizations that
help foster financial literacy among military personnel and veterans.
▪ Michelle Day, a first responder and project administrator for The Raymond
Corp., has received the Industrial Safety Real Heroes award from the Southern
Tier Chapter of the American Red Cross in New York state. Day is an emergency medical technician–critical care (EMT-CC) and has served as an
American Red Cross instructor.
▪ Material handling systems firm Conveyco made a donation to lupus research
for each “like” on its “Likes for Lupus” Facebook page. Conveyco is a longtime
supporter of research and treatment for the chronic autoimmune disease.
▪ TransProject LLC, which provides heavy project logistics services, is participating in the “Peace Through Business” program for women entrepreneurs
in Rwanda. TransProject will host Emily Butare Mutoni from Adonai Ltd. in
July for training and mentoring.
▪ Buckhorn Inc. has donated attached-lid and straight-wall containers to
Ride 2 Recovery (R2R), a cycling program that helps service members and veterans with physical and mental rehabilitation. The containers were used to
store and organize bicycle parts for the group.
▪ Graybar, a distributor of electrical, communications, and data networking
products and provider of related supply chain management services,
announced that it raised more than $144,000 for charities across the United
States through its community platform, Graybar CARES. ;
New reports offer
the lowdown on lift
truck automation
Fun with the sun
PHOTO COURTESY OF OLD DOMINION FREIGHT LINE
The Ralphs-Pugh Co. plans to take full advantage of its location in sunny
California by converting its 40,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in
Benicia to solar-powered electricity. “With a temperate climate and an average
of 262 sunny days per year, our location is ideal to maximize the use of solar
energy,” President Bill Pugh said in an announcement. A rooftop solar power
system engineered by Helio Power Solar Solutions is projected to supply 90
percent of the company’s annual electricity needs.
The venerable manufacturer and supplier of conveyor rollers and components for material handling applications—founded in 1912—boasts an up-to-date attitude toward the environment. “Ralphs-Pugh is committed to being an
environmentally sensitive company. In addition to a good economic investment, converting to solar is the right thing to do from an environmental perspective,” Pugh said. ;
Although several equipment vendors have developed lift trucks
that can operate without a human
driver, to date, few warehouse and
DC operators have bought these
futuristic vehicles. Potential buyers, it seems, are unsure whether
the automated equipment would
be appropriate for their facilities,
and they’re wary of new technology that’s constantly changing.
Those who are still on the fence
may find answers to some of their
questions in two new white
papers from manufacturers that
offer automated trucks.
The first, The State of Forklift
Automation: Are We There Yet?
from Crown Equipment Corp.,
reviews the current state of automated lift truck technology. It
also identifies four attributes that
can serve as the basis for evaluating automated trucks. The paper
concludes with six questions
companies should answer before
deciding whether to move ahead
with the current generation of
forklift automation technology or
wait for the technology to evolve.
The paper can be downloaded at
www.crown.com.
The second paper, Determining
the Right Lift Truck Navigation
System for Your Very Narrow Aisle
(VNA) Warehouse from
Mitsubishi Caterpillar Forklift
America (MCFA), discusses the
lift truck navigation technologies
that are available today and factors to consider when evaluating
these systems. It also looks at
some best practices for improving
warehouse productivity and
order picking accuracy. The paper
can be downloaded at
www.jungheinrich-lift.com. ;
