Lego Contest Out West Keeps Going!

Lego is a combination of two Danish words -- "leg" and "godt" -- which, when put together, mean "play well."When she opened Toy Town in downtown Casper, Wyoming during the 1980s, Dalene Lockhart hoped children in the area would play well after shopping at her store.

In 1988, the Lego company sent a promotional contest idea to Lockhart, who decided to try it out. The idea: Hold a Lego contest and see what kids come up with. Encourage creativity. Give prizes.More than 20 years later, Lockhart still helps children play well, and still holds a Lego contest each year.

"It was written up as a promotional thing, so we wanted to try it. And in the '90s we almost quit because there weren't many entries," Lockhart said. "But when we tried to stop it, we got a bunch of calls and decided to keep it going.

"The contest used to be held in July, but when the county fair moved, Lockhart decided to hold it during the last week of summer vacation. This year, judging will be on Aug. 15th.

Now, the contest receives about 80 to 100 entries each year."We've had a little bit of everything," Lockhart said of past contest entries. "We've had baseball games, where people set up a stadium and put in a little baseball scene.

One year someone made a model of a computer. It had the keys and a disk that went in and out, and a monitor made out of black Legos."She's also seen Eiffel Towers, bridges, space ships, cell phone models and birthday cakes."Last year, the winner was a castle," she said. "It was really elaborate."Kids are split into four age groups -- 6 and under, 7 to 9, 10 to 12, and 13 and older.

First-, second- and third-place prizes will be given out for each age group, and every entrant will get some sort of smaller prize as well. An overall best-in-show prize will also be awarded.The only rules require that kids use their own Legos, and the final product can't be more than three square feet at the base, "just because we don't have that much room," Lockhart said.

Kids can work on their projects for as long or as little as they'd like."Some say they've been working all summer. Some go home and come back an hour later," Lockhart said. "Some people, as they get older, if they're really into it, they plan year-round."Most of all, kids need to be creative, she said.

"We look for use of color, stability and overall creativity. We look for kids to not use just a kit."
Author is Megan Lee, Star Tribune.

The Ford Mustang Has Seats of Soy!

After long period of development, Ford Motor Company, Dearborn, Mich., and Lear Corp., Southfield, Mich., recently began an industry-first use of functionalized soybean oil in the manufacture of flexible, polyurethane foam for automotive seating. The use of renewable materials as a feedstock for Automotive Soy-Based Seating Foam offers many benefits including reducing environmental footprint, replacing limited petroleum-based products with sustainable materials, and providing an alternative material choice.

Development was not easy, however. Soy-based foams pose various challenges to manufacturers, including low chemical reactivity, blend separation, odor, fogging, and green strength. The team invented and developed new foam formulations to overcome all of these limitations and meet the stringent mechanical requirements of automotive seating, including adequate manufacturing cycle time.

First used in the company’s Mustang car, the seat will soon be added to other automotive lines.

Safety Tip: Outfitting your Distribution Center Workers!

Here's a look at ways to equip your workers to handle the most common distribution center hazards and a few tips to help you choose the right gear.
By James P. Kaletta, Safety Management Solutions --

Modern Materials Handling, 6/1/2009

As you determine how to outfit each type of worker in your facility, start by considering all applicable regulatory requirements. Various standards from the Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA), the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), and other organizations can all come into play, depending on the type of work at your facility.

First, consider OSHA's 29 CFR 1910, Standard for General Industry. This is the source of the often-cited General Duty clause, saying that employers will furnish to each of his employees a place of employment that is free from recognized hazards that are causing or are likely to cause death or serious physical harm. A hazard is any existing or potential physical condition which by itself or by interacting with other variables, can result in death, injury, illness, property damage and/or other losses.

According to OSHA, if a given hazard can't be eliminated, it must be controlled. So, you'll also need to be familiar with OSHA's Personal Protective Equipment standard for those instances where your company cannot eliminate or engineer out the hazards.

This standard requires employers to determine what personal protective equipment (PPE) is necessary based on workers' specific activities. To do this, you'll need to conduct a risk assessment of each job.

Luckily, plenty of personal protective equipment is available to meet any need. But that PPE can only protect employees when it's the right gear for the particular task and it's worn correctly at all times.

PPE worn for situations other than those intended by the manufacturer can actually create hazards when worn inappropriately or cared for improperly.

