Ergonomic Material Handling Equipment

How Workplace Ergonomics and Workplace Injuries Are Two Sides of the Same Coin

In a work setting, ergonomics is the study and adaptation of physical work-tasks to each employee’s unique physiology. In other words, making a work task ergonomic means to remove risks of physical injury and discomfort, such as: repetitive motion, over-lifting, excessive bending and twisting, vibration, movement constriction, over-extension, insufficient access, poor posture, and an off-balanced stance. Luckily, making work more ergonomic is easily achievable using a combination of awareness, training, and purpose-built material handling equipment.

When ergonomics are not prioritized, workers pay a hefty price that frequently results in long-term (if not permanent) injury. To paint a fuller picture of the risks that stem from non-ergonomic work, let’s extract a few valuable takeaways from the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) and National Safety Council (NSC):

• Workplace ergonomic failures are among the leading causes of lost time and restricted work due to directly causing musculoskeletal disorders (affecting the muscles, nerves, blood vessels, ligaments and tendons).
  
• Practically any job type and function can present ergonomic risks – from computer programmers to production workers, nurses to truck drivers, and beyond.
  
• In the United States during calendar years 2021- 2022, there were 976,090 Days Away Restricted or Transferred (DART) and 502,380 Days Away From Work (DAFW) musculoskeletal disorder injuries and illnesses.
  
• Across these recorded events, the median duration of DART injuries was 23 days, and the median duration of DAFW injuries was 14 days.
  
• 72% of injuries involved strains, sprains, and tears; followed by 21% involving specific soreness and pain.
  
• 43% of injuries affected an employee’s torso, primarily the back; followed by 36% affecting upper extremities, primarily the shoulders.  
  
• Individual injury claims alone can easily cost a business between $10,000 and $50,000, not counting indirect costs, regulatory penalties, and at-fault settlements.
  
• Overall, workplace musculoskeletal injuries cause an approximate $18 billion in annual costs to US businesses in terms of worker’s compensation claims, medical bills, and lost paid time away (which doesn’t include indirect costs such as lost production or replacement labor). 

Eliminating Risks of Injuries by Using Ergonomic Material Handling Equipment

In addition to ample training and hands-on coaching, the very best way that employers can ensure worker safety is to provide employees with equipment specifically designed to make work tasks ergonomically safe, as we’ll round up below.

Workstation Equipment

Many commercial and manufacturing work tasks are designed to be performed sitting, standing, or leaning in one location for extended periods of time. For such static workstations, ergonomics can be greatly improved using solutions that either reposition the work to the employee, or the employee to the work. Workstation solutions are all about orienting the employee in an upright, comfortable, non-strenuous position, keeping all work elements within easy sight and reach. Examples include:

• Adjustable Workbenches and Worktables – raises or lowers the working surface to accommodate different employee heights, protecting against extended or hunched-over work positions.

• Workstation Storage – keeps consumable parts and tooling within reach and eliminates excessive walking to grab parts stored elsewhere.

• Work Seats, Stools, and Mats – provides comfortable sitting and standing surfaces that promote an upright posture, supports hanging arms, and eases pressure on knees, back, and hips.

• Multi-Tier Pick & Pack Stations – brings boxes, fill, labels, tape, and goods to within arm’s reach around a worker, so that they can complete pack workflows without getting up.  

• Access Steps and Platforms – provides more ways to adjust workers to a task’s required height, allowing them to step up to elevated work heights safely.

Transport Equipment

When a job calls for moving materials around a warehouse or production space, employees should not be left to their own elbow grease. Instead, lifting, moving, and transporting materials can all be better accomplished using ergonomic transport equipment including:  

• Conveyors – gravity and powered conveyors can easily transport products down a fixed path from one point in a warehouse to another, eliminating the need to carry heavy objects long distances.

• Elevator Lifts – raising materials from lower levels to upper levels can be especially risky given the added fall potential, making powered elevator lifts ideal for docks, mezzanines, and second stories.

