Industrial Bridges

Guard: To keep safe from harm or danger. A simple phrase, but it’s one that carries a lot of weight and responsibility. Bluff’s Tuff Guard says it all – this safety rail is manufactured with 1/2” thick ASTM A36 steel to protect and prevent loss and injury. This is the kind of product you want in your warehouse when the stakes are high and protecting your property and employees is your top priority.

We’re introducing one of our top products in this week’s blog – Bluff’s Tuff Guard Safety Rail. So what makes the Tuff Guard so special? Consider some of these facts and you will get all soft on our Tuff Guard Safety Rail!

• The Tuff Guard Safety Rail is manufactured with 4” x 4” x 3/16” structural steel square tubing posts for mounting posts

• Plastic insert caps act as mounting post closure and enhance the appearance of the safety rail

• Solid hardware for rail attachment includes 2 bolts per side (4 bolts per rail) with Rail-to-post “thru-bolt” connection

• Formed 10 gauge steel rails in lengths up to 12’ to eliminate the need for higher cost posts

• Standard post heights are 18” and 42”

• 8” square base plates manufactured with ½” thick ASTM A36 steel. Hardware includes four 5/8” wedge anchors for concrete mounting

Tuff Guard Safety Railing Features:

• We’ve hidden our bolt fasteners behind the rail for a finished and cleaner look

• We’ve ensured ease of installation and reduced our freight costs

• But here’s our star feature: with proper installation, The Tuff Guard Safety Railing can withstand impacts of up to a 10,000-pound load at 6 mph!!!

Federal standards for Safety Barrier testing requires our safety rails to pass the crash test with an impact f 10,000 pounds (forklift truck) traveling at 4 miles per hour. But Bluff Manufacturing has been manufacturing quality material handling products for several years and we know that in busy docking areas, speed of forklift operations often exceeds the 4 mph limit. That’s why we increased our safety crash standard to 6 miles per hour. And even with the increased speed, Bluff’s Tuff Guard exceeded the crash test expectations with minimal rail deflection. We weren’t kidding when we christened our safety rail as the Tuff Guard! We know our customers are always looking to us to provide the kind of quality they have come to rely upon. This is why we design and manufacture products you can always trust will exceed your expectations. When you buy Bluff’s Tuff Guard Safety Rail, you never have to worry about the safety of your plant personnel or the costs associated with employee injury, machinery down time, insurance claims, and building repairs due to accidental collisions. Bluff’s Tuff Guard Safety Rail puts your mind at ease.

What does this mean for you? The modifications made to our Tuff Guard Safety Rail have effectively decreased the weight of the product, the cost of the product, and the rail installation time. Not only do you have a safer, lighter, and sturdier Tuff Guard Safety Rail, you now have a manageable bottom-line! If you’ve got our Tuff Guard installed properly, you don’t have to worry about “tough luck” when operating your forklifts and navigating precarious turns.

Bluff's Tuff Guard Safety Rail

A nice, long, restful weekend awaits us! Whether you are spending it with family and friends carving up a deliciously cooked bird, or hiking through the rain forests in Costa Rica, or spending it at home just relaxing, catching up on personal projects or reading a good book, this is a much welcome break! A break away from business and the daily grind to spend time with family, friends, or even a little “me-time” to enjoy the pleasures that life has to offer. And the best part is, it’s a time we can give thanks for a much-deserved break! One that is hard earned for the work put in throughout the year!

So before I shut down, unwind, and prepare for the long weekend, I would like to say “Thank you” to all our wonderful distributors, associates, employees, and customers! We are truly grateful for the opportunity to work with you. We’ve had a great year and we couldn’t have done it without you! Bluff Manufacturing wishes you a restful, safe, and fun-filled weekend. We hope you enjoy the time off with your friends, family, and good food!

Talking of good food, here’s a great Thanksgiving recipe from foodnetwork.com for any holiday potluck – Emerilized Green Bean Casserole – a new twist on a traditional side dish. This is an intermediate level, 4-star recipe from the man himself – Emeril Lagasse! Happy Holidays and let no calorie go unconsumed! What are you doing this Thanksgiving weekend? Tell us your plans… we’d love to hear them!