Common hazards in distribution centers include:

Cuts and abrasions
Strains and sprains
Falls from heights
Excessive noise
Electrical work
Extreme temperatures

Cuts and abrasions

Workers need appropriate gloves for such common tasks as cutting boxes or other materials, pallet handling and picking product. Glove materials must be sturdy enough to provide protection for the specific task to gloves that are too small or too large can reduce workers' dexterity and contribute to fatigue. This leaves workers vulnerable to repetitive stress injuries, reduced productivity and seemingly unrelated injuries like dropping heavy objects on themselves or others.

Strains and sprains
Low-back strains continue to be the leading cause of lost-time occupational injuries. There are no substitutes for teaching and enforcing proper lifting techniques.
If your company authorizes the use of back belts, be aware that several large studies conducted by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) have shown they can cause back muscles to atrophy if worn tightly for prolonged periods, making the wearer more prone to injury. They may also impart a false sense of confidence. Always seek medical advice when considering the use of back belts.

Falls from heights
Working at height is a common distribution activity for servicing equipment, clearing jams and operating order pickers. According to OSHA 1910 Subpart D, Walking-Working Surfaces, fall protection is required whenever workers conduct activities 4 feet or more above the working surface. When identifying the need for fall protection, always include employee position in your calculations: the 42-inch top rail that is adequate for employees working on the floor becomes inadequate when employees are working on a stepstool in that area.
Be sure you understand the requirements in OSHA 1915.159, Personal Fall Arrest Systems, before you select or install fall-arrest equipment like lanyards, body harnesses (consider flexible harnesses, if possible) and approved tie-off points (temporary, permanent or lifeline). Consider using retractable lanyards, which are designed to engage quickly to limit fall distance, compared to lanyards that engage at a predetermined length. When used properly, retractable lanyards can reduce trauma to the body and force to the tie-off point during a fall.

Excessive noise
OSHA 1910.95, Occupational Noise Exposure, requires employers to provide hearing protection to workers who are exposed to noise with an 8-hour time weight average (TWA) of 85 decibels on an A scale (dbA). Once the noise level reaches 90 dbA or greater on an 8-hour TWA, employees must wear hearing protection. OSHA says that employees who are required to wear hearing protection shall be given the opportunity to select their hearing protectors from a variety of suitable hearing protectors provided by the employer.

Electrical work
Selecting PPE to protect workers from electrical shocks, blasts and arcs will require you to become knowledgeable about OSHA 1910.331-335, Electrical Safety Related Work Practices, and NFPA 70E, Standard for Electrical Safety in the Workplace, and/or hire an expert vendor. One critical factor in selecting the proper PPE is conducting an arc fault analysis to determine what category you will need to dress to. For example, the following PPE is required using the Category 2 quick method from NFPA 70E:

Flame-resistive clothing (8 cal minimum)
1000 V-rated rubber gloves
Leather glove protectors
EH hard hat and face shield
Safety glasses
Hearing protection (ear plugs)
Head sock
Leather work shoes (consider electrical hazard rated shoes with non-metallic protected toe).

Extreme temperatures
When outfitting workers for refrigerated or frozen-storage areas, you should focus on warmth while limiting bulk. Consider banning hooded clothing when working on or near automated retrieval or powered industrial trucks because they (especially snorkel hoods) can drastically block vision. I am personally aware of one employee who was killed because his hood impaired his vision and he was caught between his lift truck and a rack leg.

Nissan Previews New Electric Vehicle!

According to ECN, Nissan Motor today previewed its electric vehicle (EV) platform on a Tiida-based prototype. It also showcased a sophisticated EV-IT system developed to support electric driving 24/7.

Newly developed EV platform:
The dedicated EV platform is comprised of a highly rigid body, high-performance motor, compact lithium-ion battery with high power output and energy capacity. The in-house developed electric motor delivers 80kW/280Nm for high response and powerful acceleration. Nissan’s unique motor control also contributes to the vehicle’s seamless acceleration.


The 24kWh laminated compact lithium-ion battery pack is placed under the vehicle floor for more efficient packaging, without compromising cabin or cargo space. The battery layout also allows smooth underfloor air-flow which helps reduce drag. Additionally, the regenerative brake system employed to recharge the battery during deceleration and braking extends the driving range to more than 160km*1 under a full charge.

High durability is achieved by employing an additional frame for the battery pack to significantly improve the rigidity of the platform. The combination of a high rigidity platform and electric powertrain minimizes vibration and external sounds to produce a quiet and pleasing drive.


