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Dangerous cargo transportation - need uniform consensus
Several issues has been raised after and it is still hot topic in debate in transport sector whether the recent changes in policies regarding the issuance of Container Packing Certificates (CPC) by the Port Klang, Malaysia is in line with international norms and regulation of United Nations regarding the cargo transportation.
There are so many safety issues as related to new norms issued by the Port Klang authorities, some concerned person expressed their opinion that certain security measures have not met the attention which they deserve in turn about of Container Packing Certificates. The core of this discussion is UN recommendation on the cargo transportation of hazardous goods.
At International level the transportation of dangerous good by sea route was viewed with a very serious note by the UN committee of Experts on the Transport of Dangerous Good in Geneva, in December 2000. The recommendations during this meeting introduced International Maritime Dangerous Goods (IMDG) code as a universal guideline for the transportation of dangerous goods by sea as framed from the 1960’s International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (Solas).
Under the law, a number of safety codes were issued regarding the recommendations for individual substances and operations for the flow of the goods and practices like terminology, packing, labeling, stowage, segregation and emergency responses action. Under guideline, the objects put under the category of dangerous goods are explosives, gases, non-flammable, non-toxic gases, flammable solids, organic peroxides, toxic and infectious substances etc.
So, the recommendations of the 2000 summit expected from all the Contracting Governments to ensure best security as according to the ISPS Code. During the 2000 Millennium Summit Secretary General Kofi Annan said,
“We will not enjoy development without security, we will not enjoy security without development, and we will not enjoy either without respect for human dignity. Unless all these causes are advanced, none will succeed.”
Safety at sea is a matter of grave concern for all those who are, related to security of ship. There are instances when a ship had to be scrapped due to the toxic spill from containers and damage was beyond repair.
However LPK, one of the authorities to issue CPC (Container Packaging Certificate) that was earlier in practice of issuing the CPC certificate even by a dispatch clerk neglecting all the security measures of highest importance. Soon after realizing the importance of CPC, LPK started issuing of LPK by properly trained competent and independent surveyors. It organized examination and selected the best candidates to issue CPC and appreciated by other port authorities and soon as the ports, local insurance companies, shipping lines from all over the world began full support to LPK, is suddenly scrapped all new CPC issuing system and all the system went into futile, further issued grave security concern for the cargo security at Port Klang, Malaysia.
Subscribe to the comments for this postTips To Efficient Movement of Materials
By Priya Jestin, Staff Writer
Material handling is not just about moving something from point A to point B. What is more important is to ensure that the handling and moving of the material is done efficiently and effectively. Whether you handle scrap or finished parts, there are various things you need to check to ensure that you are using the right equipment for your particular application. For instance, material handling for stamping operations can be quite tricky. If you are planning to use a belt, vibratory, or a magnetic conveyor, you must first check out a few points.
One of the first things you need to know is the nature of the material being handled. Stamping presses form many materials, such as aluminum, stainless steel, steel, and other alloys. While you can use either a steel-belt or cloth-belt conveyors for the job, find out if the material being moved has any sharp edges. If yes, then a cloth-belt conveyer may not be a good idea since it can be cut.
You must also avoid a hinged-belt conveyer if there are sharp parts in the material being handled. These parts can easily get caught in the hinges of the conveyer causing a significant amount of downtime. The type of metal can also make a difference to the type of conveyer. For instance, if you are handling magnetic material, you can use a magnetic conveyor.
There is another problem that you must address when handling stamped material – lubrication. Most stamped parts have some type of lubricant on the material – which can be quite troublesome for the conveyer. For instance, lubricant can cause the material to stick to the belt of a belt conveyer. This material can then easily enter the conveyer housing, triggering a jam.
Next problem is the size and shape of the material. While it may not cause a problem in belt conveyers, magnetic conveyers can have trouble with this factor. All these issues show how challenging it is to select the most efficient conveyor for a particular application. To make the best choice, you just have to consider all operating parameters and ensure that you use the best equipment for the job.