Even though the economy remains “sluggish” at best, Bluff Manufacturing can’t really complain. We’ve had a good year so far and look to continuing that upward trend in the last quarter of 2011.

At Bluff Manufacturing, we have been able to report good, strong growth especially in these times. There are constant fears driven by concerns over the still-slow-moving economy, political & policy uncertainty in Washington, and the ongoing unemployment crisis. In spite or these woes, the American Manufacturing Sector is still moving in an encouraging direction. And so are companies like Bluff Manufacturing. Bluff continues to maintain it’s positive trends as we continue to meet the needs of our customers and we continue to add more people to our team.

Steel and aluminum prices might increase in the 4^th quarter as the price of raw materials increase putting a slight damper on manufacturing. But according to the October 2011 Manufacturing ISM (Institute of Supply Management) Report On Business, economic activity in the manufacturing sector expanded in October, 2011 for the 27^th consecutive month, and the overall economy grew for the 29^th consecutive month. Out of the 18 manufacturing industries, 8 have reported growth in October 2011: Computer & Electronic Products, Petroleum & Coal Products, Food, Beverage & Tobacco Products, Nonmetallic Mineral Products, Primary Metals, Fabricated Metal Products, Paper Products; and Machinery. The five manufacturing industries reporting growth in new export orders in October are: Plastics & Rubber Products, Fabricated Metal Products, Miscellaneous Manufacturing, Computer & Electronic Products, and Chemical Products.

Another recent development to consider is the growth in aircraft manufacturing. With airlines always looking for ways to reduce overhead costs, manufacturing has received a lot of attention from the c-level executives looking to reduce fuel consumption by manufacturing sleeker and slimmer-bodied aircrafts. Increase in the order of such airplanes equals increase in aluminum production. Therefore, the lead-time for manufacturing aluminum has also increased.

In the Fabricated Metal Products industry, the general consensus among survey takers was that “Business is very strong, both domestically and internationally.” Clearly, the Fabricated Metal Industry has come out a strong winner this year. We are truly grateful for that. As we continue to watch industry trends, we are confident we can keep up the positive growth trend at Bluff in the remaining two months of 2011.

Tune back in, and we’ll keep you updated for more manufacturing news.

Manufacturing

One among the many reasons why Bluff Manufacturing has been faring well in a still slow-moving economy is our commitment to networking and maintaining our presence at the many events and tradeshows around the country.

Networking has always been at the heart of Bluff’s business. It is Bluff’s loyal association of partners and distributors that are the driving force behind our success. Our network connects our customers with our products. At this year’s WERCouncil show, Bluff was represented by Sid and Cindy – two of Bluff’s best. With over 40 exhibitors and nearly 200 attendees, the 10th annual North Texas WERCouncil show (Warehousing Resource Council) on 12^th October 2011 in Grapevine, TX was a great success for Bluff Manufacturing. Like all good shows with great attendance, WERC brings us face to face with our network – our distribution partners, customers, and even our competitors. Attendees included Operations Managers, Process Improvement Specialists, Warehouse & Distribution Managers and Engineers looking for new technologies, products and services.  Bluff’s safety products (crash guard, rack guard, door guard) received a lot of attention.  The WERC gave us the opportunity to update our distributors, on new Bluff products, and learn how we can better meet their needs and the needs of their customers.

Sid and Cindy not only met up with old friends – but also made new ones. Some of our distributors learned about our mezzanine products for the first time and were excited at the prospect of offering it to their customers. The Bluff representatives also met new distributors who were enthusiastic to meet with them and learn about Bluff’s offerings.

Not only did we meet our distributors, but we also made a few new connections. Meeting the users of our products allows us to develop better solutions to their challenges and helps us to understand which of our distribution partners they would be best partnered with to purchase Bluff products. Bluff also discovered many new opportunities. Meeting several attendees that were working at major companies, Sid and Cindy learned that these attendees had been given the green signal to proceed with projects that had earlier been put on hold.

For instance, one company was looking for a solution to protect their racks from damages that could rack up significant repair expenses. Investing in protecting their assets made more sense than spending on costly repairs. Another company required a crash guard to protect a long aisle that had heavy forklift traffic. A major communications company had a problem on route deliveries because their customers did not have dock plates to facilitate unloading. They wanted to provide their delivery personnel with dock plates on the trucks but had not found one light enough for their employees to safely use.  When they saw the variety of solutions that Bluff has to offer and learned that we could design custom solutions, they were immediately interested in talking to Sid and learning more about Bluff. The Bluff team looks forward to working with these companies through our dealer network and outfitting them with unique solutions that solve all their docking and material handling problems.

