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.”
Subscribe to the comments for this postShopping 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.
Tips to keep away from infections
By Priya Venkatesh, Staff Writer
Are you afraid of getting infected by a contagious disease prevalent at your workplace? Are you afraid to interact with your siek neighbor? Here are a few tips that can assist you in terminating the spread of infectious disease when you are amidst the public!
- In addition to regular exercises, aerobics & dieting, it is always better to wash hands as often as you can! Use soap & lukewarm water to clean your hands and legs as soon as you reach home.
- Try not to touch your nose, mouth & eyes in public, stay away from infected persons. When you are with an infected person, try not to touch the belongings of that person.
- In case your workplace gets contaminated with a contagious disease, stop sharing spoons, dishes, plates & news magazines!
Click here to know more tips on how to safeguard yourself from being infected by invisible germs around!
RFID into temperature monitoring of medicinal products
Are you aware of the inexplicable loss, which occur on medicines during their transit from one place to another due to the uncontrollable temperature changes? Are you aware of the latest technology used to circumvent this issue?
RFID has penetrated into the health care industry. It assists in the optimal temperature control fore the medicinal products transported from one place to another.
TNT, a leading provider of logistics services in the healthcare industry has come up with an RFID tag which helps in temperature control of goods in transit. This has not only helped in the reduction of cost involved by terminating loss during transit but has also brought an improvement in sales & client satisfaction.
Click here to read my previous post on the use of RFID in tracking building occupants.
RFID helps in detection of human movement within buildings during emergencies!
Are you afraid of trespassers who could intrude into your confidential data at office? Or have you had the unfortunate experience of getting stuck amidst buildings during an emergency? If either of the above is true, relax. Go ahead to know what RFID technology can do for you in such situations?
Hitachi has uncovered the new AirLocation tag-w, a breakthrough in the field of RFID technology, which has assisted in detecting the human movement within buildings at times of emergencies. This release is a part of its initiative towards establishing wireless LAN with the help of Wi-Fi technology.
Read my previous post on the remarkable benefits of RFID technology to know more on RFID.
MHIA reports released for this quarter
Material handling Industry of America (MHIA) studies and forecasts the future market of Material Handling Equipment Manufacturing. This report is up once in every quarter and contains detailed information on the market trends of the successive year.
The MHIA has also promulgated the release of MHEM Annual Rate of Change (ARoC) Workbook, which is a MS Excel based planning tool that works on the basis of the report from MHIA.
Click here to read more on the report from MHIA for this quarter. Read one of our previous post on ‘MHIA Takes Over MH1′ to know how MHIA has taken over the administration of MH1.
The remarkable benefits of RFID technology
As a retailer, are you aware of the revolution that is caused by the use of RFID technology in the retail industry? Do you know that the tollbooths are able to generate monthly bills for the vehicles passing through them by the use of RFID technology?
Read on to know the major benefits that this technology has brought into the retail industry.
- Misplaced items are notified to the inventory management staff.
- Stock run outs and excess availability is being notified to the management staff thereby preventing the unavailability and overabundance of stocks in the retail industry.
- Brings in inexplicable client satisfaction by avoiding security checks at the doorsteps of every shopping mall.
- Update of the payment to be done at the counter is being updated for the customers as they load items into the shopping cart.
- Fraudulent transactions can be avoided in the retail industry through the use of this technology.
- Price, warranty and expiration date can be provided in the smart screen attached to the cart through the use of this technology.
- Shopping trends can be recorded and discounts can be introduced as per the current trends recorded for the customers in the retail industry.
Click here to read more on how RFID has assisted in improving supply chain security.
RFID – a boon from customer’s perspective
Imagine yourself shopping in a shopping mall equipped with RFID technology! You start piling up your items in a cart provided by them. Imagine how will you feel when the screen attached to the cart instantaneously calculates the total sum of the items shopped and if the bill that you have to pay gets updated as and when the successive item is loaded into the cart? You will be astounded and remarkably satisfied to see the growth of today’s technology!
Imagine that you don’t find a particular item and you go to the helpdesk there to enquire on the item. If the staff there is able to get back to you regarding the location of the item within the mall within seconds, can you imagine how elated you would be and how interested you would become to visit the same shopping mall again!
Yes! This has been made possible with RFID technology which has assisted the retail industry in better stock tracking by avoiding stock run outs and improving customer satisfaction by reducing shopping time.
Read my previous post on how Wal-Mart has benefited by integrating the RFID Technology to its supply chain here.
Symbol Technologies merges with Motorola
Motorola, headquartered at Schaumburg III, has promulgated the take over of Symbol Technologies, headquartered in New York city, a pioneer in the production of mobile gimmicks which are deployed for data snaring using state-of-the-art technologies like RFID.
This deal is expected to come to a close by the wake of 2007 as per the reports from mhmonline. The report articulates that Ed Zander, CEO of Motorola expects to strengthen their products using the mobile solutions provided by Symbol Technologies.
Click here to read the details of the merger between Motorola and Symbol Technologies.
RFID Technology integrated with the supply chain at Walt-Mart
Are you aware of the material handling techniques that Wal-Mart has introduced in the recent past? Introduction of RFID technology to control the overabundance and shortage of the available inventory is one of the prominent materials’ handling initiative taken up by Wal-Mart.
As reported by a news article in mhmonline, Mollis Ford, Executive Vice President, Wal-Mart emphasizes on the widespread usage of Generation 2 tags from EPCGlobal. The existing supply chain network with Generation 1 tag is expected to switch over to a network equipped with Generation 2 tags shortly. Around 1000 marketing franchisees are expected to implement this RFID initiative of Wal-Mart by this year end.
Click here to read my previous post on Wal-Mart’s five-year-plan to reduce package cost in material handling.