EV-IT support function:
Nissan has developed an sophisticated IT system for its zero-emission EVs, connecting the vehicle’s on-board transmitting unit to a global data center*2 to support EV driving 24 hours 7 days a week. Usability and convenience for EV driving is achieved via the following...


Maximum range display:
* With a simple touch of a button, the navigation map shows the driving radius within range under the current state of charge.
* The system can calculate if the vehicle is within range of a pre-set destination.


Update on charging stations:
* The navigation system points out the latest information on available charging stations within the current driving range.
* Detailed information for each charging station will also be displayed.


Timer function:
* The timer function enables the air-conditioner or battery charging to begin at a specified time. The air-conditioner can be pre-set while the vehicle is plugged-in to cool the cabin to a desirable temperature before driving begins, without taxing the vehicle’s battery. Meanwhile, the battery charging can be set to start at a specified time at night to benefit from more favorable electricity rates.


EV remote control and monitoring function:
* The driver can monitor the state-of-charge of the EV via an online website and a cellular phone. For example, when the battery is fully charged, a message alert is sent to the cellular phone. Additional remote control functions range from switching the charging system ON/OFF or setting the air-conditioner timer.


To be a leader in zero-emission mobility, Nissan is progressing its development for electric vehicles and the key components. The all-electric vehicle slated for launch in 2010 will have a unique design and body.



Nissan plans to unveil the design of the production EV at its new Global Headquarters Opening in Yokohama on August 2nd. A Nissan Zero-emission Website http://www.nissan-zeroemission.com/) will also go live on Aug. 2nd.

Company Retrofits iPods with 240 GB Hard Drives!

(Fortune Small Business) -- Like many consumers, John Mayberry was looking to upgrade his iPod. The IT technician had 50,000 songs stored on his computer, but his 60-gigabyte iPod maxed out at 12,000 songs. And Apple (AAPL, Fortune 500) wasn't helping.

Last year the company discontinued its largest iPod, a 160GB model, citing concerns about its design. Currently the largest iPod that Mayberry can buy is 120GB - or half the size of his music library.

That was the cue for Rapid Repair, located in Kalamazoo. In February the startup began retrofitting old iPods with a new 240GB hard drive. The price of the procedure, $300, was the same as the cost of a new iPod, and having the device hacked broke its warranty.

But Mayberry didn't care: He finally had an MP3 player equal to his music library. "I'll hold on to this one for a while," he says. He wasn't alone. In the first two hours the service was available, Rapid Repair received 300 orders - more than its inventory could handle. One month later the company had solved its supply problem and upgraded 500 iPods.

The 1.8-inch hard drives, made by Toshiba, are of roughly the same dimensions as regular iPod hard drives. Rapid Repair clears around 25% profit on each installation. Thanks to swift advances in storage technology, the company appears to have tapped into a market for expanded iPods that the computer giant isn't serving.

"You couldn't have made this business happen 10 years ago," says CEO Aaron Vronko, 26.
In 2007, Vronko launched Rapid Repair with a business school classmate, Ben Levy. Both technophiles, they shared an aptitude for fixing broken cell phones and MP3 players. A business model was born: By 2008 the company had 15 employees and was repairing some 500 gadgets a week, mostly via online orders. Revenues totaled $3 million last year.

By this summer, Rapid Repair hopes to offer the same upgrade service for Microsoft's Zune and other MP3 players. The company's new focus on upgrades involved a major shift in strategy.
"People don't upgrade because their devices are a little beat up," says Dale Ford, an analyst with iSuppli, a research firm based in El Segundo, Calif. "It's more because they think, 'Wow, look at what these new devices can do."

Leaders: Take a Ride on the "Down Economy" Bandwagon

With a recession in full-swing, now's the time for leaders to re-evaluate and invest in their organization's employees and future. Seems like we've been preparing for this current recession for the past two or three years, constantly predicting it and staving it off as long as we could, all the while listening to the media tell us that it was just around the corner.

And now that it is here—and it is here—we're witnessing a new media-inspired cottage industry building up around the "down economy" and the bad times that are upon us. Every news story seems to have the addendum "in a bad economy" attached to it. I suspect that soon there will be a new "Recession Barbie" doll on toy store shelves, complete with a frown on her face and a copy of the job listings from the newspaper in her hands.

Well, so far I've resisted jumping onto the "down economy" bandwagon, not wanting to contribute to any self-fulfilling prophecy or culture of victimization that can make a bad situation worse. But after numerous requests, I've agreed to share my own perspectives about how leaders can survive and even thrive during difficult times.