Expensive Is Not Always Best
By Priya Jestin, Staff Writer
Boys just love their mean machine toys, and nowhere is this love more apparent than in the material handling industry. Most of the people involved in the material handling and warehousing industry just love to show off the latest sophisticated material handling hardware. But these shiny huge toys need to justify their purchase on hard economic and operational improvement grounds.
It doesn’t help to buy the latest equipment in material handling only to discover that it doesn’t suit your requirements. So, before you even think of buying any new equipment systems, you must assemble all data pertinent to the performance requirements to be met. For this, you must get information on peak, average and seasonal requirements for both throughput and inventory, order characteristics information in terms of number of orders, lines per order and pieces per line and a few other factors.
Now you need to examine various alternative methods of accommodating these requirements must be developed. For instance you could check out the low-tech method, which requires the use of more manpower but has lower capital expenditure. Or you could try a mechanized method, which reduces the manpower input significantly but stops short of full automation. And if full automation is the best solution, you could even try that out. There are many other areas that you need to examine before you make your final decision. Let’s discuss them next time.
It’s Not All About Moving
By Priya Jestin, Staff Writer
The very name conjures up images of physical objects that need to be moved from place to place. What we don’t realize about the process of material handling is that nowadays, controls are playing an increasingly important role.
So when you think material handling, you cannot but think of conveyors – all kinds of them, then there are automatic guided vehicles; automatic electrified monorails, automated storage and retrieval systems… the list is endless. While you always did have something with which you could handle things, nowadays these devices are actually ‘smart’. What we now have is an array of choices that makes it difficult for any firm to decide what actually fits the bill for its operations.
So how does a company decide what kind of devices it requires to conduct daily operations? Some approaches to material handling are pretty personal. This means if a manager has specific ideas to improve efficiency and reduce effort, s/he gets the firm to make a switch. Then there are firms that need to keep up with technology changes and hence switch over to newer modes of handling materials.
What is interesting in this entire switch game is that the various types of material handling equipment don’t actually go away. This means, there is no wholesale replacement of one type of equipment in favor of another. What happens is a coexistence of sorts.
What is common amongst most firms is that they are quite conservative when it comes to material handling. The reason is not too far to seek – the cost of being wrong is incredible and can even hamper the very existence of a small business.
New range of forklift trucks from Toyota Material Handling launched
Toyota material handling has recently launched its new 8-Series forklift truck range. The launch was made at several functions around the country. The launch was very well attended and meant that there is a lot of interest around the product range. The level of enquiries that the company received was phenomenal and Toyota material handling is understandably quite pleased with this development.
Toyota’s Kaizen philosophy has led to the development of the new range that has a lot of promise. In fact the philosophy of continual improvement even in an industry like material handling with huge R&D budgets seems to have paid off. They first create high bench marks and then try to supercede it. This they call raising their QDR (quality, durability and reliability) levels. It may be noted that Toyota has one of the world’s strict quality control regimes and the product delivered symbolizes it aptly! Ferret reports:
The Toyota 8-Series improvements over the superseded 7-Series begin with its increased ease of use. Safety features of the Toyota 8-Series range include Toyota’s System of Active Stability (SAS) and Operator Presence Sensing (OPS) as standard equipment."
Global Material Handling Product Market growing steadily!
Freedonia Group Inc recently released the results of a study done recently. The study indicated that by 2010, the material handling industry would have grown to $117 billion. Industry gurus have predicted that the market will continue to grow at the rate of 4.5% per annum. This growth is being anticipated keeping in mind the increasing needs of developing countries in the area of global material handling.
China and India are expected to show the largest increases. Western Europe and Japan will contribute to this trend by placing renewed demand. Growth in the segment is also expected due to the increasing needs of the US. Best gains are expected to come from automated material handling products such as robots and automated guided vehicles. Industry Week reports:
The U.S., Japan and Germany are the world’s largest producers of material handling products. Germany and Japan are the major net exporters, although China and South Korea are expected to become increasingly important global suppliers.
