MHE summit focus on safe operations

BATTLE CREEK, Mich. -

The Defense Logistics Agency Disposition Services recently held a Material Handling Equipment Safety and Skills Summit, bringing operators from around the world to the Michigan Air National Guard base in Battle Creek, Michigan, the agency's hometown.

A message was sent to each of DLA Disposition Services regions, inviting their best operator from each site to attend the summit. One other key requirement was attendees could not have had a MHE mishap in the current calendar year.

The names of 18 operators were submitted to summit organizers, only 11 were able to attend for various reasons.

DLA Disposition Services Director Mike Cannon told participants that the summit was not about teaching experienced forklift operators to work faster. It was about reinforcing the judgment needed to work safely, even under pressure.

"You come here, you learn, you compete, you hone your skills, you hone your knowledge, and you take that back with you and share it with everybody else that you work with," Cannon said.

"We have not held this event since 2019; back then we focused more on speed to complete a task, for this summit and all subsequent events in the future, our focus will be on the safe and deliberate completion of MHE operations," said Chris Judd, DLA Disposition Services resource management director, whose team planned the three-day event.

Gary Davis, a program manager within resource management, organized the summit. The goal was to improve MHE operations, which in turn improves customer support.

Davis said he spent nearly two months preparing the administration, rules and testing to ensure everything would run smoothly. "I spent two weeks out here at the guard based just setting up the courses," he said.

To kick off the summit's competitive events, participants took a written test that, according to Matthew Cirbo, who represented the Disposition Services site in Norfolk, Virginia, focused on basic knowledge and safety procedures related to MHE operations.

Then the operational side of the summit began, with an emphasis on safety and responsible operation.

"Our overarching goal for this training is to shift our workforce from a reactive safety posture to an active, self-policing safety culture where every operator is an empowered safety officer," Davis said.

Davis and his team presented participants with real-world challenges MHE operators could face. These included three walk-through challenges in which operators were tested on their ability to spot potential hazards and four hands-on events in which they operated MHE in simulated warehouse and outdoor storage yard scenarios.

Participants competed individually and as part of a team. When the points were totaled, Cirbo, representing the Norfolk site, won the individual title.

The winning team consisted of Brian Weimer of the Kaiserslautern, Germany, site; Dakota Tanner, representing the Letterkenny, Pennsylvania, site; Termarious Dunlap, stationed at Fort Bragg; and John Underwood of the San Joaquin site in Tracy, California.

Dunlap said he would take several lessons back to his team at the Disposition Services Fort Bragg site.

"Do the things that we're supposed to do on the day-to-day basis you know, get my guys to start doing routine things routinely," he said.