Martha Spizziri has been a writer and editor for more than 30 years. She spent 11 years at Logistics Management and was web editor at Modern Materials Handling magazine for five years, starting with the website's launch in 1996. She has long experience in developing and managing Web-based products.
When New Belgium Brewing Co. was founded in 1991, "we didn't even really have any docks," says facility/project manager Bruce Clark. But that has changed. The Fort Collins, Colo.-based company has grown to become the third-largest craft beer brewer in the country, with brands such as Fat Tire, Ranger IPA, 1554, and Shift. It's now one of the nation's 10 largest brewers, distributing its wares to 39 states and the District of Columbia. Since 1995, New Belgium has operated out of two facilities in Fort Collins: a 205,000-square-foot brewery and packaging center with 25 loading docks and a separate 180,000-square-foot distribution center with 20 loading dock bays.
In the last five years or so, the brewer has experienced a growth spurt, with production soaring to more than 945,000 barrels in 2014 from fewer than 583,000 in 2009. But with more product coming through the DC, problems began to crop up. That was particularly true at the dock bays, where wear and tear were taking their toll on the equipment and the forklift operators who worked there.
"We had a lot of equipment failure, which obviously increased the cost of repairs. We had a lack of safety procedures set up with our dock system. And then, we were getting complaints from employees [about] back, leg, and shoulder issues just from the rough approach from the leveler to the truck," Clark says.
Travel across the transition areas of the dock—the places where the lip meets the dock, the leading edge of the lip, and the edge where the dock meets the warehouse floor—can cause whole-body vibration for lift-truck operators, explains Rite-Hite product manager Troy Bergum. "Whole-body vibration is a major issue when it comes to skeletal damage of various sorts," he says. "There's a lot related to leg and back and neck injury from crossing that bridge going into the trailer. A forklift driver can cross that bridge over 100,000 times a year," he notes.
The equipment was sustaining damage as well. "The components on the levelers weren't holding up," Clark recalls. "We were getting cracks in the leveler and separation on a lot of the welds, and springs were breaking—just a lot of little things. It was a constant problem." On top of that, the vehicle restraints weren't standing up to the hard usage. Added to that, quite a bit of product was being lost to damage as lift trucks entered the trailer.
New Belgium brought in Arbon Equipment, a Rite-Hite company whose services include loading dock planning, building, and design, for help. The dock consultants conducted an assessment and recommended replacing the existing equipment with new gear from Rite-Hite: hydraulic dock levelers, Dok-Lok vehicle restraints, and a communication and control system.
SMOOTH OPERATION
The difference was immediately noticeable.
First, there was the reduction in "dock shock." The new levelers feature what Rite-Hite calls "Smooth Transition" technology: a shorter crown height (which minimizes the gap between the dock and lip), a longer leading edge (on the lip), and a constant-radius rear hinge that Bergum says eliminates the gap between the floor and the leveler. "No longer do you get the rumble-strip effect," says Bergum. "You actually glide across the back of the leveler."
"The transition from the finish floor to the leveler to the trailer is just much smoother all around," says Clark. Damage and repairs to equipment have dropped to normal maintenance levels, he adds.
In addition, the levelers installed at New Belgium include a safety lip to keep lift trucks from driving off the dock, preventing injury as well as damage to products and vehicles. When the leveler is in stored position, it creates a seven-inch-high barrier. The safety lip will stop a 10,000-pound load moving at four miles an hour, according to Bergum.
Clark says complaints about physical problems have decreased—and productivity has increased. "We've had less downtime because of equipment failure," he reports.
Because of the smoother entry, lift trucks are less subject to Joséling as they enter the trailer and are not as likely to hit cases. The result: "There's been less product that we've lost or damaged, so there, again, there's less downtime for cleanup or restocking," says Clark.
As for how the trailers are secured to the dock, New Belgium opted for vehicle restraints designed to address all four major types of dock accidents: premature departure of the truck from the dock; truck landing-gear collapse; "trailer creep"—where the trailer gradually moves away from the dock as it's loaded; and trailer popup, where the trailer can be upended. The device it chose, the Dok-Lok restraint, has a hook that actually comes up and wraps over the top of the rear-impact guard or ICC bar. The unit is also designed to float with the trailer, so it can maintain contact even as the trailer moves up or down during loading or unloading.
For added safety, the vehicle restraint system has been integrated with a communication and control system. After the restraint engages, a red light comes on to signal the truck driver that he or she should not pull away. At the same time, a green light illuminates inside the DC to let the forklift driver know it's safe to start loading or unloading.
THE VERDICT
Clark says New Belgium has been "extremely pleased" with Rite-Hite and Arbon, as well as with the equipment itself. In fact, the brewer is installing similar Rite-Hite dock levelers in the new distribution center it's building in Asheville, N.C. And it will do the same at a new Fort Collins DC, which is planned to replace the current leased facility in 2017. Says Clark: "It makes my life easier, so we'll continue to be partners with Rite-Hite and Arbon and continue putting product out the door."
Supply chain planning (SCP) leaders working on transformation efforts are focused on two major high-impact technology trends, including composite AI and supply chain data governance, according to a study from Gartner, Inc.
"SCP leaders are in the process of developing transformation roadmaps that will prioritize delivering on advanced decision intelligence and automated decision making," Eva Dawkins, Director Analyst in Gartner’s Supply Chain practice, said in a release. "Composite AI, which is the combined application of different AI techniques to improve learning efficiency, will drive the optimization and automation of many planning activities at scale, while supply chain data governance is the foundational key for digital transformation.”
