Tag: employee safety

OM in the News: The End of the Forklift?

Some of America’s biggest manufacturers are backing away from forklifts, reports The Wall Street Journal (Jan. 5, 2024).  The vehicles have been integral to factories and warehouses for more than a century, but now companies are aspiring to go “forklift-free” to improve productivity and safety. Each year around 7,500 workers are injured in forklift-related collisions, tip-overs and other mishaps, while nearly 100 are killed. Orders for forklifts dropped 28% in 2023.

Ipex designed its new factory to rely on overhead cranes and hand-pushed electric pallet jacks

Plastic-pipe manufacturer Ipex designed its new factory in North Carolina to minimize the use of forklifts. That made the plant, which opened in 2023, a safer, quieter and less stressful workplace. “Employees feel like they can walk anywhere within the interior shop floor and not have to look out for forklifts,” said Ipex.

Mercedes is also reducing forklifts in its U.S. plants, replacing some with autonomous vehicles. Tesla is making a similar effort, using push carts and trailer-hauling “tuggers” inside its factories to cut down on traffic and injuries. Whirlpool’s washing-machine factories have been eliminating forklifts from production areas, and use robotic tuggers to deliver parts to assembly-line workers.

Forklift makers say they have added numerous safety features to their vehicles. These include high-visibility seat belts that make it easy to see whether an operator is wearing it, lighting that warns pedestrians a forklift is coming and sensors that slow the vehicle before a collision takes place. Forklift manufacturers say there is high turnover among drivers and lament what they call the glorification of unsafe operation. Dozens of TikTok and YouTube accounts feature videos showing drivers skidding, crashing and dropping oversize loads that smash across warehouse floors.

Classroom discussion questions:

  1. Why will it be difficult to totally replace forklifts?
  2. What are the safety issues that are frequently seen in factories with many forklifts?

OM in the News: Hobbled U.S. Supply Chains

Wanxiang America’s automotive components Michigan plant just resumed normal production with measures in place to reduce contact between employees.

Manufacturers emerging from weeks in hibernation during the pandemic are accelerating production with jumbled supply chains and less efficient plants, reports The Wall Street Journal (June 4, 2020).

Some U.S. factories are looking for alternative suppliers to compensate for plants that remain closed or are overwhelmed by orders for items in high demand. Other companies say new protective equipment and procedures to add space between workers will weigh on their profits and productivity. Ardisam Inc., for example, which makes fishing and gardening equipment that is in high demand from people spending more time outdoors, hasn’t been able to get enough parts for fence-post diggers and chicken pluckers from factories in China.

Wanxiang America, an Illinois-based unit of one of China’s largest auto-parts makers, restarted more than 20 plants in the U.S. last month after undergoing modifications to reduce contact between employees.  But some of its suppliers have gone out of business this year because they were not viable at lower production rates anticipated across the auto industry. “Any one failure is going to impact everybody,” said Wanxiang’s CEO. “We’re all co-dependent on each other.”

GM last month delayed plans to increase production of pickup trucks because of a shortage of parts from Mexico. O-I Glass, the biggest producer of glass bottles, is using more expensive raw materials to make glass because of a shortage of recycled glass. The volume of recycled glass from states with deposits on beverage bottles plunged by 2/3 after redemptions on empties were suspended as a safety precaution for retail workers. “We’ve built our supply chains based on recycling,” said an O-I Glass exec. Housewares company Honey Can-Do International said its overhead costs have climbed, because its distribution center is less efficient with operations reconfigured to separate employees.

Classroom discussion questions:

  1. What seem to be the major problems firms are facing as they restart production?
  2. Which of the supply chain risks listed in Table 11.3 in your Heizer/Render/Munson OM text relate to the pandemic?