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Hey everyone, Warehouse and Operations as a Career here, I’m Marty, everyone having a great week, I hope? I thought we talk a little bit about the Electric Rider jack today.
I was in a class last week where the subject of operating platform rider pallet jacks came up and I have to say I was a little shocked at a few of the comments I was hearing. The conversation was more between recruiters, and a few applicants. A couple had a little experience on a rider jack while most in the room did not. Now I gathered that they did not have experience because I was listening to their answers being given as the hiring agent was asking them questions! Oh, and the couple of people that had experience, well, I didn’t feel like they were going to be taking their positions very seriously. At least not the safety aspects of the job!
So, Let’s talk just a little bit about electric jacks for a minute. I don’t know, maybe what they are, why we use them and what we can use them for. Really, rider pallet jacks, although there great for running freight into the aisles from the front docks, when I think of rider jacks I’m thinking or order selecting. Not order picking or just being a order selector. I always got to the high productivity positions in my mind. Not that there’s anything wrong with the others, but I think of a high productivity environment where we’re moving a lot of freight. Maybe even on the double or even the triple pallet jacks!
I don’t know, let’s see where we end up in about 10 minutes!
Since I mentioned Selector! I want to start by defining the word order selector.
Glassdoor will tell us that:
An order selector is responsible for selecting customer orders and fulfilling them as quickly and accurately as possible. Tasks include the selecting, staging, packaging and loading of customer orders to be delivered without damage or error. Warehouse equipment is also used to help achieve this goal.
6-river . Com tells us:
Warehouse picking refers to the process where individual items are picked from a fulfillment facility to satisfy customers’ orders. It’s an essential aspect of order fulfillment and is considered one of the most expensive and labor-intensive activities for warehouses.
Wikipedia, my go to kinda truthful resource has a lot to say.
So wikipedia gives us a list of terms they call:
Picking Strategies
There are several different strategies for order picking, including:
- piece picking or picker to part method: the order picker(s) move(s) to collect the products necessary for one order. This is commonly seen in distribution centers for retail chains whereby a shop will require a great many replenishment goods. A picker may pick all or part of the replenishment for one shop.
- zone picking method: each order picker is assigned to one specific zone and will only realize order picking within this zone.
- batch picking method: order pickers move to collect the products necessary for several separate orders at one time through the most efficient route in the warehouse.
- wave picking method: is the combination of zone and batch picking, where batches of orders are passed from picker to picker through separate zones.
- sorting systems method: no movement of the order picker(s), the products are brought to her or him by an automatic system.
- pick to box method: same strategy as piece picking above, but when product is picked, it is placed directly into a mailing-ready container, removing the need for any interim repackaging for mailing / transit purposes.
An order selector is responsible for safely, efficiently, and in a timely manner selecting, picking and retrieving an item from its storage area which a customer has purchased, or another department needs. This can be for retail, wholesale, delivery. Or while in the manufacturing and/or production environments, retrieving an item or product for the next department to use.
Much simpler right? An order selector is called many things, but they all perform the same task really. Of course, there’s different techniques for selecting a component for the next nuclear fueled medical device and what and how we’d be pulling for say a part at a pencil factory. But we’re going to get something from storage and giving it to another dept like transportation for delivery or another department to use in somethings creation! And we’ll be using different kinds of equipment to accomplish each of them.
We’re seeing more and more picking stations being utilized today than we have in the past. I believe it’s because todays workforce is laced with a touch of automation. And this automation is’ent a bad thing. It has helped reduce injury’s like soft muscle abuse, bumping our heads entering or exiting racking or slots, even cutting ourselves on cross bars and uprights. But let’s talk about picking for a second.
As we just mentioned, picking usually will not require the use of powered industrial equipment per say. In a picking environment we may have employees staged in the aisle, walking a section, picking items from the bins and slots and placing them on the roller boards, or rolling conveyers. It looks like maybe they are placing small parts in a box, maybe building an order per box even.
Things like this makes me think of small phone parts, maybe computer parts or meter parts.
My first picker job was for a gas and propane meter production plant. I’d pull things as small as little bitty o rings for values and as large as like 1 cube housings for meters. I’d walk, gosh, I don’t know how many miles a day. It was rough getting used to it but I really ended up liking that job. I’m straying again aren’t I!
Then in a case pick environment an associate may be manually selecting a product and places it on the running conveyer to take it to the loading area where it will be consolidated as an order and loaded out.
Anyway. Picker positions sometimes advertised as hand picker positions can be great get our foot in the door positions in the manufacturing and production arenas.
Let’s talk about another type of picking for a minute. While we were going over definitions a bit ago, we talked about pallet picking.