European Pallet Maker Tests N.American Waters
– By Pushpa Sathish, Staff Writer
European pallet manufacturer Craemer and Canada-based plastic products producer Granville Composite Products Corporation have tied up to make the former’s products available in North America. The two companies exhibited their new pallet program at the Pack Expo Show held last week in Chicago. Craemer, which holds the distinction of being the first company to manufacure plastic pallets molded in a single shot, also sells pallets equipped with RFID transponders. MMH Online reports:
“After nearly a century of success in Europe, we see a huge market potential for our company in the United States and Canada especially with the final phase of the USDA’s wood packaging material regulation now in effect,” said Craemer’s Export Area Manager Alexander Korell. “The time is right for many North American companies to consider using plastic pallets, and we feel confident that our partnership with Granville will enable us be an immediate and legitimate contender for their business.”
Shopping for a Forklift?
– By Pushpa Sathish, Staff Writer
Buying the right forklift depends on a combination of various choices, from selecting the class of lift truck to deciding on its life-cycle cost. William Atkinson offers a few helpful pointers on the Logistics Management website.
He takes the prospective buyer through the different steps in the process, starting with a tutorial on the eight classes of lift trucks as classified by the Industrial Truck Association (ITA). He details the pros and cons of choosing an electric or internal combustion engine, and stresses that the choice should be based on the type of storage module used and the items that will be stored.
Capacity and height have to be considered, besides the decision on whether to buy a new one or make do with secondhand offerings. Atkinson says life-cycle cost of the truck should play an important part in the buying decision, instead of just the upfront cost.
Follow this link for an in depth guide to buying a forklift truck.
Kirloskar Venture into Material Handling
Kirloskar Toyota Textile Machinery (KTTM) Pvt Ltd announced its entry into material handling equipment business in India. The company will import material handling equipment manufactured by Toyota at Takahama in Japan and market them in India. The company has set up a centralized spares and service center at Jigani near Bangalore. It is opening a showroom and customer training facility. KTTM is the first joint venture between Kirloskars and the Toyota group for manufacturing ring spinning machines.
Read my previous post titled “Deployment of Material Handling Modeling Software” to know more about deployment of material handling modeling software.
Raymond Offers Efficiency Truck Brigade
Lift trucks are simply getting their act right. The latest news has been about the new 4700 Series four-wheel by the Raymond Corporation , which is a sit-down electric lift truck for better maneuverability and prompt responsiveness than any other in the league. It is said that the new Raymond 4-wheel AC lift trucks are to promote operator efficiency and comfort with élan translating the overall productivity to grow high. In the material management, the hard task comes in terms of time consumption on learning newer techniques but Raymond promises simple learning and operational benefit for the operators. The trucks can offer wider operator compartment with intuitive ergonomic controls. Laced with Raymond’s exclusive ACR System, trucks would come with lower maintenance cost. Also, this new truck will be easy to maneuver by experienced and new operators.
Going by the company, trucks have feature of efficient load handling, where operators can fit in more task in a single shift with variable capacities from 3,000 to 6,000 pounds, and 36- or 48-volt configurations; 4700 series fits virtually in any application. Raymond’s has tried to put uniqueness through better steering system, with dual powered counter-rotating AC drive motors, which gives the 5,000-pound Model 4700 C50HM the advantage of perfect circle steering. The designs though are leading to better maneuverability but there has been no emphasis on what major changes have been taken into consideration w.r.t . other trucks found in operation apart from the highly lauded ACR System for both lift and drive performances. The truck comes with controls that make operation quite effortless. Color-coded levers for lift-lower, tilt and sideshift are provided to add punch. Fingertip controls and bidirectional floor-mounted pedals have also been added.