Materials handling: Including people in the material handling equation

Effective materials handling is supposed to be all about productivity. The best systems and solutions reduce the amount of time, effort and people required to move goods from Point A to Point B.

So, where do the manufacturers of materials handling technologies turn to make their systems more productive? That was a question posed by Todd Swindermann at the 76^th annual meeting of the Conveyor Equipment Manufacturers Association, or CEMA, held last weekend in Marco Island, Fla.

On the day I attended, a number of conveyor and parts manufacturers gave presentations about the products their companies were developing.

Swindermann took a different approach. The chief technology officer for Martin Engineering, a Neponset, Ill, manufacturer of bulk handling conveyors and systems used in the process, mining and energy industries, Swindermann shared two programs Martin Engineering had implemented over the last couple of years that were leading to better morale and health among its workers. Ultimately, that resulted in greater productivity.

The first was the installation of a cafeteria in a little used area in the plant. Part of the reason for the cafeteria was practical: Neponset is more or less in the middle of nowhere, and the nearest restaurants – even fast-food restaurants – are ten to fifteen miles away. “If you don’t live near the facility, you could spend your whole lunch break just driving to and from a place to get something to eat,” Swindermann said.

Part was social. “For years, some of our retirees would come by the plant to serve coffee and fix lunch for the employees,” Swindermann explained. That ended with a change in the law that required anyone serving food in an institutional setting to be a certified food handler. None of the retirees wanted the hassle of getting certified.

To make it work, Martin Engineering hired an outside catering company to manage the cafeteria. With a mind to keeping the employees fit, the cafeteria offers healthy choices among its fare. Swindermann says along with a place to get a convenient lunch, the cafeteria has become a place where friends in different departments gather during the workday. It’s also a place to do business. “You’ll see project teams meet at a table over lunch to share ideas,” Swindermann said.

Keeping its employees fit was also behind the opening of an onsite medical clinic last October in an old fitness center. “We self-insure our health plan,” Swindermann explained, “so one of the things we’re always looking at is how we can improve the health of our employees and reduce our medical costs.”

For a time, the company only hired non-smokers. While that practice has since been prohibited by law, the company does charge higher health insurance premiums to employees who smoke.

The clinic is open three half-days a week, and is staffed by a local doctor and nurse. Employees can make appointments for themselves and their family members online, with each appointment scheduled for 20 minutes. While an employee has to pay a co-pay to use a doctor in the community, visits at the clinic are free, as are generic prescriptions from the onsite pharmacy. As with the cafeteria, it’s managed by an outside health care management firm.

The goal of the clinic is for all employees to get a health screening that may detect health issues early, before they become serious and costly. “One of our executives discovered his blood pressure was off the charts even though he was fit,” Swindermann said.

The payback: Martin Engineering expects to save $100,000 a year through prevention and to experience lower increases in medical costs – something Swindermann refers to as “lower medical inflation” — in the future. Better yet, employees don’t have to take a half-day off of work to go to the doctor, leading to increased productivity and improved morale.

The most important takeaway? “We think that just as you need to meet your customer’s needs, to be successful, you also have to meet the needs of your employees,” Swindermann said.