Running your loading dock with inefficiencies can lead to a whole host of problems; shipment delays, accidents, product damage and even injuries. Inefficiencies can also cut down on performance opening up the door to late or lost shipments and unsatisfied customers. Making just small adjustments to your yard, loading dock and warehouse operations can make a world of difference in the efficiency and productivity you will experience from your logistics.
Start outside of the dock and warehouse. Installing a 4SIGHT™ Yard Management System is a good place to start to increase the visibility of your supply chain, allowing you to make educated decisions on how to best optimize your logistics. From the moment a trailer enters your yard to the time it leaves, 4SIGHT lets you know where exactly a trailer is, what’s on it, where it needs to be and how to get it there as efficiently as possible.
Ensure the most efficient sequence. Equipment on the loading dock such as vehicle restraints, overhead dock doors and dock levelers should operate in an appropriate sequence to make sure they are as safe and efficient as possible. A Kelley® Master Control Panel interlocks all controls with sensors to ensure the proper sequence of equipment engagement. This allows maximum efficiencies, safety and minimizes downtime that can result from improper equipment sequencing.
Invest in the most standup leveler available. Vertical storing dock levelers increase efficiencies at the loading dock by eliminating the additional steps drivers must take with more traditional levelers. The Kelley Vertical Storing Dock Leveler allows the driver to simply back the trailer up to the door and let the dock employee do all the rest with their integrated master controls.
In addition, companies in the food, beverage and pharmaceutical industries and a growing number of other operations are seeking to sustain a clean, energy-efficient warehouse environment. That’s why thousands count on our Vertical Storing Leveler for unequalled environmental control along with safe, secure performance, day after day and efficiency.
Lighten up on the loading dock. Lighting on the dock and inside trailers will help increase dock productivity. High Impact LED™ Dock Lights from APS Resource® will save your energy and provide better lighting quality than traditional bulbs making your dock safer for employees to maneuver loads thus increasing your productivity. With an average 50,000 hour life span per bulb, you will also find yourself stopping to replace bulbs during loading or unloading shipments.
Comfort that is second-to-none. Employees that are comfortable in the work place tend to be more productive than those who are not. Kelley FUSION™ HVLS large fans can deliver a perceived 7 to 11 degree temperature reduction making working conditions cooler and more comfortable in the hot summer months without adding stress to your HVAC system.
With rising logistics cost affecting nearly every industry across the U.S. and even internationally, companies now, more than ever must find ways to safety and effectively do more with less. For more information on these best-in-class, efficient loading dock solutions visit, kelleycompany.com.
In a manufacturing, distribution or warehouse facility there are few places more dangerous to pedestrians than the loading dock area. These dangers can include forklifts racing in and out of truck trailers, open doors that lead to drops to the driveway below and even stacked pallet loads can be hazardous to foot traffic. Perhaps the worst among these threats are slick dock floors.
Statistics point to the loading dock as being a danger zone, where it is estimated 25% of accidents leading to injuries occur. And the costs of these types of injuries can quickly add up. In 2007, the Liberty Mutual Safety Index revealed that these kinds of incidents cost the material handling industry $6.6 billion annually.
The problem is that there can be up to hundreds of doorways along the typical loading dock, each typically 8’ x 10’ holes in the wall. These doors can permit moisture to enter the area to mix with dirt, debris and oil creating a dangerously slick surface.
Dock doors - ensuring a closed case. Doors are often the first to suffer damage from the fast-moving forklifts in the confined dock spaces loading and unloading trailers. Collisions can damage doors outright, or the can at least compromise their ability to seal the doorway. The resulting misalignment creates gaps that enable the invasion of moisture into the facility.
Standard dock doors with garage-style roller guides and light-gauge metal tracks cannot stand up to the impacts suffered on the dock. In some situations, replacing lower panels, where most damage occurs with “flex panels” ensures the doorway is covered. Often times however, management finds damage occurring at all points of the door and decides it is best to install a fully impactable door.
TKO® Dock Doors are designed and built to stand up to both the occasional bump and the most severe impacts from forklifts, product loads and even trailers. Rather than becoming damaged from the force of a major impact, the door panels simply release from their track and can easily be set back in place.
