A robot designed by German engineering students was the winner of Amazon’s first-ever “Picking Challenge” competition, which was held during a robotics conference in Seattle last month. The contest challenged students to design robots that could grab a series of small objects from a shelf according to a pre-determined sequence in the shortest possible time. … Read more
You may have heard stories about mothers who are able to lift a car that’s trapped on top of their child. Or Superman lifting a truck and throwing it at a bad guy. But practically anybody has the power to lift a car, truck or other heavy vehicles … as long as they use a … Read more
Most businesses use automation to stack pallets. But if you’re packing all or some of your pallets by hand it often can seem like a game of “Jenga”, the tabletop game in which wooden pieces are carefully stacked until one wrong piece causes the whole thing to come falling down. Even companies that usually use … Read more
Remember those old TV commercials from the 1990s for the LoJack Vehicle Recovery System? The ones where car thieves are thwarted by a GPS beacon that was secretly embedded in a car they stole? Now one of the world’s largest manufacturers of industrial equipment is using similar technology to protect its vehicles and it’s already … Read more
Many of the newest generation of young workers lack basic employment skills such as good communications, a professional work ethic, leadership, self-direction, and critical thinking/problem sounding. Yet Millennials are much more prone than older workers to leave their current employer for another opportunity. Those are among the findings of a new report issued earlier this month … Read more
Every workplace generates trash. Some of this garbage is industrial waste that is a byproduct of the manufacturing process while others are just normal trash typically produced by human workers. In both instances, in order to maintain a safe and comfortable workspace, trash must be removed on a regular basis. Generally, this will be done … Read more
The leader in eCommerce is making a wave in warehouse efficiency. Amazon.com has been opening up new fulfillment centers at a brisk pace and introducing robots and other high technology features to make their operations more efficient. One example is the warehouse center in Tracy, California. There are about 1,500 full-time laborers working in 1.2 … Read more
Editor’s Note: In today’s Thursday Feature, we look at the reasons behind the recent multi-billion expansions of the Suez and Panama canals and how they could ultimately affect the ordinary consumer. The Suez Canal is in the middle of a $6.8 billion expansion project that will nearly double its capacity and allow super oil tankers … Read more
The Second Harvest Food Bank, in Springfield, Ohio, is manned mostly by volunteers. But executive director Keith Williamson was having a hard time retaining unpaid workers because of conditions at the charity’s warehouse. Because of the 58,000 square foot warehouse’s open floor plan, volunteers packing boxes of food to be distributed to the area’s needy … Read more
Whether you are managing a brand new warehouse or one that’s been around for years, the one thing you can’t take for granted is shelving. The shelves you select need to be able to hold the amount of weight piled on them; they must allow easy access to the items they hold; they must be … Read more
