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Unsung Heroes: Sports Equipment Managers

Unsung Heroes: Sports Equipment Managers

Team sports are integral to the American lifestyle. From preschool soccer to senior Olympics, organized sports participation is healthy for the individual and good for society as a whole. And with all that athletic activity comes a great deal of equipment, particularly in football.

A few football numbers:

  • The Wilson Football Factory makes 700,000 footballs per year.
  • One and a half million football helmets are sold every year.
  • Many college football teams redesign their uniforms each year, and have alternate uniforms each season – old style and new.

Add to that all the pads, cleats, braces, chin straps, face masks, and shoes, and you begin to see a big storage challenge for sports equipment managers. The gear is bulky and rigid; folding it away into a compact space is not an option. One fully-equipped football uniform is estimated to take up over 4 cubic feet, and with 53 players on each NFL team (plus 10 additional practice squad members), all that gear takes up quite a bit of space.

And the equipment is pricey too. Football equipment tops the list of sports equipment sales, hovering in the $500 million range. A single NFL helmet costs $1000. With such a large investment in assets, team equipment managers are tasked with carefully tracking the equipment inventory. And they have to manage much more than helmets and pads – even gloves and mouth guards have to be accounted for.

The numbers show the magnitude of the sports equipment management challenge, in terms of both space and inventory. Storage professionals have stepped up with their own numbers: 50% less floor space with high-density shelving systems, and 100% inventory accuracy with active-RFID systems. High-density mobile shelving accommodates the odd shapes and bulk of football equipment in a highly efficient space-utilization system. RFID tags track every element of each player’s uniform to avoid loss or misplacement. In combination, mobile shelving and RFID inventories keep real estate and equipment costs manageable, not just for the NFL, but for any organization that has physical assets to manage and store.

Yes, we’re passionate about sports in the U.S. And every athletic team is supported by unsung heroes, including the sports equipment managers who keep their teams well dressed and protected. Storage pros are proud to be part of that support system, providing the technology that allows teams to focus on being their best.

 

Photo © master1305 / Fotolia.com

File It Scan It Shred It: A Document Management Plan

File It Scan It Shred It: A Document Management Plan

January is traditionally Storage Month – all the closed business from the previous year goes into the archives, while new files and projects are opened in readiness for the new year’s new business. With all those old documents from last year, and all the new ones you’ll accumulate this year, January is a good time to establish a document management plan.

The development of a document management plan always begins with the three typical outcomes for a document: file it, scan it, or shred it. Once you define what to do with the various classes of documents your business generates, you’ll have a much better idea of the quantity of physical document storage you’ll need, as well as the size of your document conversion needs. But each outcome – file, scan, or shred – has its own inherent challenges.

FILE IT:  Certain paper documents should always be maintained in their original form, and those documents may vary depending upon the type of work your organization does. Some types of law offices, for example, have a greater need than others to keep original documents. Thanks to high-density mobile filing systems, paper documents don’t have to take over a sizeable piece of your office’s floor space. The challenge is determining exactly which original documents your organization should retain.

SCAN IT:  Like high-density shelving, document scanning is an excellent strategy to keep your organization’s physical storage footprint lean and mean. Whether stored on drives or in the cloud, your scanned documents are readily accessible but in a far more efficient spatial form. Proper organization is key to an effective document conversion program, however, and enlisting the advice of experts will help you achieve all the benefits of better space utilization.

SHRED IT:  Once you’ve decided which documents you don’t need to hold on to, document shredding is the safest way to dispose of unneeded paper. But don’t get too hasty with the shredder; business documents like employee records, business property deeds, annual reports, even business credit card statements should be retained for a number of years, or even for the life of the organization. While many documents will eventually be shredded, they’ll need to be filed safely in the interim, and you’ll need to calculate how much storage space you’ll need for them, and for how long.

It’s no small thing to develop a successful document management plan, and it can seem like an insurmountable challenge. But it doesn’t have to be. Educate yourself about the information needs of your particular business, partner with a storage pro who understands the latest document storage strategies, and step into the new year with confidence.

 

Photo © ryanking999 / Fotolia.com

A Tax Deduction To Give Thanks For – The Sec. 179 Rule

A Tax Deduction To Give Thanks For – The Sec. 179 Rule

It happens every year around this time – the season for end-of-year tax deductions. The Section 179 tax rule gives businesses an opportunity to write off as much as $500,000 in new and used equipment costs. Equipment or software purchased and put into service by December 31st is deducted from your business’s gross income – it’s as simple as that. And depreciation boosts the total tax reduction even more.

The tax experts at Section179.org provide in-depth information on this valuable tax strategy, and the calculator from Crest Capital shows the savings.

The key phrase in Section 179 is “put into service.” With only a month left in 2016, many kinds of business equipment simply can’t be delivered and put into service before the end of the year. The good news: There’s a wide variety of high density storage, RFID systems, and modular furnishings on a quick-order program. Talk to your tax advisor, then talk to your local storage professional to find out which new and efficient storage systems can help your business qualify for this attractive deduction. Don’t waste a minute!

 

Photo © russiandoll64 – Fotolia

Santa’s Little Helpers: Amazon’s Robots

Santa’s Little Helpers: Amazon’s Robots

It’s no secret that Amazon’s warehouse management is state-of-the-art. In its pursuit of ever-faster fulfillment, Amazon has started using a robot-assisted picking system named Kiva. Dave Clark, Amazon’s V.P. of worldwide operations, says, “Kiva’s doing the part that’s not that complicated. It’s just moving inventory around.” People do the part that requires judgement, confirming that the item is the correct one (and whether it meets Santa’s standards).

In additional to efficiency gains, one of the great benefits of the robotic system is a net gain in storage space – robots don’t need aisles. Storage racks can be condensed to increase capacity without expanding the warehouse’s footprint – a cost-savings gift that keeps on giving throughout the year. Read the full story at: http://wrd.cm/16KebkB

Photo © Kirill_M – Fotolia

Your Gift from the IRS: The Equipment Purchase Deduction

Your Gift from the IRS: The Equipment Purchase Deduction

As the song says, “It’s that time of year,” time to take advantage of Section 179, the tax rule that allows you to deduct the full purchase price of business equipment, up to $25,000. New equipment put into service before December 31st can be deducted from your business’s gross income under Section 179. It’s that simple. And everything we provide – high density storage systems, RFID systems, materials handling equipment, for example – qualifies for the deduction.

More good news: When you add in depreciation, the total tax reduction is even greater. This calculator shows the savings: http://bit.ly/11RTHn5. Check with your tax professional, then give us a call.

Photo © ninell – Fotolia