TKO doors feature rolling, retractable plungers riding along V-groove tracks ensure to the door will operate easily. Some door models include the patented Impact-A-Track™ made of high-impact plastic. These doors offer superior durability over standard doors, but can also prevent the transmission of heat from the outside, preventing chilled interior air from condensing and dripping on the floor.
Closing the avenues for moisture. Standard pit-mounted dock levelers provide efficient trailer access for forklifts, but the pit cut into the concrete dock floor allows small gaps that act as a passageway for moisture. Even a tightly closed and sealed door can’t prevent moisture from infiltrating through the gaps.
A solution to for both new and existing pit-style dock levelers is to outfit them with an advanced ENERGY GUARD™ perimeter weatherseal system—a combination of durable open-cell foam and heavy-duty vinyl. This system effectively fills the gaps around the sides and rear of the dock leveler and provides a superior perimeter seal.
As an alternative to pit-style dock levelers, Kelley® Vertical Storing Dock Levelers and LoadHog® Modular Dock Bridges store upright when not in use. Their design allows the dock door to close tightly against the concrete floor, sealing in energy and locking out the elements.
Door seals make sure a parked trailer doesn’t bring in more than product. Docks depend on seals and shelters to close off the gap between the dock wall and the trailer to prevent the invasion of outdoor moisture, dirt and other debris.
Kelley dock seals have fabric-covered foam pads that compress when the trailer backs into them, providing a tight seal around the sides of the trailer and closing the gaps between the trailer’s door hinges. Kelley dock shelters create a canopy around the perimeter of the trailer, allowing full, unimpeded access to the trailer interior.
The addition of a Kelley AquaShield® Rain Sealing System to a shelter will provide even more protection against water infiltration at the dock. This patented sealing system keeps external moisture out of the loading dock area with a "wiper" pad that engages the vehicle at the door moving moisture away from the door opening.
Get a grip on the truck. Many docks use rubber wheel chocks in an attempt to hold trailers in place during loading and unloading, but these chocks are no match for the forces exerted by forklifts driving in and out of trailers. This force can gradually cause a trailer to creep away from the dock, forming a doorway gap. A Kelley STAR® powered vehicle restraint ensures that the trailer is held snugly to the dock with the back end of the trailer fully enveloped by the dock seal or shelter.
Move air/remove moisture. Growing numbers of facilities are installing Kelley Fusion ™ high volume low speed (HVLS) large fans to reduce their energy costs. These fans move large volumes of air at low speeds over very great areas, dissipating moisture and creating drier dock floors. The fan blades produce a massive column of air that flows down to the floor and outward in all directions, creating a deep “horizontal floor jet” that ultimately circulates air up vertically and gets drawn back through the top of the fan.
The equipment on the loading dock has always been focused on safety. Adding the additional benefit of keeping the dock floor dry contributes yet another dimension to the well-being of the workforce in facilities.
Let’s face it, we all worry about the impact threats such as weather, theft and even fire can have not only on our homes and personal possessions but also at the workplace. Which is why most people carry some form of insurance on their valuables, but here’s a little assurance from the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) for your fans and a little peace of mind.
Based on extensive testing recently conducted by the NFPA’s Research Foundation, guidelines
for the installation and use of High Volume Low Speed (HVLS) Fans in facilities with Early Suppression Fast Response (ESFR) automatic sprinklers have been established. With a vote of confidence, tests concluded that HVLS large fans, without additional fire, smoke or heat detecting equipment did not prevent sprinkler systems from meeting the “pass criteria” established for the tests and approval process
The pass criteria was determined after the two-part study analyzing the impact HVLS large fans had on automatic sprinkler systems in terms of protecting stored commodities. The study was sponsored and conducted by an oversight committee of HVLS fan industry experts, facility consultants, risk management companies and members of the National Fire Sprinkler Association (NFSA).
These tests are great news for HVLS fan users and potential users and the safety of their warehouse and overhead loading dock doors. But what about more stringent local fire marshals and the fire codes? What if they mandate the HVLS fans automatically shut down when sprinklers are activated from a fire alarm? Is there an automated system to control HVLS large fans shut down from a central location?