Their pursuit of those roadmaps is often complicated by frequent disruptions and the rapid pace of technological innovation. But Gartner says those leaders can accelerate the realized value of technology investments by facilitating a shift from IT-led to business-led digital leadership, with SCP leaders taking ownership of multidisciplinary teams to advance business operations, channels and products.
“A sound data governance strategy supports advanced technologies, such as composite AI, while also facilitating collaboration throughout the supply chain technology ecosystem,” said Dawkins. “Without attention to data governance, SCP leaders will likely struggle to achieve their expected ROI on key technology investments.”
The British logistics robot vendor Dexory this week said it has raised $80 million in venture funding to support an expansion of its artificial intelligence (AI) powered features, grow its global team, and accelerate the deployment of its autonomous robots.
A “significant focus” continues to be on expanding across the U.S. market, where Dexory is live with customers in seven states and last month opened a U.S. headquarters in Nashville. The Series B will also enhance development and production facilities at its UK headquarters, the firm said.
The “series B” funding round was led by DTCP, with participation from Latitude Ventures, Wave-X and Bootstrap Europe, along with existing investors Atomico, Lakestar, Capnamic, and several angels from the logistics industry. With the close of the round, Dexory has now raised $120 million over the past three years.
Dexory says its product, DexoryView, provides real-time visibility across warehouses of any size through its autonomous mobile robots and AI. The rolling bots use sensor and image data and continuous data collection to perform rapid warehouse scans and create digital twins of warehouse spaces, allowing for optimized performance and future scenario simulations.
Originally announced in September, the move will allow Deutsche Bahn to “fully focus on restructuring the rail infrastructure in Germany and providing climate-friendly passenger and freight transport operations in Germany and Europe,” Werner Gatzer, Chairman of the DB Supervisory Board, said in a release.
For its purchase price, DSV gains an organization with around 72,700 employees at over 1,850 locations. The new owner says it plans to investment around one billion euros in coming years to promote additional growth in German operations. Together, DSV and Schenker will have a combined workforce of approximately 147,000 employees in more than 90 countries, earning pro forma revenue of approximately $43.3 billion (based on 2023 numbers), DSV said.
After removing that unit, Deutsche Bahn retains its core business called the “Systemverbund Bahn,” which includes passenger transport activities in Germany, rail freight activities, operational service units, and railroad infrastructure companies. The DB Group, headquartered in Berlin, employs around 340,000 people.
“We have set clear goals to structurally modernize Deutsche Bahn in the areas of infrastructure, operations and profitability and focus on the core business. The proceeds from the sale will significantly reduce DB’s debt and thus make an important contribution to the financial stability of the DB Group. At the same time, DB Schenker will gain a strong strategic owner in DSV,” Deutsche Bahn CEO Richard Lutz said in a release.
Transportation industry veteran Anne Reinke will become president & CEO of trade group the Intermodal Association of North America (IANA) at the end of the year, stepping into the position from her previous post leading third party logistics (3PL) trade group the Transportation Intermediaries Association (TIA), both organizations said today.
Meanwhile, TIA today announced that insider Christopher Burroughs would fill Reinke’s shoes as president & CEO. Burroughs has been with TIA for 13 years, most recently as its vice president of Government Affairs for the past six years, during which time he oversaw all legislative and regulatory efforts before Congress and the federal agencies.
Before her four years leading TIA, Reinke spent two years as Deputy Assistant Secretary with the U.S. Department of Transportation and 16 years with CSX Corporation.
Serious inland flooding and widespread power outages are likely to sweep across Florida and other Southeast states in coming days with the arrival of Hurricane Helene, which is now predicted to make landfall Thursday evening along Florida’s northwest coast as a major hurricane, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
While the most catastrophic landfall impact is expected in the sparsely-population Big Bend area of Florida, it’s not only sea-front cities that are at risk. Since Helene is an “unusually large storm,” its flooding, rainfall, and high winds won’t be limited only to the Gulf Coast, but are expected to travel hundreds of miles inland, the weather service said. Heavy rainfall is expected to begin in the region even before the storm comes ashore, and the wet conditions will continue to move northward into the southern Appalachians region through Friday, dumping storm total rainfall amounts of up to 18 inches. Specifically, the major flood risk includes the urban areas around Tallahassee, metro Atlanta, and western North Carolina.
In addition to its human toll, the storm could exert serious business impacts, according to the supply chain mapping and monitoring firm Resilinc. Those will be largely triggered by significant flooding, which could halt oil operations, force mandatory evacuations, restrict ports, and disrupt air traffic.
While the storm’s track is currently forecast to miss the critical ports of Miami and New Orleans, it could still hurt operations throughout the Southeast agricultural belt, which produces products like soybeans, cotton, peanuts, corn, and tobacco, according to Everstream Analytics.
That widespread footprint could also hinder supply chain and logistics flows along stretches of interstate highways I-10 and I-75 and on regional rail lines operated by Norfolk Southern and CSX. And Hurricane Helene could also likely impact business operations by unleashing power outages, deep flooding, and wind damage in northern Florida portions of Georgia, Everstream Analytics said.
Before the storm had even touched Florida soil, recovery efforts were already being launched by humanitarian aid group the American Logistics Aid Network (ALAN). In a statement on Wednesday, the group said it is urging residents in the storm's path across the Southeast to heed evacuation notices and safety advisories, and reminding members of the logistics community that their post-storm help could be needed soon. The group will continue to update its Disaster Micro-Site with Hurricane Helene resources and with requests for donated logistics assistance, most of which will start arriving within 24 to 72 hours after the storm’s initial landfall, ALAN said.