From February 7-9, 2018, AD hosted its second annual eCommerce Summit at the Westin in Denver, CO. More than 250 AD independent distributors across six industries and three countries attended.

Jergens Industrial Supply recently teamed up with custom software development group MindHARBOR Inc. to solve a problem in their supply chain -- and in the process found a new line of Internet of Things (IoT) technology to market to other distributors.

Global safety equipment manufacturer MSA Safety Incorporated reported results for the fourth quarter and full year of 2017.

The International Safety Equipment Association (ISEA) has announced two new online training programs for safety sales and marketing professionals. The new courses are part of ISEA’s strategic initiative to provide quality professional development programs to broaden knowledge and competency in occupational health and safety.

Klein Tools and Tenacious Holdings, the parent company of Ergodyne, announced in September a major deal in which Klein Tools acquired Ergodyne. The “Tenacious Nation” will remain tenacious, with Ergodyne operating as a separate business unit at its St. Paul, MN headquarters and Tom Votel staying on as Ergodyne president.

These five key elements are emerging as the foundation for omnichannel excellence and should be executed by distributors, according to NAW – the National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors.

No doubt the U.S. economy is in a boom, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. The Conference Board reports the highest levels of job satisfaction in more than a decade. The ratio between the unemployment level and the number of job vacancies is at its lowest level in a half-century

We are a family-owned business based in Goteberg, Sweden and founded in 1959 as a Trading Company for Technical Fibers. Eureka Safety is the PPE division of Y. Berger & Co AB launched in 2009 as a logical extension of our expertise in technical materials and technical knowledge and history of glovemaking.

The agency remains in a state of flux as of mid-October. Scott Mugno, the nominee to be OSHA’s top boss, still has not been confirmed. The chief of staff position is vacant. There are no senior advisors. One of two deputies is missing. Four regional administrators are in temporary “acting” roles. 

We always hear the call from management, “We need more sales!” The call from the marketing team: “Sales needs to do better with the leads, they don’t close enough.” The sales team complaining that “these leads from marketing are horrible.” Same story, new year.

OSHA cited Cedar Fair LP – which operates as Cedar Point – for failing to protect workers from fall hazards after an employee suffered serious injuries at its Sandusky, Ohio, amusement park. The company faces proposed penalties of $142,270 for one willful and one serious safety violation, the maximum penalties allowed under the law.

Many distributors looking for ways to fend off disruption (read Amazon) are considering how to repurpose legacy brick-and-mortar facilities, according to NAW – the National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors.

Two-thirds of business economists in the U.S. expect a recession to begin by the end of 2020, with trade policy presenting the greatest risk to the expansion, according to a new survey reported by Bloomberg. So you can keep the panic button under lock and key.

AD, the contractor and industrial products wholesale buying / marketing group, announced the completion of the transition of ownership from AD’s long-time Chairman & CEO, Bill Weisberg, to the buying group’s distributor members.

Headquartered in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, BlackHawk is a leading distributor of cutting tools, abrasives and industrial MRO products used in manufacturing, aerospace & defense, energy, auto aftermarket, construction, general industrial, medical and agriculture applications. 

Motion Industries, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Genuine Parts Company, announced that it acquired Hydraulic Supply Company (HSC). Execution of the transaction was completed on October 1, 2018. 

Telling employees to watch their step isn’t enough to eliminate slip, trip and fall injuries in production areas. Like other safety hazards, slip, trip and fall hazards can be identified and in many cases eliminated.

The DPA Buying Group is pleased to welcome twenty new distributor members to its safety & public safety product divisions.

Changes in safety and health approaches are needed both in and outside of government. Many established beliefs and assumptions concerning government operations currently are being re-evaluated and questioned. This reset presents an opportunity.

When I coach leaders, I often hear that the image of wallowing stays with them long after I’m gone - even when they don’t feel like wallowing! Ultimately, the thought of wallowing moves their thoughts to intentions, and then, purposeful actions.

We live, we love, we learn, and we leave a legacy.” This profound quotation from Stephen R. Covey has fueled my motivation to keep teaching at Virginia Tech well beyond retirement age and a comfortable pension.

Expectations drive both the leader and follower. Various forms of research suggest that when leaders have higher types of expectations for their followers, those followers often live up to the expectations.

How do people get to a point where they fear safety? How can something like a checklist or an SOP or a safety manager create fear? Our body is equipped with automatic protective wiring that reacts to scary stimuli with a fear response.

For the past 30 years, I’ve been driven to be the best and do the best I can – in nearly any context, personally and professionally. Along the way, I’ve discovered various dimensions of growth that have helped me succeed. I want to pass them on, and share them, so they might help you.