• Product Lifts and Handlers – smaller scale handlers such as vacuum lifts, mechanical lifters, drum handlers, and box handlers are excellent for picking up and moving individual materials and packages.

• Carts and Dollies – special ergonomic versions of push carts and dollies are available that are designed with lower push and pull force requirements.

Material Positioning Equipment

While material transportation equipment helps employees move materials from one place to another, material positioning equipment instead helps reorient and/or realign materials in the same place. This type of equipment mainly eliminates unnecessary and repetitive worker motion, getting materials into a spot that workers can most easily interact with. Examples include:

• Pallet Positioners – uses spring-power to automatically raise, lower, and rotate pallets to maintain a consistent working height and orientation as weight is added or removed.

• Lift Tables – lift tables provide operator-controlled material raising or lowering via hydraulic, pneumatic, or electric power, letting workers freely adjust heights to suit their work.

• Tilt Tables – very similar to lift tables, tilt tables (aka “upenders”) change a material’s incline angle so that workers can access, reach into, tip, or flip the products they’re handling. 

• Manipulators – these mechanical implements use motors, counterweights, and springs to more easily handle large products, allowing employees to dump, invert, rotate, and spin materials at a fraction of the force.

• Turntables – allows products to spin freely 360° on a level surface, especially useful for wrapping, coating, tying, and sealing work. (also commonly referred to as a “Lazy Susan”).

Automated Equipment

All automated equipment that replaces a manual human work task is by definition an ergonomic solution, as it relieves the stress and strain that the employee would otherwise be subjected to. While we can’t list out all the different automated equipment options available in this short article, we’ll bring specific attention to one solution known as Cobots. Cobots are automated equipment solutions that perform one or a series of work tasks in parallel to a human worker’s manual tasks. Using cobots, humans can perform precisions tasks while cobots perform menial tasks in a collectively more ergonomic fashion.

Taking a Technical Approach with Industrial Ergonomic Assessments

We like to tell customers that there is no wrong way to get started with ergonomics. Any improvements that can be made that reduce employee stress, strain, and physical exertion is a move in the right direction. With that said, we also recognize that ergonomic issues are best solved from an industrial hygiene perspective – that is, considering the sciences of human physiology and kinesiology in a work-task context. As a high-level primer, here are the core steps that we follow when conducting Industrial Ergonomic Assessments for our customers:     

• Work-Task Hazard Evaluation – inventory and evaluate all job tasks needing improvement, including gathering quantifiable data on the risks, motion patterns, and performance criteria for each task.
  
• Corporate Risk Evaluation – discuss corporate risk elements with senior leadership including insurance coverage, worker’s compensation, labor productivity, and claim risk tolerance.  
  
• Technical Ergonomic Analysis – perform technical calculations and hazard analysis using industry-standard tools such as the NIOSH Lifting Equation, Liberty Mutual Manual Handling Guidelines, Rodgers Muscle Fatigue Analysis, and more.
  
• Prepare a Written Ergonomics Program – produce an extensive written improvement plan including engineering (physical task changes), administrative (procedural changes), and personal protective equipment (PPE) hazard control solutions.
  
• Deploy Solutions & Training – procure, install, and roll out all solutions covered in the above program, with special attention given to training and hands-on coaching for all employees.
  
• Ongoing Improvements – establish clear benchmarks for acceptable and unacceptable outcomes, persistently reinforcing the new ergonomic program and setting up continuous improvements to occur into the future.

We hope that this discussion has been helpful for your commercial material handling needs. Fairchild Equipment is the Upper Midwest’s premier Material Handling Equipment and Service resource, with headquarters in Green Bay, Wisconsin, and numerous locations in five states ready 24/7 to serve your needs. For more information or to discuss which ergonomic solution might be best for you, please send us a message or call us at (844) 432-4724.