Industrial Bridges

My friends tell me I’m like the little boy who is the subject in the psychological experiment.  He finds himself in a room waist high in horse manure with a shovel in the corner.  After leaving him alone for a time the psychiatrist returned to find him whistling while he shoveled.  When he was asked about his mind-set amid all the obvious problems he replied; With all this ******** there must be a pony in here somewhere.

We are all in a market that is uncharted territory.  Never have we been on a stage with so many big players.  China, India and several middle-east countries have huge wallets and are reaching into our transactions and messing with the assumptions we use to guide our day.  We (or at least my crowd) believe in the marketplace.  Well, I say it is time to re-load, re-calculate, re-train and re-commit.

If your skills are “excellent” then you can eat the lunch of lesser souls during this time.  If your skills are still being honed then re-double your efforts. It is worth the trouble and today is as soon as you can start.  If your company is not positioned where you would like it…well guess what…there is a shake-up coming.  Do the work and make the investment to make a quantum leap.  If you do, as we emerge on the other side, and we will; you will be a different company.  Leaner, meaner and moving on up.

We at Bluff would like to partner with you companies that want to do the hard work.  We have help and encouragement for you sales and service people who want to become more than just an order-taker; a professional.  Many of you already have made that decision and are “a cut above”.  We salute you and offer you our help as you forge ahead.

A quick check list for you salespeople.  Answer to yourself honestly; I did this very exercise at one point in my career and found that I was guilty of some of this.

• Do you pass out literature that you have not read?
• Do you use your quote as a selling tool, putting your best effort in front of your customer?
• Do you know who your competitor is…on each product?
• Do you know the sell points on your product?
• Do you know the sell points on your competitor’s product?
• Do you follow up?
• Do you listen?

A negative answer on any one of these can cost you an order.  Think about it.  If you want to talk, call us.  We are looking for partners.

One down side to having a great product like the Bluff EZ-Pull Edge of Dock Leveler is that it is difficult to improve it.  Well, difficult or not we have done just that.  Welcome the new and improved GEN VI Edge of Dock Leveler.

 The design objectives were;

• Improve competitive stance in the marketplace
• Improve unit durability
• Improve roll-over operator comfort
• Improve bumper design
• Eliminate installation errors

The good news all objectives were met and the Gen VI is currently being shipped by Bluff Manufacturing and Bluff Warehousing.  The people installing the unit will quickly see the advantages; from the lifting ring that makes initial positioning a snap to the improved bumper which makes incorrect positioning impossible.  The customer will get the more durable product and smoother ride the flat center section offers.  You as dealers will have a superior product to offer…feature rich and at the right price.

If you have not talked to your Bluff representative about the GEN VI Leveler call today.  We have something special and we are excited about it.

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As the Southeast Territory Manager for Bluff Manufacturing, I have many assets to call on when I am providing an answer to a problem for one of my dealers. One of the assets that all Bluff Dealers know about is our inside Sales Department. Their professionalism and knowledge of product is unmatched in our industry.

Another asset that both the inside sales and myself draw on is our Engineering Department. At Bluff Manufacturing we are blessed with engineering and design people that are able to think “outside the box” or in our case “outside the dock”. They use the latest technology available such as Finite Element Analysis (FEA) to provide our Dealers with superior quality, affordable cost and quick delivery times and most importantly answers to the most unique situations that their customers may face.

The ability to provide our Dealers with cost effective and high quality answers for special dock or warehouse applications is one of the reasons Bluff Manufacturing can say “service you can stand on.”

SKU’s, SKU’s and more SKU’s! Everywhere all kinds of distributors are faced with the challenge of handling a product offering inclusive of often ten fold the number of stock keeping units (SKU’s) they managed just a few years ago. SKU counts will more than likely continue to grow. In most cases distributors are handling all those SKU’s in a facility that was already taxed prior to the current onslaught of SKU proliferation. Beware, SKU’s have huge appetites!

