Every day, companies waste thousands of precious dollars when they don’t use the most efficient means for everyday business operations. You may think the way you conduct business is the best way out there, but could there be room for improvement?
If you’re looking for ways to improve the health of your bottom line, then it might be time to look at your materials handling procedures. Believe it or not, material handling equipment can boost productivity, and here’s how.
Multi-Purpose Machinery
Many business owners are put off by the idea of buying machinery to do a job that their staff can do by hand. In many cases, machinery isn’t necessary. However, when it comes to lifting, moving, and manipulating products within your warehouse or workplace, you need more than a team with burly muscles. You need materials handling machinery.
It’s important to understand that one machine can do more than one thing. Each machine, depending on the model, is capable of doing several tasks – using one operator instead of three or more people doing the same job by hand.
Take, for example, a powered hand truck. Such materials handling equipment removes the need for several workers, a forklift, and a tailgate loader. Instead of tiring out your whole team trying to lift something bulky or heavy, you can use a powered hand truck to lift and load anything unwieldy. Most of these machines have different weight limits, so you would need to choose the one that matched the most materials you normally handle.
Such a piece of equipment is ideal for boosting productivity as you can free up more of your workers for other areas of your business.
More Complete, Less Time Down
Most people see the pointy end of productivity as being able to move something as quickly as possible. However, if you’re using ten people to move something in five minutes that one person and materials handling equipment can move in seven or eight, then it’s not so much the time that matters, but the manpower.
Those nine other workers can go on to do something else productive with their working day, helping you to achieve more in the day than you would if you had not invested in that new piece of machinery.
One such example of this situation would be trying to lift ceiling panels into place. If you used ten people to lift them up, that’s a lot of costs – even if it takes less time than if you used one person to do the job. However, if you pair that single person with a Super Hoist, you can achieve the same level of productivity as using more people, but at a reduced cost. A Super Hoist can lift and position things into place, including chimneys, ceiling panels, air ducts, plumbing, and more.
Happier Workplace
In the United States, around 53 percent of workers are not happy with their job. While the reasoning behind that statistic can vary from one industry to the next, it’s not hard to understand that by making someone’s job a bit easier for them with technology, they will be happier.
To put it into perspective, imagine you hired a bricklayer but wouldn’t stretch your budget for a wheelbarrow. Instead of being able to cart his bricks to his job site, he had to carry them one by one. Not only does your productivity suffer, but so too does your worker. They may feel stressed, unappreciated, and worn out.
If, however, you provided the same worker with the wheelbarrow, they could shift ten times as many bricks and could get the job achieved quicker. They would also be happier at how less labor-intensive their work had become. You may not think that something as simple as materials handling equipment can make a difference, but it’s surprising how it can.
Reduced Workplace Injury
Over 231,000 people claimed ACC for workplace-related injuries in 2017. While not all of those could be avoided with materials handling equipment, it would be interesting to see how many could have been. Something as simple as lifting a drum with a Genie Lift instead of two people carrying it could see a reduced number of workplace-related injuries.
If you work in a warehouse environment, then think of the repetitive motion and strain on your back from lifting heavy boxes all day. A Genie Lift would only take one person to operate but could result in fewer injuries and more time spent at work and not at home due to injury.
Conclusion
Materials handling equipment is not going to solve every workplace productivity problem. However, in industries where forklifts, cranes, and hoists could come handy, there’s every reason to believe that by using them, you can reap the rewards. Take the time to look around your work site. Talk to people. Find out how your workers operate. The productivity gains could be in plain sight.