Of course there is a solution, and Kelley® has taken its almost 60 years of experience as the leader in the movement of materials over to advancing the efficient movement of air with iFAN™. iFAN may not be able to help prevent fires but it can certainly assist fire suppression and fire code compliance. iFAN’s intelligent software controls all fans from a single, centralized location and even has the ability to interconnect with fire suppression systems to immediately shut fans down when a fire alarm is triggered.
This integrated connection design allows power to the fans to be immediately interrupting the signal to the iFan which will shut the fans within 90 seconds. In addition to sprinkler activation, iFAN can integrate with smoke detection devices and heat detection devices to achieve automatic fan shutdown.
If you’re looking for the peace of mind and assurance afforded by iFAN for your HVLS large fans, please visit the Kelley HVLS large fan website. iFAN, it’s a winning combination of fan safety and fan efficiency.
Large industrial HVLS fans are a great addition to any warehouse setting. They move air more efficiently and keep your employees comfortable, but if you're like a lot of companies and have 10, 20 or 30 plus fans, keeping up with all those settings can be a real chore! iFAN™ takes you out of the business of policing fans and puts you back in the business of doing what you do best (whatever that might be).
iFAN, the latest product offering from Kelley®, lets you to network multiple HVLS large fans and control them from a single, centralized location. The science behind this unique industrial networked fan control system is our proprietary 4SIGHT™ software. Let iFAN do all the work, while you sit back and receive the maximum levels of performance and savings from your HVLS large fans.
Integration of an iFAN system can accommodate up to 30 or depending on the application even more HVLS large fans, providing employee comfort and efficiency year around. And studies suggest comfortable employees tend to be more productive employees….go figure. The fans are networked by a cool all-in-one touch screen computer with custom graphic displays of the facility and fan locations.
This screen allows you easily make adjustments to individual fans, fans in predetermined zones or every fan in the facility, all from the comfort of your office chair. iFAN incorporates smart technology, and who wants to work harder when you can simply work smarter? Without breaking a sweat, navigation buttons can turn fans on or off, control temperature and timer settings, display instruction manuals and even shut down fans when an fire alarm is triggered.
iFAN makes sure that operational and energy savings goals for your HVLS large fans are realized, while you take all the credit. The system displays a variety of unique metrics for each fan, zone and entire facility which can be archived and reviewed later for trend analysis ensuring you’re in the know to make decisions about optimizing your fan’s performance.
Some of the features and capabilities iFAN provides go above and beyond and can really make your head (and fans) spin!
- Centralized controls restrict access to only authorized users ensuring employees are not changing settings.
- Need a bigger facility with more HVLS fans? No worries, iFAN allows for more fans to be integrated into an existing system as a result of facility expansion.
- All iFAN controls are tailored to your specific application needs.
- Troubleshooting can quickly identify operational issues and provide options for resolution.
For more information on how iFAN can help optimize the performance of your Kelley HVLS large fans visit, http://kelley.4frontes.com/Products/HVLSFans/KelleyiFAN.aspx.
Airlines look to air cargo as a major supplement to their passenger revenue, so just about every aircraft that takes off carries some amount of freight in its belly. The soft economy and growing competition from sea transportation make it even more important that carriers find ways to keep their costs down.
A major commercial carrier based in Dallas, TX was experiencing significant forklift damage to both freight and material handling equipment. Now, thanks to Kelley® Hulk® Hydraulic Cargo Lifts, the operation has boosted efficiency and made the workplace safer for workers moving the cargo, leading to bottom line-friendly results.
The airline had been using forklifts to move cargo from the conveyors to cargo dollies, but management at the facility quickly lost enthusiasm for the forklifts.
Working closely with their Kelley rep, the airline’s management devised the means to replace their forklift with three 12,500 pound capacity Kelley Hulk hydraulic cargo lifts. These ruggedly-built lifts are a space-saving means of transporting loads from one level to another, and can easily handle heavy loads.