In your larger wholesale centers, you’ll see a lot of bulk pulling or pallet pulling. This is where forklift operators will receive their batches and go retrieve their orders, which are pallet quantities generally and take them to the loading docks to be tagged along with any other items a customer has ordered and loaded out for delivery.
Now with starting to talk about equipment, we’ll need to understand that OSHA standard. I won’t go to deep here but it’s very important that we understand it. It’s a rule, actually it’s the law. We will need to go through a 29CFR1910.178 class before operating any type of powered industrial equipment. This class may be referred to as your PIT training which stands for Powered Industrial Truck training. It’ll come in two parts. 1st, you’ll have some very interesting classroom time where your instructor will share some experiences, present several videos with open discussions with his or her class. To complete the certification process there is an observation component where your instructor will observe you operating the assigned equipment on your facility’s docks or in your work environments. One of the most important things you’ll learn is to perform your Daily Pre–shift Equipment Report or your Pre-Trip report form.
I want to add one thing here really quick. As a warehouseman or warehousewoman, any type of warehouse associate that’s performing any type of warehouse function DO NOT, under any circumstances, and no manner who is instructing you to do so, NEVER get on or attempt to move or operate any type of powered industrial equipment, elect pallet jack, forklift, whatever, that you have not been trained and certified to do so. And I’d like to extend that to any type of machinery as well. Our equipment is safe when we know what we’re doing, and our training and best practices will ensure that!
So we’ve talked a little about order picking, picking or pulling, terms that are used mainly for smallware’s, parts etc, mainly in the production and manufacturing worlds. I think these are great kind of get your foot in the door positions in these environments.
Now lets talk about those high productivity uses I mentioned. The Distribution Industry. An Order Selector within the distribution centers will typically fall under 2 different categories. Those would-be Productivity and Non-productivity. Along with that we could be looking at several different pay or earning programs.
Earlier we talked about the Picking, Pulling and order pickers, all of which fall under the heading of Order Selector. Our earlier job descriptions entailed conveyers, walking aisles, carousels and bin or tote type work. Maybe delicate type parts and smallware’s. Oh, and we learned a little about Bulk Pulling, or Forklift Selection.
Now, with Order Selection we will be utilizing a few other types of equipment.
We’ll start with the Electric Walkie Pallet Jack. No platform to stand on. Just as the name implies, you walk along with it, in front of it or beside it.
You’ll encounter this type of equipment more often in a non-productivity environment. I’ve seen it used where like glass bottles of liquids, like syrups are selected. Things like supplies and specialty items I guess is what I’m trying to say. Your smaller centers with shorter aisles. A very useful machine, but with some limitations of efficiencies in your larger facilities.
Now let’s speak to the Electric Rider Jack, a Single rider jack.
Now, the typical types are the End Control and the Center Control. They both have an accelerator at the end of the handle. Either a roll bar throttle or a thumb flap roll bar to turn forward for forward motion or roll back for reverse movement. You’ll raise or lower the handle to stop, and that’ll be an immediate stop. Or you’ll just reverse direction with your accelerator, that’s called braking or plugging. That’s how you stop and slow your equipment. And of course, we’ll have an up and down button for our forks, and they’ll lift, oh, about 4 to 6 inches, to allow us to carry our pallet across the docks. Some models will have a “rabbit” switch on the grab bar. This is used for extra speed, not extra torque, and is only used when on an open dock and you can drive a little faster. It’s thrown off many a good associate. Don’t use it unless you know what it’s going to do!
Oh, and I forgot to mention the most important part! EVERY piece of Powered Industrial Trucks and equipment will have a horn on it. And as we’ll learn here in a bit it has to be in working order to operate said piece of equipment!
And then you’ll have the Double Pallet Jack, meaning you’ll be selecting with two pallets behind you. Selecting twice as much freight every time you make a pass through the warehouse. Imagine. If we select oh, say, 60 cube a pallet on our single jack, now we’ll be able to select 120 cube on each batch! And it gets even better!
And then the Triple Pallet Jack. A true workhorse in every sense of the word! At 60 cube a pallet now we’re at 180 cube per batch or pull. You’ll see these in pretty much only your larger DC’s, it takes a little more room to turn and operate these, but you can move massive amounts of freight with them. A great Productivity machines.
And that’s a few thoughts on the pallet jack and I guess a bit on order selecting!
Well, I didn’t stay on topic tonight at all but I had a lot of fun with it! I hope I answered something you may have been wondering or at least gave you something to think about!
Until next week, be safe in all that you do and let’s all help a teammate with something this week!