No matter what industry you are in, adding efficiency to your production is something you want to do. If your business relies on material handling equipment, there are some simple steps you can take to improve your efficiency and improve your bottom line. Here are a few tips to help you improve your business’s usage of the tools you have.
- Use the right tool for the project you are working on. If you manage or own a company that uses material handling equipment, the chances are good that you have a lot of tools around. Each tool has a purpose that is unique. There is some overlap in what tools can do but in general, you will increase your efficiency when you use your tools for the jobs they were designed and built to do. This can also increase the safety of your workplace. For example, if you have non sparking tools for welding, you should pick the right ones for the job at hand.
- Be strategic with your storage. When you work in production, you have several kinds of needs when it comes to storage. You have to store the materials you are using to make the products you manufacture but you also have to store the finished product before you are going to ship it. Getting the most from your material handling equipment means you should have a real plan to store everything that makes the most use of your space and your personnel hours. The more care you take with this part of the process, the better you can use your space and save time and money.
- Watch your traffic. There is a good chance that when you went into business, you did not realize how much time and effort would be spent managing all of the movement around your business. You have carts, trucks, forklifts and more moving around your workplace and warehouses. Keeping everything moving smoothly and efficiently will make a big difference in how well things go in your company overall.
- Get everyone trained on your tools. One of the most important things you can do to make sure you have a safe and efficient place to work is to make sure everyone knows how to use the tools and equipment they will need to use to do their jobs. When your people use purging equipment for welding, you need to know they know what they are doing. It is easy to give lip service to this idea but it makes more send to offer training and retraining courses for the people who work for you.
- Keep safety information available. It is better for people to be able to look up the safety information when they need to refer to it than to make them ask about it. People are much more likely to look at a sheet or manual from time to time.
- Be religious about your maintenance. One of the best things you can do for your bottom line is to keep all of your material handling equipment and tools running smoothly. This means taking the time to do maintenance checks and then fixing whatever problems you find. Some companies do not think this is important and will let their equipment go to pot. This is really unfortunate because poorly maintained equipment can be dangerous to operate, be less productive and cost a lot to replace. You will save yourself a lot of time and work when you just follow a basic maintenance schedule.
- Pay attention to feedback from your staff. The people you have working for you know how well your material handling equipment is and is not working. If you are getting feedback that shows that some of your tools and equipment is starting to not work as well as it normally works, pay attention to that. Your workers are the ones who have to use and manage the tools and equipment that you need to produce the goods that you make. They have no reason to give you bad information about this. Listen to them and you may be able to save money on repair costs by nipping problems in the bud.