At the facility, the airline offers several approaches for handling freight. One portion of the operation features a material-handling system for loads that run back and forth between the freight-carrying planes and the trucks that either drop off loads or pick them up for delivery. A raceway system made up of chain-driven rollers in the floor that handles outbound freight only.
Using this conveyor system, they are able to move outbound cargo weighing from 1,000 to 10,000 pounds on the raceway between trucks and dollies, which transport cargo loads to the aircraft on the tarmac.
For freight handling within the building, this arrangement gives them the ability to move cargo all the way from the front door to the back door, straight off the truck and onto the cargo dolly with no forklift in between. The only role the forklift plays in the building now is to pick the pallets off the floor once the loads are assembled and then place them on either conveyor system.
Before the loads are brought to the aircraft, they pass over a scale where weight is recorded and then move onto the Hulk cargo lift that raises each load. The dock lift table has a ball mat surface, enabling workers to push the load onto a cargo dolly easily and efficiently.
Less forklift load handling also reduces damage to the pallets, the dollies and even the cargo. The airline did an analysis and found that the money they saved in avoiding repair costs to material handling was equal to 30% of their annual revenue.
For more information about these efficient solutions by Kelley, visit http://kelley.4frontes.com/Products/LiftProducts/ld1.aspx.
Think HVLS (High Volume Low Speed) fans are only useful to keep workers cool? Think again. These fans are more versatile than you think, and can help protect your products and the safety of your workers.
Whether it’s hot or cold outside, moisture can always be a problem in a warehouse or a distribution center, especially if your warehouse doesn’t use a racking system to keep boxes from being stacked on top of each other. Most moisture enters the building through the ventilation system and small gaps in the building’s structure. If you have moisture buildup in your warehouse, this can lead to product damage, which directly affects your bottom line.
You may already know that High Volume Low Speed fans are great for improving temperature control in buildings like warehouses, distribution centers, manufacturing plants, stadiums, airports and food and beverage facilities. But did you also know that they can help prevent moisture buildup in your building? In fact, some facilities have installed HVLS fans for that specific reason.
Here’s how it works: when the big fan is running, the blades create a large column of air that heads straight down from the fan, and moves out along the floor in every direction. This air movement, called a horizontal floor jet, creates a breeze that not only helps cool workers, but also helps moisture evaporate throughout the warehouse. The breeze from an HVLS fan can break up the moisture barrier on floors and palletized loads.
Moisture buildup doesn’t just affect product damage; it can also be a safety concern. It is not uncommon for condensation to enter the warehouse at the loading dock or it may be simply the result of using a floor sweeper in your facility. Either way, keeping the air circulating in your loading dock and warehouse can help you avoid potentially hazardous situations.
So, if moisture is a problem in your warehouse, and you’re looking for an energy-efficient way to prevent product damage and enhance safety, install some large fans in your facility. If you have more questions about how HVLS fans can help make your warehouse more productive, safe, and energy efficient, give us a call, and we’ll send one of our experts to assess your facility and provide a warehouse solution that will keep your building nice and dry.
Setting up an energy efficient loading dock can make a big difference in your company's energy costs, and can also help keep you more productive. So what type of loading dock equipment can be combined to make an efficient dock? Here's a list of dock equipment specifically designed to help you save energy.
HVLS Fans: HVLS fans keep workers cool during hot summer months, and effectively circulate air all year long. These big fans can really cut down on HVAC strain, not to mention reduce overall energy consumption and cost.
- Dock Seals: A good dock seal
will help keep temperature-controlled air from escaping around the trailer during loading and unloading. And as we all know, temperature control is an important aspect of energy savings.
Vertical Storing Dock Levelers: The best way to seal up a building's envelope and keep conditioned air inside is through the use of vertical storing levelers. These let the dock door seal tightly to the floor, keeping conditioned air in and external air out.
Dock Leveler Seals: If you have pit style dock levelers instead of vertical levelers, you can help prevent air from escaping around the leveler and the pit by installing dock leveler seals. These weatherseals surround the dock leveler, removing any gaps between the leveler and the concrete pit.