Huge appetites? What do they eat? Time! We all know time is money, lots of money.
Take a look at a representative distributor. Today 381 SKU’s, just a few short years ago -83. That increase has a major impact throughout the business. Let’s just look at the effect on material handling:

• Many more inbound shipments as breadth replaces depth and floor space usually remains a constant…….. Happens even if overall volume stays the same
• More staging required prior to stock placements
• 198 more stock locations required
• 198 more placements needed when replenishing
• 198 more picking locations
• More outbound shipments as breadth puts pressure on achieving fill rates
• More staging prior to loading required
• High velocity, low volume SKU’ become the norm, not the exception

Dealing with all this makes safe, productive material handling an even greater challenge!

Here at Bluff we have solutions to help manage SKU proliferation that are economical and readily available:

• Yardramps offer the ability to quickly, economically and efficiently expand dock capacity
• Edge of Dock Levelers allow for maximum utilization of dock openings.  Trailer’s positioned at dock, one movement of the latch assembly and the work begins.  Loaded, unloaded trailer pulls out…..that’s it
• Speedyboard keeps lift truck operators in the saddle Dockboard placement’s now unassisted and lightning fast
• Dockboards and Dockplates allow for full utilization of the dock
• Crash Guardâ„¢ Safety Rails, Door Track Guards, Pallet Rack Guards and Post Protectors physically protect people, assets and visually contribute to raising everyone’s overall safety awareness.

SKU proliferation may be the biggest challenge distributors have faced in decades. No need to be SKU’d up. Bluff has solutions and the team to help!

We have know for years that people’s safety and even their lives depend on the products that we build.  If you are a material handling dealer who sells dock boards, dock plates and rail boards to companies…or….if you are the buyer of the product for use by your own employees ….you deserve assurance the product will perform.

I have blogged in the past about the need for a standard and have told the story about the development of ANSI MS30.2 which deals with portable dock boards and plates.  Many of you confuse the ANSI and the OSHA….here is a short and sweet comparison (In my own words)

OSHA (about portable dockboards and dockplates) - Structure of sufficient size and of sufficient capacity to do the job and not get anyone hurt.

ANSI - (about portable dockboards and dockplates - MH30.2) - Structure of sufficient size and of sufficient capacity to do the job and not get anyone hurt. And then beyond that

• A method of testing devised to impose loads similar to those expected in it use
• An engineering company from outside your company approve of the testing method
• Extensive load testing done on individual products until failure (some 50,000 cycles)
• Outside engineering company reviewing the test results and certifying them
• Individual tests run on all plate products (without curbs)
• Class tests run on board products (with curbs) in certain span and reach classes

At that time you can state to the world that your product is ANSI Compliant not approved because ANSI does not approve products.  They oversee in the development of the standards and the development of the testing.

I have made a huge deal out of the fact that Bluff Manufacturing is the only manufacturer of ANSI MH30.2 compliant products.  Here is why….We have spent well over $100,000 and untold man-hours to make sure that the product we sell you is the “best we can do”.  We put our name and our reputation on it.  I track the use of the standard online and have recently found a couple of instances where companies - (one domestic and one foreign) have claimed compliance to this standard.  When confronted, one backed down and is removing the claim (or said they would) and we are in the process of talking to the other.

You can request a certification copy from any manufacturing company.  If they are in compliance they have the certification.  You deserve to be told the truth…peoples lives are at stake.

No, not the plant. Plus, what we did move, we only moved a few hundred yards.  For years our growth has caused us to be innovative with our office space.  Many of you who have visited us can testify to that fact.  We ran out of solutions.  It became apparent after hiring Steve our new photographer / cad expert / web developer.  He had to work at home for the first few weeks.  We had no place for him.  Then it struck him that someone was out sick or on vacation or just gone to the bathroom most of the time.  As long as he did not spread out too much that worked just fine until our president Clark came back from a business trip and thought he had been replaced.  That is when it became obvious to us all….enough is enough……time for new “digs”.