The show’s highlight was the ingenious use of our mini-mezzanine, which we use to promote mezzanine products at different events. But at the WERCouncil show, the Convention Center dock door was too small to let our mezzanine pass through. So the Bluff team used their resourcefulness and with the approval of the event organizers, set up the demo-mezzanine outside of the main entrance. What better place to demo our not-so-mini-mezzanine than the show entrance? Who could miss a greeting banner hanging from our mezzanine asking guests to “Come up to Bluff”? Hope to see you at the next WERCouncil Show!

We’ve often blogged and created amusing anecdotes about the “Adventures of the Bluff Traveling Banner.” In fact, you might have occasionally seen our Facebook updates on its whereabouts. However, this tale that I am about to narrate involves the adventure of a particular Bluff Yard Ramp – let’s call it 20SYS8436L (the L stands for a 6 feet level off , which I described in my last post.) This is a tale of persistence, hard work, commitment and most importantly, good team work!

On June 22^nd, Russell Smith, one of our six inside sales reps, received an online request for quote via the Bluff Manufacturing website. The quote was from Santiago – one of the largest cities in Chile and the capital. The request was in Spanish and required decoding, as he does not speak Spanish. Thanks to Google, we realized the quote request was for two yard ramps. After a series of emails going back and forth, a mutually acceptable price is negotiated for one yard ramp.

By the time a Purchase Order was obtained and wire payment received at the bank and cleared, and the order is entered into the system, it is already July 13^th.

Patrice, our contact in Santiago and Russell now begin the interesting, yet onerous task of coordinating the shipment of 20SYS8436L to its new home in Chile. It all began with trying to identify the nearest shipping port to Dallas – being Houston. At this point, neither company is clear on who is responsible for transporting 20SYS8436L to Houston (although Russell has already included the freight cost in the original purchase order). It’s already July 22^nd and the Manufacturing of Yard Ramp – 20SYS8436L is complete, the bill (including freight) has been paid, but there is not closure on the Houston destination and who is actually going to get the ramp there.

The purchaser determined that they wanted to coordinate the movement to Houston, identifies a freight broker that they would like to coordinate 20SYS8436L’s safe (and legally compliant) surface shipping to Chile. And now its time for paperwork – includes all the commercial information as well as the NAFTA (North American Free Trade Act) paperwork for international shipping. At this point, we’re unaware that we’re still scratching the surface and there’s a lot more fun stuff in store for us – translation – more paperwork!

All of the paperwork is emailed to our new international client – but only after Teresa, another one of our brilliant inside sales rep, has translated all of it to Spanish! Our client informs us that they are not a part of NAFTA and proceeds to send us documentation in lieu of NAFTA – the Chilean equivalent of it in Spanish, naturally! This time, it’s Cindy Simmons (Purchasing / Credit) to the rescue – she translates the documents for us and the yard ramp is sent packing on its way to Houston.

Is it time for intermission? Should we take a popcorn break? Because we are about to embark on Part Two of this journey. Once the Yard Ramp reaches Houston and is in the hands of our customer’s freight broker, we are informed that more documentation is required from our end. You didn’t think shipping something this big to another continent was going to be this simple, did you? No, neither did we. It turns out that in order to ship the yard ramp to Chile, we (the manufacturers) were required to send an original invoice, and two copies of the certificate of origin, which we emailed, to our customers who then proceeded to inform us that only hard copies of the original documents along with an AWB (Airway Billing) form were acceptable.  Kellie, our ever-reliable Receptionist investigates UPS International and learns how to send the requisite documents overnight.

