Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Manufacturing Sector About 75% recovered, MAPI predicts full recovery by Q4 2014

This is an excerpt from an MHI blog post.

Despite growing faster than the overall economy since the recession ended, U.S. manufacturing is still only about 75 percent recovered. And their is a wide variation in the performance of industries within the sector, according to the Manufacturers Alliance for Productivity and Innovation (MAPI).

Manufacturing industrial production has increased faster than inflation-adjusted gross domestic product (increasing 18 percent while GDP expanded 9 percent), but manufacturing is still in the recovery phase of its cycle. Manufacturing production declined 20 percent in the recession, and production needs to increase another 5 percent from its Q2 2013 reading in order to return to  Q4 2007 levels. MAPI forecasts that the sector will complete its recovery in Q4 2014.

The full post is available at MHI's website.

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Healthier Workforces May Lead to a Healthier Bottom Line

This is an excerpt from an ISHN article.

Companies that build a culture of health by focusing on the well-being and safety of their workforce may yield greater value for their investors, according to a study published in the September issue of the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (JOEM), official publication of the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (ACOEM).

The stock market performance of companies that had received ACOEM’s Corporate Health Achievement Award (CHAA), which annually recognizes the healthiest and safest companies in North America, was conducted at HealthNEXT LLC and analyzed by lead authors Raymond Fabius, MD, and R. Dixon Thayer, and colleagues. Companies that receive the award must be engaged in demonstrable and robust efforts to reduce health and safety risks among their employees.

To read the full article, visit ISHN.com.

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Improving Safety with Power Pusher® Electric Tugs

Traditional methods of material transportation (such as manpower, pallet jacks and forklift trucks) expose employees to unnecessary risk. Although these solutions are effective for moving goods, and are still commonly accepted, they each suffer concept or design flaws that increase risk factors for potential injury on the plant floor.

Industrial electric tugs not only improve safety and control, but also increase flexibility with the option to push and pull loads. Nu-Star’s Power Pusher® reduces manpower and increases plant floor productivity with less downtime by transporting heavy loads fast and without excess exertion or muscle strain. Enabling a single person to maneuver 50,000 to 250,000 pounds with total control, the electrically powered, compact tug replaces large, expensive material handling equipment, such as forklifts and tractors. With a wide range of standard or custom attachments available, the tugs are a scalable, flexible solution built to meet specific load requirements.

Visit our website to learn how all of the Power Pusher tug devices can improve safety and efficiency for specific applications.

Tuesday, September 3, 2013

RIF – Breaking Through Safety Performance Plateaus

This is an excerpt from an ISHN blog post.

RIF, Recordable Injury Frequency, the worldwide standard for judging safety performance, is often talked about as inadequate, but in actuality is seldom, if ever, replaced. Why use this concept?

  • RIF is reactionary, not proactive 
  • RIF doesn’t give a hint as to what you should do differently to improve safety 
  • Why incent RIF performance when all it does is lead to hiding injuries and thus impede progress in resolving the recurring issues that should be addressed 
  • RIF means nothing to the front line worker where the risks are lived with every day
  • We have all heard these arguments and more. Yet we keep slogging down this same old road expecting a different result, the classic definition of insanity.

A group of safety professionals recently met with the executive safety leadership of a Fortune 50 company that was struggling with the RIF plateau. A number of years back when their injury numbers were higher they attacked the RIF culture that existed, solved many conditional and regulatory issues and took a steep drop in RIF and its associated costs.

The full article is available at ISHN.com.