Events

New Product Announcement – eTRUconnect­™

Erika Thorson

Truck-trailer shore power

We are pleased to announce the newest addition to our product solutions, Truck-Trailer Shore Power. ESL’s eTRUconnect™ provides safe utility shore power to electric or hybrid refrigerated units on truck trailers, eliminating emissions while loading/unloading or idle. Connecting electric or hybrid refrigerated units to shore power eliminates the need of running on board diesel generators/engines to keep the cargo within the optimal temperature range. This results in significant savings attributed to much lower electric energy cost. eTRUconnect’s, safe and simple connection and disconnection procedure allows truck drivers to use the system while minimizing the risk of injury. ESL’s eTRUconnect is the ideal solution for distribution centers, warehouses and truck stops. Learn more about eTRUconnect here!

ESL Treasures Continuous Improvement – Join the Hunt!

Erika Thorson

ESL Continious Improvement Treasure Hunt

In an effort to expand our continuous improvement strategies, ESL initiated a new employee participation program appropriately named the “Treasure Hunt.” Employee volunteers work in teams of 3 with the goal of finding quick fixes for common problems throughout our organization. Basically, do a lot with a little!

This new program allows employees to venture throughout our company putting “fresh eyes” on different areas of the business. For 4 hours, the teams consisting of both office and shop floor personnel  walk around the production floor, office, and surrounding building speaking to fellow coworkers from various areas and brainstorming solutions. Some team members already have ideas for improvements going into the Treasure Hunt. Other teams discover improvement ideas while investigating various departments and workflows. The idea is to spend as little money as possible and fix discovered problems with materials on hand.

Once problems and solutions are identified, our Treasure Hunt volunteers present their recommendations to a small board of executives at ESL. Once solutions are approved, the groups are then given the green light to make the updates.  At this point, the teams are contending for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place prizes (Treasure!) based on successful implementation. Below are some examples of problems solved:

Team Problem Solvers: Discovered a few loose safety pins in the inventory racks. This resulted in a simple solution to add bolts, washers and nylok nuts to ensure the racks are more secure.

Team Goon Squad: Discovered that we can use an out of use wire stripping machine for our standard cables. Our current method of hand stripping took 25 seconds per cable. With the wire stripping machine, we can strip the same cable in 10 seconds. Overall, employees will be stripping hundreds of wires more safely and efficiently!

Team Pirates of Palisades: With an increase in production, floor space has become limited. This team suggested implementing new racks with a loft design. The idea of the loft is that it will not impede the current work space and we can now use the rack space above it to hold additional inventory.

ESL Treasure Hunt Participants

Because of the overwhelming response and excitement generated by this event, ESL has put this program on quarterly rotation to help continuously improve our work place! What does your company do to get the team involved in continuous improvements? We’d love to hear new ideas!

ESL’s Mission to Paradise

Erika Thorson

ESL Motorhome dedicated to camp fire victim

On Monday, December 10th, ESL owners Michael and David Hellmers drove the company motorhome 565 miles north to the devastated town of Paradise, CA.

What was the mission? To drive the motorhome north and donate it to a family who had lost their home in the fire. In addition, ESL reached out to family and friends to help fill the motorhome up with new toys, clothes, unwrapped gifts, and any other helpful items that could be donated.

The one day mission took two days due to a minor rear suspension issue with the Winnebago (possibly caused by all the donations that filled up the motorhome).

Fifteen miles before arriving in Paradise, Michael and David dropped off donations in the form of gifts, supplies, gift cards and checks to the Salvation Army in Chico. Together, with the Red Cross online donation campaign for the Camp Fire Victims, the ESL fundraising program’s total exceeded $15,000.00.

ESL donations to salvation army

Upon arrival in Paradise, the local Cal Fire Battalion Chief, Jason Morris led Michael and David through the burned out city. During their trek to the motorhome’s new residence at Cal-Fire’s Butte Camp, they learned that all of Paradise is completely closed off to the public and most people will not be allowed back in until February or March.

By the end of the second day, Michael and David had given the motorhome to a Cal Fire Captain’s family that was displaced due to the devastation caused by the Camp Fire. Chief Morris, his Captains and staff were extremely appreciative as were the fine folks at the Salvation Army in Chico.

ESL motor home gifted

It will be a while before any of the families displaced by the Paradise fire can return to their homes and even then, the rebuilding of what was lost will be an exhaustive task. ESL was humbled by the efforts made by family and friends to help with this humanitarian mission and realize that there are many ways to give. If you are interested in helping the victims affected by the fire below are a few options.

Donate New/ Unused Gifts:  Specific items that the local Salvation Army’s distribution center in Chico, CA is asking for are unwrapped new underwear/socks, blankets/pillows, hygiene items, diapers/baby wipes, and new toys (no electronics). Salvation Army’s address is: 1100 Marauder St., Chico, CA 95973

Gift Cards: Gift Card donations have been shown to be extremely effective at providing the best benefit to those in need. This allows 100% of the donated funds to quickly help the wide-ranging short-term needs of those who have lost everything.  ESL has been advised that Gift Cards for clothing, food and especially gas are best.

Donate Directly to the Red Cross:  The American Red Cross has over 500 volunteers on the ground locally providing shelter, food, support, clothing, etc and they can definitely use your donation. You can simply visit redcross.org or call 1-800-RED CROSS to contribute!

ESL Volunteers with Habitat for Humanity

Patrick Evans

On Saturday March 11th, ESL Power Systems, Inc. partnered with Habitat for Humanity, Riverside to contribute to their A Brush With Kindness program. A Brush With Kindness aims to help renovate the homes of local families in need. It focuses on exterior home preservation services such as painting, landscaping, and exterior minor repair services for homeowners who qualify for assistance. We were humbled by our employee turnout and the enthusiasm they displayed while volunteering their time.

On Saturday morning, twenty ESL employees and their family members received safety instructions and direction on how to paint our designated house. We then began unloading the supply truck and, without hesitation, set up our work areas and started tackling different sections of the house. Some of us cleaned walls, some organized supplies, some painted high, some painted low, and some held ladders but everyone was active and working as a team. We were scheduled to paint from 8am until noon but had the entire house painted by 11am. In the hour we had to spare we cleaned and pack up our supplies, helped another group with their house and talked to the home owners while we showed them their refurbished home for the first time. Seeing the looks of joy on the homeowner’s faces was well worth the time and effort.

ESL’s first experience volunteering with Habitat for Humanity ended up being the perfect way to give back to our community while building company morale in the process. Our volunteer team was so excited to help that it made the morning fly by.  It just goes to show how much can get done when people focus on a common goal.

To learn more about Habitat for Humanity visit: http://www.habitatriverside.org/.
To read about additional ESL volunteer activities visit:  https://blog.eslpwr.com/esl-family-of-companies-walks-for-jdrf/