Leadership Survival Tactics - The first thing we have to do is ask ourselves a fundamental question: do we believe things will get better? If we don't, if we believe this is the definitive end to any upside in the economy and that it's all downhill from here, then I'm afraid I have no good advice. Aside from moving somewhere that does have an economic upside.

But most of us would admit that this, too, will rebound. Maybe not the same way it has in the past. After all, there are some fundamental problems that we haven't yet faced. But even in the absence of that, there is a good chance that we will experience an economic upturn sometime in the not-too-too-distant future.

And if that is the case, our call to action is clear: use this time to invest in your organization's future, especially when the investment is not a financial one. The best place for an investment right now is in the general health of an organization. I'm talking mostly about improving the functioning of the executive team, and their clarification of and recommitment to the organization's values and purpose.

Doing this will require a little time and energy, but very little money. And it will yield significant returns now, and even more when the economy rebounds. How? A wise executive team will take this opportunity during slow times to build greater trust and behavioral cohesiveness. This will benefit the organization by minimizing politics and infighting, that are common during difficult times, and it will allow the team to make better decisions about which programs and employees need to be retained and which shouldn't.

All of this will allow the organization to emerge stronger than ever when the economy turns around, and with a meaningful advantage over competitors. That's because most of those competitors will probably flail during down times, frantically searching for a tactical way to swim upstream and defy the current, leading to even more frustration and angst than is necessary. In the end they'll simply be more weary and scarred and unprepared. Of course, like so much of the advice that people are repositioning these days for a "down economy," none of this is really new.

Even during good times company leaders should be investing in the health of their teams. But with so many shiny opportunities in front of them, they often fail to slow down and do what it is best for the long term. Now that there are fewer and fewer of those shiny opportunities, there is no good excuse. ..and that may turn out to be a good thing!

For more on Lencioni, read the recent Incentive Interview at incentivemag.com.

FORD: Even IF Sales Fall; Company Can Survive.

Amy Wilson and Philip Nussel Automotive News February 26, 2009 - 11:49 am ET

Ford Motor Co. today said it has enough cash to survive 2009 without help, even if U.S. industry sales drop to an annual pace of about 9 million light vehicles and stay there for the year.
Ford auditors signed off on the company's annual report to U.S. regulators without issuing a "going concern" statement. Ford finished the year with total cash and securities of $15.7 billion -- down from $33.0 billion at the end of 2007.


Echoing previous public statements, Ford management wrote in today's report that the company should survive the 2009 downturn. General Motors isn't so sure. Its auditors are expected to raise doubts about the automaker's ability to stay alive this year.

Things could get worse -
But Ford cited two scenarios that could change its opinion:


• A further decline in U.S. sales beyond current assumptions of between 10.5 million and 12.5 million total vehicles. That is a new forecast for Ford. The company lowered its assumption from an earlier forecast of 11.5 million to 12.5 million vehicles.
But Ford added that even if U.S. sales fall 20 percent below the midpoint of its assumption -- to 9.2 million vehicles -- it "would not exceed our present available liquidity." The risk that industry sales could decline to volumes below that level "is remote," Ford said.


• The company must spend more money than expected to bail out suppliers and ensure parts deliveries. "It is reasonably possible that our costs to ensure an uninterrupted supply of materials and components could be higher than our present planning assumptions by a material amount," the company said.


But Ford said that even under most of the worsening scenarios, it should have enough cash to survive. The company's report said: "Therefore, we do not believe that these reasonably possible scenarios cause substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern for the next year."


GM will have 'going concern' issue -
Earlier today, GM said it likely will receive a notice from auditors who will assess the risk that the automaker might not be able to continue as a "going concern." GM, which has been kept afloat with emergency loans from the U.S. government since the start of the year, posted a net loss of $30.9 billion for 2008.



That ranked as the second-largest annual loss for the 100-year-old automaker, behind only the $38.7 billion deficit recorded for 2007. Last week, the auditing firm Grant Thornton said such notices may be common as auto companies file their annual reports with the Securities and Exchange Commission.


"It's important for the public, the supply base and all of the parties involved in restructuring the auto industry not to overreact if they start seeing 'going concern' opinions," Kimberly Rodriguez, a principal in Grant Thornton's restructuring practice, said in a statement.

Dave Versical contributed to this report.