We moved our offices.  Our new mailing address is 1400 Everman, Suite 120, Fort Worth, TX 76140.  Now, any service that comes to you from our financial department, our administrative folks or our customer service section comes from our new “World Headquarters”.  It really does make me feel more important when I realize that my office is no longer where the children go, simply because I have the TV and some floor space.  We hope for two things; one is to better serve our customers and the other is to give the people at Bluff some space that will allow them to become better at developing that service.

BTW…one of the side benefits is that our production staff and lead men can now have their planning meeting in air-conditioned space.  We were not out of the old offices 20 minutes when the maintenance group re-purposed the space for new functions.

Life is good a Bluff thanks to our customers.

Our sister company is turning 60 years old.  Well, Happy Birthday to you. 

A new company in 1947 Magline started its life roughly a two years after Victory in Europe, a year and a half after Victory in Japan and about 15 months after Yogi Berra joined the New York Yankees.  He was Navy and joined the team mid-season.  I try to scale everything to baseball (remember the James Earl Ray speech)…..”life goes by and everything changes except baseball”.  Am I making the hair stand up on your arm?

Back to our sister….An American Institution Magline’s logo is one of the most recognizable in the material handling industry.  Many route delivery drivers pushing beer, soft drink, ice, water and any number of other staples would change almost anything except for their Magliner. 

We at Bluff salute you and hope that on our 60th birthday we are as well thought of as you.  Visit folks that love their truck.

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I tried for quite a while to embed the video here but the company is in Beta and do not have the bugs worked out.  It is worth an extra click to watch this.

http://www.5min.com/Video/How-NOT-to-unload-a-truck-10991

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One of the nice things about blogs is that you are allowed to get off topic occasionally.  This is one of those times.  A year ago, more or less, we at Bluff Manufacturing lost a friend and colleague to Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.  A hateful and horrible disease. 

Hobert Martin was from Huntsville, AL and his body was late 50s early 60s but who’s heart was some years younger.  I think mid-teens.  Hobert was Bluff to all of our customers from the Mississippi east and from the Norfolk shipyard south.  He did not go as far south as Puerto Rico because they did not understand him….you see Hobert spoke only Alabama.  I write this little blog to honor a friend who was a good man to know and who is missed a great deal by all of us who worked with him.  I would like to share with you an image which makes us smile.

When the Disney movie “Cars” came out someone who either had children or grandchildren came in and asked if I had seen it.  I said no but would be getting it for Luke my grandson.  They said there was a character that reminded them of Hobert and when I asked which they just said …. you will be able to spot him.  Time passed and Hobert became ill and over a year went by with him locked in a battle that we all believed he would win.  I watched as people gladly did extra work so that he could remain a part of us and not be challenged for lack of income.  I watched as people prayed for him and his wife Barbara…we bargained with God, willing to redeem our credits on Hobert’s behalf. 

He would rally and work feverishly only to be overtaken …again.  In the end, after the end, everything seemed sort of anti-climatic.  Nothing you could say or do measured up to the loss we felt. That brings me to that pleasing image that now comes to mind when I think of Hobert.  It’s the tow-truck.  That good natured fellow with good intentions.  His speech seems at first so simple you might dismiss his intellect.  That would be a mistake.  Always a true friend, always willing to share the knowledge that he had.  Hobert helped me with my job and I was his boss.  He trained me and helped me train others.

We are doing well at Bluff.  We are doing well because of our people.  We lost a good one.  We lost the tow-truck.

Bluff Manufacturing of Fort Worth, TX has modified it’s workhorse dockboard….the “T” series to include the “Speedy Board” (SB).  This simple no cost modification allows the forklift driver to move, set in place and retrieve the dockboard without leaving the seat of the forklift.

This simple notch pattern on the leading edge of the board allows the driver to scoop the board and move it to or from the dock without the need to get off the equipment and move the lift loops or chains into place and then back off the truck to reverse the process.

A driver is most at risk when outside the relative safety of the protective cage of the forklift. There is also a time saving and, in high speed operations, the “Speedy Board” can make a difference in productivity.

The good news is that “Speedy Boards” like all Bluff Manufacturing boards and plates are ANSI certified. They are the only ANSI portable boards and plates on the market. Your employees deserve the best and it does not cost more.