Risk Management in Materials Handling

Avoiding the Risks When Purchasing Materials Handling Equipment

When things are going well, we don't think much about our supply chain. We order things and they arrive. However, when there is a break in the chain of supplies, we learn the hard way just how dependent we all are on those vital links. A natural disaster on the other side of the world or a political dispute in a faraway country can affect the world economy. Materials handling is all about passing materials from one link to another and we can all learn something from how international businesses handle these large-scale disruptions.

How could a natural disaster like the volcano eruption in Iceland affect a business owner in Illinois? You manage a medium sized warehouse and there is nothing you need for your business that comes from overseas. You feel sympathetic towards the millions of people who were affected when the eruption occurred, but other than that, it didn't touch your life or business.

When Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull volcano erupted, most of Europe's most important airports had to be closed down for weeks. It was an unprecedented disaster and thousands of businesses that relied on the airports were on the brink of bankruptcy by the time the airports resumed normal activity. A few savvy businesses, however, were virtually unaffected. They already had a materials handling "Plan B" in place, thanks to good risk management strategies.

No matter how smoothly your operations have gone in the past, a "Plan B" is always necessary. The odds of a volcano erupting in your neighborhood are probably very low, but that doesn't mean that some other unlikely event won't occur to your business. Something as small as your forklift breaking down just when a truck arrives to take a large delivery or having a shipment of parts held up during a labor dispute could amount to the equivalent of a volcanic eruption for your business.

"If something can go wrong," says Murphy's Law, "it will go wrong." Risk management is the act of realizing that things will go wrong and taking steps to minimize the consequences of those risks. Just because your forklift has been running smoothly for the past five years doesn't mean that it will run smoothly forever. If it is old, think about replacing it and by all means, have it serviced and inspected regularly.

If you rely on a steady supply of parts for your manufacturing plant or goods for storage in your warehouse, ask yourself what would happen to your business if there was a break in your supply chain. Do you have another supplier you could turn to? Do you have enough parts to see you through, in case a delivery was delayed?

The most successful companies often got that way because they had solutions to supply chain disruptions when others did not. They had risk management strategies in place for materials handling disruptions when other companies did not. Take a little time to study their strategies and implement your own. It's a lot better to do that than to go on hoping for the best.


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The industry is constantly modifying and it has always been Bahrns.com's goal to supply customers with the most recent equipment in Materials Handling industry has to offer. Bahrns Equipment has a wide selection of Materials Handling equipment to help sustain efficiency within your business.

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