With all the documentation in place, the yard ramp makes its way to its final destination and its new home in Santiago, Chile on the 6^th of September! Victory is ours! We did it! Wait, what? It’s not over? Russell gets an email – the Owners Manual was “destroyed” during transit. Russell sends another copy. AND the ramp arrived at international shipping in a container on its wheels! In the U.S., it arrives on a flatbed on its side and hence, our offloading instructions are written accordingly. This time, our Bluff engineers Chris and Wes bail us out by developing offloading instructions for the unique delivery – in Spanish! We’re almost done, but not quite yet. On September 8^th, the purchaser requests a Spanish version of the owners manual. Nope, not a tall order at all. Nothing is impossible for us. Cynthia Schneider, our marketing manager, employs  Google Translator again and the SECOND Spanish Owners Manual is sent to Santiago. On September 9^th, we get another email from our customer – only to say – in perfect English – “Excellent, perfect!”

Across a span of three months and two continents, a unique sale was made. As Shakespeare says, all is well that ends well. So long, 20SYS8436L! We know you will provide your new owners with many long years of solid service and safe loading dock solutions.  Thank you Bluff employees for taking a challenging situation and handling it with the Bluff can-do spirit!  Andy if anyone knows of a dealer, who services Central and South America, please send us their contact info! We have proved our mettle! No pun intended!

There are several guidelines and factors to consider when buying a yard ramp. But we wanted to bring one particular aspect to your attention. When does buying a 36′ Length Yard Ramp with a 6’ Level off make more sense as opposed to a Straight 30′ Length Yard Ramp? When you need that extra maneuverability and visibility, that’s when our Bluff yard ramp with a 6’ level off becomes a better value packed option to consider. It’s important for you to know that sometimes getting that additional 6 feet of leveled off ramp space becomes a better and more optimal solution for your docking needs.

In addition to the traditional use of Ground to Truck, a 36’ Length yard Ramp with a Level Off is beneficial in these situations:

• In some ground-to-dock applications
• Close to dock-edge overhead door configuration
• Often for high-use application
• In high-traffic docking areas
• When using folk-lifts that need access to railcars

Heading up a Yard Ramp without a level off puts the operator in a disadvantageous position of having to look upwards until his lift truck is completely horizontal on the dock or warehouse surface. With a high load on his lift truck the operator’s vision may be severely limited in many situations.  Adding a level off gives him 6’ of straightforward viewing BEFORE he attains the dock surface. This allows the operator enough time to see what’s ahead across a wide spectrum allowing for very safe, productive, and highly maneuverable operations. This is especially handy when forklifts are turning into railcars and have to handle pallets near door-openings. The additional 6’ on a yard ramp is also most preferred for end loading. Basically, for any truck or railcar to ground application and close to dock-edge overhead door configurations, opt for the 36 feet Yard Ramp with the 6 feet level off.

Bluff has always been the industry leader in providing docking solutions – and our yard ramps are a perfect example. We design and engineer every single one of our products to meet a variety of unique needs and to meet and surpass guidelines and standards. Bluff Manufacturing sets the standards and others follow. Look for the letter “L” following the model number on a Yard Ramp to recognize a Bluff Yard Ramp with a 6’ level off!

Green is a color. Green symbolizes the American Dollar. Green symbolizes envy. Today, more popularly, that color is strongly associated with environmentalism, and it also defines an entire industry worth trillions of dollars. Green jobs are those that produce goods and services that have an environmental benefit.

According to manufacuringnews.com, the green economy employs more people than the fossil fuel economy! Brookings Institute released a recent report, which highlights certain surprising facts about the “green” and “clean technology sector.”

Jobs.com did some of the homework for us and brought forward some very interesting facts. Let’s play a little game of “Did you know” or as my kids put it, “Guess, what?”

The green economy employs 27 million Americans today.

The South has the largest number of clean economy jobs in the country, BUT the West has the largest portion compared to its population. And not surprisingly, California has the largest number of jobs, but Alaska and Oregon have the most per worker.

Before the recession, during the 2001-2010 period, the clean technology economy made some slow, yet steady progress. During the recent 2009 recession, the green economy created “a job explosion” that led to more people being hired in this sector than any other sector in the economy.

But here’s the best part – the part that is most pertinent to us in this industry – the manufacturing and export sectors seemed to have been the main driving force in creating clean technology jobs! As compared to the 9% national average, clean technology jobs within the manufacturing sector comprised a whopping 26% of all green jobs!

For years, Industrialism and Manufacturing have been blamed for the sadly deteriorating condition of our planet, and for creating the worst carbon footprint ever. But today, the very sector that received all the blame is responsible for creating 26% of the green jobs.

