It’s frustrating to have trouble finding a specific tool when you need it. But in some industries, there’s more at stake than just frustration. If you work in a specialized trade such as law enforcement, fire mitigation, or construction/repair, easily finding your tools could be the difference between life and death.
Maintaining your workspace in an organized and efficient manner has numerous benefits. These include the ability to control costs, increase output, and manage your equipment maintenance and replacement more effectively.
Different Applications, Similar Needs
Extendobed offers a variety of specialized options and accessories for specific applications. These options can be purchased separately or customized to meet customers’ needs and budgets. In either case, these setups help your employees do their jobs more efficiently.
In law enforcement, special equipment can include weapons and ammunition, explosives, materials to gather evidence, and highly trained K-9 dogs. Weapons, ammunition, and explosives can be safely stored in weapons drawers, custom compartments, and day boxes for easy access when needed. Evidence presents its own challenges: it must be collected carefully and stored securely in locking compartments, as chain of custody is crucial. Other specialized equipment must also be safely stored during transport. For example, K-9 dogs should be safely transported in secure kennels during incidents of high-speed travel and over different types of terrain.
In fire mitigation, where minutes are a matter of life and death, specialized equipment must be secure and quickly accessible. Special equipment and storage include:
- magnetic and/or dry erase accountability boards in stand-alone and drawer pop-up configurations;
- slide-out walls for fast, easy access to self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) mounts and hand tools;
- custom structures for easy access to extrication and rescue equipment;
- file drawers for information organization;
- and multiple levels of storage for transport of larger equipment including awnings, coolers, stokes baskets, and backboards.
In construction, tools must be secured for both safety and to deter attempted theft. Generators, compressors, and other large portable equipment can be stored on slide-out trays so they are easy to access and remove from the vehicle. Hand tools, fasteners, and other small materials can be organized in locking drawers or tool boxes.
Having quick, reliable access to the correct tools isn’t always a matter of life or death in every industry. However, it’s still essential to effective job performance.
Equipment vs. Space
Any vehicle has a limited amount of space available. For some lines of work, this presents an interesting challenge: balancing the right tools and supplies with enough space to transport them. When you can bring only a certain amount of equipment with you, having a well-organized mobile space becomes even more important.
For example, an HVAC technician must be able to service countless combinations of systems — but a few tools are always useful: a cordless drill (and extra batteries), tape measure, hammer, and step ladder. Secure storage for transport ensures items aren’t damaged en route to a job. And organized storage is key for speed and efficiency once on the job site.
In law enforcement, the work isn’t over when the “bad guy” is in handcuffs. Evidence collection, cleanup, and record-keeping all require specialized supplies with specific storage needs.
What Efficiency Looks Like in Practice
Just as different industries have different needs, so do individual customers. Here are a couple of examples of how Extendobed created custom solutions for specific situations.
An electrician who was working for a municipality was injured lifting a piece of equipment out of his work van. His back injury required time off work to heal, as well as physical therapy, before he could return to his duties. As he healed, the question arose of whether he would be able to use the equipment the municipality owned when he returned to work. The municipality contacted Extendobed for a potential solution. Extendobed created a custom slide-out unit to house all of this electrician’s tools and equipment. Each of his tools are now accessible without risking reinjury. Without Extendobed’s solution, the employee could not have returned to work for the municipality.
A commercial door installer used to load and unload doors from his truck manually. Each set of doors took an hour to load and another hour to unload. So no matter how long an actual installation took, he spent two hours per job loading and unloading. His Extendobed allows him to load a full set of doors using a forklift, which saves two to four hours per day, depending on the number of jobs. This time savings has reduced his labor costs, allowing him to lower his bids. This in turn has resulted in more jobs, thereby increasing his revenue. He can also complete more jobs in a day, further adding to his bottom line.
Good Design is Key
A well-designed workspace is crucial to organization and efficiency, especially in specialized industries. Customized solutions exponentially extend the value of an organized and efficient workspace.
To learn how your mobile working environment will benefit from customized organizational solutions, email us at: websales@extendobed.com