I’ve got more employee-initiated innovations to share with you today. Two of our Street Maintenance employees, Rick Williamson and Ray Olsen, designed and manufactured these innovations in our Street Maintenance Shop.
This is a ramp. This kind of ramp is attached to a trailer to enable an operator to drive motorized equipment, such as mowers and skid loaders, on to a trailer in order for the equipment to be transported to the work site.
What makes this ramp different from a standard ramp is that this ramp is twice as large as a standard commercial ramp. It is also much sturdier. This makes the ramp safer for the equipment and for our operators.
This is a racking system also designed and built by Rick Williamson and Ray Olsen. That’s Street Division Manager Cliff Cracauer in the photo.
The racking system is used to store and organize the various kinds of metals used by our employees to construct and maintain our large equipment. Before building this racking system we stored our metals on the floor or against the walls. This was not very efficient; didn’t look for good; and it was not as safe for our employees to be around. It led to bad backs and potential for it to fall on them. The new racks organize the metal so that it is easier to use and inventory. The system also uses pallets that can be accessed via forklift. That’s better for employee safety too.
Finally, Rick Williamson designed this device, which employees use to raise, lower, and mount snow plows on to our trucks. The device is a standard transmission jack with a customized piece attached that is designed to fit our snow plows.
This device changes what used to be a two or more employees job (i.e. – mounting a snow plow) into a one person job. In addition, it made the job safer for our employees.
Just a few more examples of the kinds of innovative things going on in the front lines of city government. It’s good stuff.
