ProMat 2009: Industry insights from materials handling icon Don Frazier
Don Frazier, current chairman of Frazier Industrial Company - and namesake of the new Don Frazier Material Handling Technical Training Center - has been a materials handling industry pioneer and leader for more than six decades.
By Staff -- Modern Materials Handling, 1/13/2009
Don Frazier, current chairman of Frazier Industrial Company - and namesake of the new Don Frazier Material Handling Technical Training Center - has been a materials handling industry pioneer and leader for more than six decades. As a founding member of the Board of Directors of the Material Handling Education Foundation, Inc. (MHEFI), his campaign for and support of technical training for students in high schools and technical colleges is recognized by the Foundation’s Board by the dedication of this program in his name.
Frazier’s first job out of the Army Air Corps was as an office boy with the publisher of Modern Materials Handling. He cites his 3.5 years there as providing the foundation of his education in unit load handling.
Equipped with his knowledge and a $2,000 inheritance, he started Frazier Industrial Company in New Jersey in July 1949. Asked by his first customer to build racking for two-level pallet picking, his first structure consisted of 2 x 4 lumber that ended up as splinters. Frazier rebuilt the racks from structural steel pipe and fittings, setting the stage for the company to become a leading supplier of industrial racks and related equipment.
Frazier attributes most of his success as a small company manager to the industry associations and memberships he maintained. He participated in and provided leadership to the American Material Handling Society (AMHS) - now known as Materials Handling Management Society (MHMS), the Rack Manufacturer’s Institute (RMI) and the Material Handling Industry of America (MHIA).
Fraizer has never missed a ProMat, including this one, since the show’s inception in 1947. Indeed, Frazier’s proposed “golden horseshow” show floor layout - enabling a more equitable distribution of floorspace between large and small exhibitors - has been in effect since the 1960s.
Upon his retirement from the day-to-day dealings at his company in 1979, Frazier relocated to Arizona. His unquenchable thirst for knowledge has led him to pursue his interests in archeology and literature.
Frazier shared some of his insights about the materials handling industry: past, present and future.
Modern: In all the ProMats you’ve attended - including the first show in Cleveland in 1947 - how has the show changed?
Frazier: To say how it’s changed, it needs a little description of what it was like in 1947. Before World War II, there were almost no companies in the United States with a lift truck, and fewer than that with fork trucks and pallets. The war made movement of large volumes of materials mostly through Liberty ships to Europe and the Pacific Rim.
The Armed Forces had to have supplies with speed and in quantity, and manpower alone couldn’t solve it. Hence, the development of fork trucks and pallets to unitize movements more expeditiously. By the end of the war, the larger companies supplying the military had fork trucks and some forms of pallets. And the rest of the industry - seeing the benefits of unit loads - scrambled to catch up.
The January 1947 material handling show was the first chance for most companies to see and discuss unit load handling. Before the war, there were hoists, cranes, conveyors and two-wheel and four-wheel hand trucks as the principal tools for moving goods. But there were almost no standards. At the 1947 show, some of the other peripheral handling tools were represented, but the fork truck was totally dominant for at least the next 30 years.
Modern: What’s the most interesting advance you’ve seen in materials handling throughout your career?
Frazier: Computerization and the automatic storage and retrieval systems (AS/RS) were the most interesting, but the whole push-button data technology of industry has revolutionized the handling of everything.
Modern: What are your thoughts on the importance of education to building the materials handling workforce of today and for the future?
Frazier: Teach the new material handling generation that job education is on-going, beyond general, high school and college diplomas. If the material handling worker applies him/herself, there is no top limit to achievability.
Modern: What advice would you give to the new workforce entering the material handling field?
Frazier: Pay your bills, keep your word and respect the people you work with - bosses and underlings both.
Modern: How did your time at Modern Materials Handling influence your own career in the field?
Frazier: I spent 3.5 years at MMH in the 1940s. It was much more important to my growth and learning than any college degree could have served me. I got in at the bottom of a revolutionary technology and grew with it to a career experience far beyond my wildest expectations.
Modern: In your opinion, what is the importance of MHIA to the materials handling industry?
Frazier: Trade associations are vitally important to get membership to focus in togetherness toward the collective betterment of the industry through standards, safety practices, statistics and education.
Modern: Looking into your crystal ball, what are your predictions for the future of materials handling?
Frazier: In the more than six decades that I have observed material handling, each decade has had more growth than the one before. There have been a few bumps in the road, but our industry is far more responsible than ever before, and my crystal ball says that in the decades ahead of us, our industry and the world we live in will continue to improve and become even more responsible.
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