In a sincere effort to be more sustainable, most companies are implementing measures to reduce waste and to reduce our corporate carbon foot-print. It is part of our corporate responsibility – alongside food-drives and fund-raisers.

Here are just a few small things we’ve undertaken at Bluff Manufacturing to be sustainable. For starters, we use absolutely no VOC (Volatile Organic Compounds) Paints. We also use nickel slag in our powder coat process rather than sand or charcoal. Nickel slag is not only a reusable, high-density blasting slag (a by-product of nickel production), it is also an ideal abrasive for general-purpose use, including shipyards, bridges and general industrial blast cleaning. Tests have shown nickel slag to provide high productivity improvements over traditional abrasives and it also lasts three times longer than other media thereby creating less waste to dispose of.  Bluff’s plants also utilize censor-activated light bulbs, which shut off when there is no movement saving energy. As for recycling, we use recycled metals when possible and we recycle our waste.

We’re doing our part and will continue to think of new ways to become more sustainable. How green is your company? If you’ve made any changes towards sustainability (even small ones), feel free to share with us. We’d like to hear from you.

Business Week’s reference to the “Disappearing American Working Man” and “The Lost Generation” made us look into trends that are coming to light because of the economic turmoil in the last few years. With economic news see-sawing in the last month, we finally saw a glimmer of hope as the Dow and the S&P gained more than 4% and Nasdaq rose 5.7% this past week, breaking the four-week losing trend!

So, what is all this talk of the Disappearing American Working Man and the Lost Generation? It turns out that with the job recovery being so slow and more women entering the workforce, data-driven jobs that require collaborative work are now being taken over by educated women that can flex their brain cells more than they can flex their muscles. That’s not necessarily bad news, because women have been  entering the workforce in greater numbers during this recessive period to help feed their families. The main challenge here is that the longer men stay unemployed, the harder it is on their morale and the more difficult it is for them to get reabsorbed back into the work force.

Meanwhile, the younger generation is taking a hit as well. Bloomberg Businessweek recently referred to them as the ‘lost generation’. It is hardest for young people entering the workforce, wet-behind-the-years with inexperience to grab a hold of even the first rung of the ladder. In a situation where the older workforce with past education and experience has been struggling to get back into the work force, the younger more inexperienced workforce has been hit the hardest; and this, in spite of their recent education, their fresh ideas and youthful energy and spirit.

Colleges and schools are now pumping more students into the workforce as the demand for education grows every decade. But unfortunately, the workforce is not able to place or accommodate all these youngsters in the current economic situation. The government needs to up the ante on its job plans, and as Ben Bernanke put it to Congress, not to ‘mess up again’ especially while the stock market seems to have gained a few points now.

So while we (along with fearful insurance companies) brace ourselves for Hurricane Irene, let’s do our part in minimizing the impact of these disasters, both natural and man-made. For starters, let’s get those skilled and unemployed folks back into the work force. Let’s hire some young interns so we can get more work done for less, while they can put work experience on their resumes. They need jobs and companies like Bluff Manufacturing need skilled workers and talented individuals. When Bluff Manufacturing added mezzanines, landings, stairs, ladders, and a whole host of other material handling products to its product line right in the middle of the economic crisis, we knew we would be taking on a lot. But it was all well worth the effort. Not only did we offer Bluff-quality products to our customers to increase their plant efficiency, optimize their work-space, and improve their safety measures, we were able to absorb a new workforce that came with this line and create new opportunities for more folks to come work at Bluff.

As for our friends out there on the East Coast, we are glad Irene turned her softer side your way. Just like our mezzanines, ladders, and stairs were built to take workers to higher grounds securely, we wish you stay high and dry above the water.

It’s almost impossible to get started on business without first mentioning the inferno we’ve been experiencing the past few weeks. That inferno refers to a lot of happenings around the country and at Bluff Manufacturing.  The extreme hot temperatures, the heated political debate over the economy, and the heat our welders at Bluff have been creating to ramp up production to meet manufacturing demands says it all!

Texans have been living in an inferno for the last few weeks with temperatures soaring to 110 degrees Fahrenheit on some days with no rain in sight. Then from nowhere, overnight showers paid us a visit on Friday night and cooled temperatures down by about 10 degrees or so and offered us some much-needed relief.

