Category: Simulation for Training

All around the world, operator certification is growing in importance to make heavy equipment operations safer by imposing (minimum) standards on what you need to know and what you need do at the controls of real heavy equipment such as forklifts (powered industrial trucks). Think about cars. When you “know (...)

Employers everywhere are struggling to “find” operators for their heavy equipment to replace the people who are retiring or moving away, and to add new people to operate the new equipment that you’re adding to your fleet. And that’s why this ought to sound familiar: “It’s hard to find operators. We’ll (...)

The Workforce Turnover Problem Companies in all sectors, including logistics, continue to face workforce challenges [1]. What’s typically measured is workforce turnover, i.e. the percentage of your permanent workforce that you “replace” each year. Here are some turnover numbers from the Material Handling Institute’s Warehousing Education Research Council (WERC) “DC (...)

Being safe: no accidents, no damaged equipment, no personal injury (or worse). And that’s why a good lift truck operator is always, first and foremost, safe, so the right kind of training simulation should emphasize learning-to-be-safe. But what does that mean? The fact is, everyone learns everything by making mistakes. (...)

Everyone knows what a “forklift” is, right?  Sure, something that you “drive” like a car: you’re sitting down, the seatbelt’s engaged, there are forks out in front, there is a steering wheel (although it turns the two wheels at the back), and there are pedals to make things move. More (...)

As described in [1], learning any new skill, riding a bike or operating a lift truck, takes place in three stages: First, you work to understand what needs to be done, and focus on doing your best while avoiding “gross mistakes”, i.e. being careful. Later, after sufficient practice, you make (...)

Supply chain companies are increasingly looking to forklift telemetry (sometimes called telematics) to help improve lift truck operations [1], [2], [3]. Practically, specialized devices onboard collect real-time data about where the lift truck is (and where it was), using GPS, and how it’s moving around, using motion sensors, In particular, (...)

Operating heavy equipment typically requires the coordinated use of both hands and feet to move levers, joysticks, steering wheels, and pedals. For that reason, simulated work that “mimics” real work can truly help develop the skills required to operate heavy equipment [links to the blog categories “Simulation for Training” and (...)

The world is full of “work” that requires interaction between two people, and I’ll use tennis as a simple example. Playing tennis requires two people, but you learn to play tennis by yourself, at least at the start, with coaching help: how to hold the racket properly, how to hit (...)

Whether you like it or not, your thoughts affect your actions.  That’s why how you feel about what you do counts. And the only way to gain confidence is practice: the more you do, the more you can do. And the more you can do, the more you do. The fact is, you can only be skilled when (...)