The hard part is getting teams to buy into the team vision to play selfless and trust that if they focus on all the intangibles, the scoring will come and at the end of the game the scoreboard will reflect their efforts.

With more experience traveling the real world seeing safety programs in action (or inaction) I realized that words matter. They not only communicate, but they can shape the very approach you take to your safety programming. They can get you stuck or they can liberate your safety culture.

The term “Safety culture” has become like the term “engagement” in popular management writings. There is no common agreement on the term. We are left with (mis)interpretations of terms like “safety culture,” which lead to haphazard attempts at changing organizations toward improvement.

Twenty-five years ago, as a young safety professional, I struggled to find a set of leadership practices I could call my own. In 1996, I wrote about many of the leadership practices I was already using but found more clearly established in Servant Leadership (Sarkus, 1996).

Rules are so easy to make that safety offices are often accused of being a “Rule Mill” because they continuously produce their rule-of-the month. Why do we create so many rules? One particular cog in our mill that causes us to create rules is incidents. When we suffer an incident, we want to throw every tool in the arsenal to keep it from happening again.

Behavior is not right or wrong, good or bad. It just is. It is neutral. Approach behaviors with the dispassionate, objective view of a scientist. Not with emotions.

Hearing loss isn’t the first injury that comes to mind when an arc fault occurs. The light and heat emitted by the massive electrical explosion – the arc flash – can cause life-threatening and life-altering burns to the skin, compression injuries and loss of limbs if workers are left unprotected.

It wasn’t until recently that we started understanding that people with different personalities tend to naturally pay more attention to safety attributes like work environment, people, equipment, processes, etc. based on their personality tendencies.

Not many people walk around throughout their day with a risk assessment in hand. We should, however, always have an informal risk assessment tool in our mind that allows us to perform at least a cursory assessment until we can dig deeper or in a more formal way.

The knowledge gap within utilities, construction, and related industries is more of a growing concern than ever — especially when it comes to serious injuries and exposures. 

The union steward had just recounted an incident where a supervisor asked one of his workers to step into standing water to work on corroded gauges near the coker. The work needed to be done immediately as it would delay ongoing maintenance on the fractionator to take on different stock feed.

Whether in mining, construction, fabrication and assembly, equipment installation and repair, or other industries, there is a shortage of skilled tradesmen/ technicians to do essential work.

Individual oversights and errors can and will eventually lead to unwanted consequences. However, we need multiple checks and balances that limit fallout and the continuance of loss, or possibly, an egregious event.

In the last decade or so many organizations have been placing more of a focus on Serious Injury and Fatality prevention (SIF). The theory behind the traditional “Safety Pyramid” (or Heinrich Safety Triangle) says if we reduce incidents at the “base” of the pyramid, it follows we will reduce incidents at the top of the pyramid at an approximately proportional rate. 

Since health and safety initiatives and overall health and safety commentary seem to be focused towards frontline workers, Positional Leaders appear to be getting a free pass on the safety train that already left the station a long, long time ago.

If there’s one thing the global business community has learned from the COVID-19 pandemic that continues to ebb, flow and unfold on the daily, wreaking having on bottom lines in every corner of the world in its wake, it’s the outright imperative for companies to be agile “from top to bottom.”

The topic of “return to work” is certainly front and center. While many organizations have continued to operate during the COVID-19 situation under the definition of essential businesses, there are many who have not — especially consumer facing businesses such as retail businesses, bars and restaurants.

Evans Roofing Company, Inc., with its subsidiaries Charles F. Evans (union) and CFE, Inc. (non-union), is a building envelope contractor licensed in 46 states. Charles F. Evans and CFE, Inc. are the only commercial roofing and wall panel contractors to hold the VPP STAR mobile work force designation.

For all the COVID-19 safety guidelines circulating, some hundreds of pages long, basic best practices are straightforward and known by most Americans. Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since 1984, recently recounted them in an interview with the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Women have made amazing strides in many fields and industries throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. Unfortunately, there are many others in which it remains a big challenge for a woman to rise to the top — or even, in some cases, to enter the industry at all.

There are 17 different workshops to choose from.

The one-day event will feature expert speakers, panel discussions and roundtable sessions on topics such as mental health, employee retention, compensation, safety culture, chemical safety and more.

The conference has a dedicated educational track focused on Occupational Safety Research.

If you haven't yet registered, you have until March 21 to get the discounted early rate. 

The organization is looking for professionals to teach courses on a variety of safety and health topics.

Grainger has demonstrated a commitment to sustainability by implementing environmentally friendly practices across its operations.