Master Control Panels: Sequencing and interlocking dock equipment can help keep energy and electricity costs to a minimum, thanks to the control panel only requiring a single drop. Plus, by interlocking the equipment to run in a particular sequence, you can prevent your equipment (dock lights, etc.) from running excssively. This helps keep your dock running as efficiently as possible.
These are just a handful of the different types of material handling equipment that can help you save energy at your facility. If you'd like more information on ways that you can control energy, give us a call to schedule a free energy efficiency analysis at your location. Then, you can optimize your dock to help you save energy, as well as your bottom line.
Sometimes, a word or phrase becomes so overused in an industry that it begins to lose some of its impact. How many times have you heard phrases like “going green,” “bottom line,” or “new and improved”?
One buzzword that should still be impactful, however, is Ergonomics. Ergonomics deals with the implementation of tools that help workers to be as safe and productive as possible.
When it comes to the loading dock, ergonomics can play a major role in productivity. Since many of the tasks necessary to facilitate a loading dock require manual labor, providing workers with ergonomically-friendly tools can make a huge difference. Here are a few material handling products that you can add to your loading dock to make it more ergonomically-friendly.
- Manual Wheel Restraints provide a safe, ergonomic solution for restraining many different types of vehicles. There’s no lifting or bending required to engage or disengage these types of wheel chock, and it requires only 35 lbs. of force to operate.
- Lift Tables in your warehouse also help prevent excessive reaching, bending and straining by employees. They “bring the work to the worker,” an essential factor in ergonomics.
- Rail Lifts help prevent workers from carrying products to different elevations in the warehouse.
- Air-Powered Edge-Of-Dock Levelers use pushbutton control to help you load and unload trailers, providing an ergonomic and cost-effective warehouse solution.
- Having automated loading dock equipment that’s interlocked and sequenced using a Master Control Panel is the ultimate in worker-friendly dock equipment. With one push of a button, the entire loading dock equipment sequence is carried out.
When analyzing the ergonomics of your facility, keep in mind that the less intensive labor a facility’s worker performs, the more productive he or she can be in the long run. A minor investment in ergonomically-friendly equipment today will reap benefits for years to come. Best of all, we’ve got loading dock solutions that won’t break your worker’s backs…or the bank.
There’s a common misconception out there that all dock levelers are created equal. Sure, every pit style dock leveler comes with a deck, a lip, and a functionality to help load or unload a trailer. That’s why it’s important to look at how different dock levelers differentiate themselves. This can be done by looking at some of the smaller aspects and dock leveler parts.
We know we want a strong dock leveler that will stand the test of time. Deciding on mechanical, air-powered or hydraulic dock levelers is one of the choices you need to make when considering dock levelers. However, in addition to the basic features, there are other things to keep in mind when looking at dock levelers. Here are a few things you should pay special attention to, so you know you’re getting the best dock leveler on the market.
- Pit Structure: Does the frame of the dock leveler allow for easy access to the pit floor? Is it easy to clean and perform maintenance under the dock leveler?
- Level Installation: Traditional dock levelers require installers to place steel shim under the frame to level the device with the warehouse floor; however, this process is often not performed properly or at all. Is the leveler manufactured with an adjustable, self-leveling or “shimless” frame to ensure proper installation and structural support over the life of the leveler?
- Support Beams: Does the leveler use traditional I-Beams, L-Beams, or a roll-formed beam shape? Which beam will distribute stress more evenly, and last longer over time?
- Lip Hinges: Hinges are typically the weakest link of the dock leveler. Lug-style hinges are usually tied into the beam instead of the front header, offering added strength and lip support.
- Stump-Out Capability: Stump out has become more common since the use of air-ride suspensions in trailers has increased. Does your dock leveler have mechanical legs that have to be manually retracted to prevent stump out, or is the leveler designed with sensor rollers for automatic stump out protection?
When considering a dock leveler purchase, you can focus on the fancy features it has, or you can dig down into the structure and make sure it’s a dock leveler that will last in your facility. By recognizing the differences that separate average dock levelers from high quality ones, you can make an educated decision that can affect your warehouse productivity and safety for years to come.