I recently attended the 57^th Annual MHEDA Convention located at the Loews Miami Beach Hotel in Miami Beach, Fl.  I’ve been to many MHEDA conventions, this one was by far the best I have been to and received the largest turnout since 2000.  The theme of this years’ convention was Re-Imagining Your Business. The MHEDA staff, led by Liz Richards, attracted some of the best vendors in the material handling industry along with content presenters that spoke on many topics, including:

• How to Raise Your Profits by Raising Your Profile
• The Economy
• Financial Trends – What you need to know to improve profitability
• The Impact of Team Selling
• The Convergence of Search & Social Media

Particularly impressive was this year’s vendor fair featuring pallet rack manufacturers, conveyor suppliers and automated systems integrators. The networking opportunities the convention afforded were top notch.

The Poken, digital business card, was introduced to attendees with tremendous success.  The Poken tag came pre-loaded with each attendees contact information and all we had to do was to “touch and glow” our tag to someone else’s to exchange our social business card as opposed to passing out traditional business cards.  Once you had all of your contacts on your Poken, you could just plug into a USB port and view everyone’s business cards with one-click connect on social networks, and sync all contact details with Outlook or Apple Mail, etc.  I look forward to continuing to use this technology at other conventions in the future, and I hope to meet you at the next MHEDA convention next year in Palm Springs, CA.

Bob Giberson
Principal
PeakLogix 

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) were established in 1970 to assure employers provide a safe and healthy workplace for their employees. OSHA violations can result in company fines, disruption of work, and unnecessary opportunity costs.  For a deeper understanding of OSHA regulations, visit their website.

When we walk through our customers distribution and manufacturing facilities, we keep an eye out for any rack damage that could be perceived as a “willful violation” in the eyes of OSHA for storing materials in damaged racks.  A “willful violation is issued by OSHA when an employer exhibits plain indifference to or intentional disregard for employee safety and health”.

Some of the things that we look for, and you should be aware of, include:

• Stored materials must not create a hazard.
• Storage areas must be kept free from accumulated materials that may cause tripping, fires, or explosions, or that may contribute to the harboring of rats and other pests.
• How accessible the materials are to the user.
• Condition of the containers where the materials are being stored.
• When stacking materials, height limitations should be observed.
• Damage to racking structure caused by forklift operators.

When we come across these instances we make recommendations for safety, including repairing or replacing the damaged rack sections.  When is the last time you took an assessment of your rack?  Take advantage of the slower summer months and schedule a rack/safety audit.

John Garrett
Service Manager
PeakLogix
24/7 Service Hotline 866.850.8559