Our next hope is that our political leaders offer us similar relief by working together to get us out of this economic turmoil. To make things worse, talks of a double-dip recession, the stock market swinging up and down, and the growing European debt problem all contribute to a very uncomfortable and unstable financial environment.  A wild week of ups and down, and crazy speculation has made us squirm and worry. Are we seeing a remake of 2009 or is this a ‘sky-is-falling’ scenario?

We can speculate all we want as the Dow index dips and rises, and then repeats, but for now we will let the facts speak for themselves.  Yahoo Finance reported that in the last week alone, the Dow closed up about 1 percent Friday and finished the volatile week down just 1.5 percent. But according to certain economists and market strategists (such as Robert Doll, money manager of BlackRock in New York), the U.S. Stock Market and the U.S. economy are becoming increasingly unrelated.

And that is something we have been experiencing first-hand at that the manufacturing sector level. Fortunately, the current financial scenario has not made a dent on the MFG sector. So, while the markets are on a rollercoaster ride of highs and lows, Bluff has only experienced an uptick in demand for our products. This week alone, we exceeded our goals by 20%! Thanks to the hard work and perseverance of the Bluff team, we are growing in every way. Our growth has led us to add more people to our team in order to keep up with increasing business demands. Things have definitely not slowed down at Bluff.   It is clear that American companies are doing well as requests for Bluff’s mezzanines are on the rise.  A demand for increased space that mezzanines bring translates to growing business demands.

So, while the earth and the political debate heats up, our talented welders are creating their own heat by increasing production to meet the demand in the market.  To keep them cool, we’ve arranged for flex-time. Our plant workers come into the plant in the wee hours of the morning using less air-conditioning and low voltage lighting.  We not only keep our welders cooler, but we also avoid overloading the circuit at peak hours of the day. We are doing our part in keeping our cool (literally) even as things heat up around us. Stay tuned!

We’ve talked about employment and unemployment several times in the last couple of years. At the height of the recession it was all we heard and worse, experienced. We’d like to say that the country is in a better shape now and the state of affairs is improving. But the slow growth is still causing negative ripples throughout the economy and the negative state of hiring in the country is still high at a 9.1% national unemployment rate! At this rate, recovery is at best – sputtering! The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that 46% of the unemployed have been out of work for 27 weeks or longer. Federal jobs have seen some increase, but the private sectors, especially small businesses, are still gun-shy about hiring or re-hiring.

Not exactly the kind of news you want to hear.

BUT… there IS a silver lining in the clouds … at least for Texans! I managed to catch a recent discussion on NPR on my way to work (the kind of news you want to hear). According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Texas is the leader in putting people back to work and creating jobs. Everything truly is bigger and better in Texas! For Texans, that’s much-needed relief considering other states have not had such positive employment numbers.

An article in Wall Street Journal’s ‘Market Watch,’ showed that Texas has been busy hiring this past year – adding 251,700 jobs! Let’s hope this positive trend continues to grow not just in the great state of Texas, but also throughout the country. The real contributor in Texas has been the private sector. For instance, at Bluff Manufacturing alone we added 15 jobs in the last year in Production, Customer Service, Operations, Engineering, Marketing, and Business Development. And we’re always looking for qualified, dedicated, and hard-working people to add to our talent pool.

The country is counting on the private sector to create jobs and provide gainful employment and Bluff Manufacturing wants to help. We know that it is our employees and their contribution to the company that keeps us operating successfully quarter after quarter. Right now, we are looking for exceptional sales talent!

So, if you think you’re a rainmaker sell us on YOU!  A visit to our website will give you details about Bluff’s line of material handling products which includes yard ramps, dock boards, dock plates, crash guard safety rails, rack guard, mezzanines, conveyor support, stairways, ladders and landings. You can also find the right contact person on our website and apply for any open positions.

Stay tuned to our employment page, we are constantly looking to add talented and skilled individuals to our team and that individual could be you or someone you know. Americans being gainfully employed and taking pride in their work is the end-point we should all be ultimately working towards! So, we’re glad Texas is taking that first big step – now let’s hope everyone else will follow suit over the second half of the year! As Americans, our Independence was hard won.  Let’s all do what we can to keep America strong.