Reduce Material Handling Costs: Ergonomics to the Rescue!

Did you know that the Transportation and Warehousing sector is responsible for 1 in 10 injuries* at work, with a direct cost of $4.38 billion?

(*non-fatal injuries that send workers home for five days or longer.)

That’s the finding from Liberty Mutual’s new 2019 Workplace Safety Index, which identified five types of accidents that are responsible for two-thirds of the injuries in Transportation and Warehousing:

1. Overexertion involving an outside source
2. Falls to the same level
3. Roadway incidents
4. Other exertions or bodily reactions
5. Falls to a lower level

What can be done to make packing and shipping stations safer for everyone?

The answer may lie in improved ergonomics.

Unlike Canada and the EU, which have minimum regulatory standards for workplace ergonomics, there aren’t any equivalent US Federal requirements. Yet savvy employers know that a relatively small investment in better workplace conditions can reap significant rewards, by increasing employee performance while reducing the incidence of worker compensation claims, such as those due to repetitive strain injuries.

Let’s take a look at five specific recommendations.

1. Take a look at your material handling workflow, is it really efficient?

Start by making a detailed assessment of your packing and shipping station operations. Here are some things to look for:

• Check if the area is well-lit, organized, clean, and tidy to help reduce slips, trips, and falls. If not, implement the Japanese 5 S process at your facility.
• If the packer needs to access multiple containers to complete an order, containers are not arriving in the correct sequential order.
• If you observe the packer walking away from the shipping station to find an item, something is wrong in the staging process.
• Are your packers shipping large cartons filled with very few items? That could drive up storage and transportation costs considerably.
• What about fixing packing errors? Create an error correction sequence plan. Allocate enough physical space at the packing station for reboxing.

Did you know, Formaspace offers a Rapid Plant Assessment (RPA) consulting service? We conduct on-site facility surveys, confidential operator interviews, current state process evaluations, and other valuable continuous improvement insights that will help you increase your packing station efficiency while reducing the risk for worker injuries.

2. Can your packing and shipping workers reach everything they need for material handling quickly and efficiently?

Investigate the ‘must have’ equipment that packers need on hand, including:

• Equipment and Automation Tools: Scanner, keyboard, tape shooters, gluers, fill systems, and dunnage dispensers.
• Packing Supplies: Envelopes, bags, boxes, labels, pens and markers, void fill material supplies, etc.
• Reference Materials: Training materials, reference charts, instructions, signs, charts, etc.
• Personal Items: Personal Protective Gear (PPG), jackets, purses, etc.

Rank them by priority, e.g. how often they need to be accessed. (Category 1 items are used constantly. Category 2 items are used quite often. Category 3 items are used infrequently.)

Next, consider the available three-dimensional space surrounding the packing station operator. There is room on the packer’s left side, on the right side, above the table, under the table, and behind the packer.

Put Category 1 items where they are easiest to get to, then place Category 2 items in the next available areas. The less often used Category 3 items can be stored behind the packer. You can also create storage for bulky or rarely used items that swing or slide out of the way when not in use.

3. Are your material handling workers having to bend over, stretch at odd angles, or lift heavy objects?

Protecting workers from short-term or permanent injury is critical. As the Liberty Mutual research above indicates, we need to be on the lookout for ways to reduce accidents that damage the musculature, ligaments, tendons, bones, soft body tissues and nerves (collectively known as Musculoskeletal Disorders, or MSDs for short).

First, shipping stations need to be stable and secure.

Avoid situations where packers need to physically stretch, twist or bend to perform their work.

Make sure materials and cartons are always handled at a safe height.

Remember: Let equipment do the heavy lifting for the worker.  Don’t locate heavy equipment on a lower shelf that requires the packer to lift it.

If conveyors can’t solve the problem, Formaspace can create custom lift tools or elevators to raise, lower, and transport heavy containers.

Formaspace can manufacture a wide range of solutions for moving heavy objects. Shown above left is a solution with rollers integrated directly into the work surface. Roller balls are another excellent ergonomic solution (shown above left); these allow workers to easily move heavy items in multiple directions.

4. Do you have material handling employees of different heights and sizes?

This is a trick question. Workers come in all shapes and sizes, with a wide range of physical and cognitive abilities.

We can help. Formaspace offers shipping station solutions that can be adjusted to accommodate taller and shorter workers. With Formaspace, you can make fast configuration changes during shift changes with no downtime.

Our packing stations can also help accommodate differently-abled workers as well. In fact, design changes required to comply with the Americans With Disabilities Act often provide direct benefits to all employees.

For example, creating wider pathways for wheelchair access that are clear of clutter can help reduce tripping and falling accidents for non-disabled workers as well. And all employees will benefit from flexible, height-adjustable work surfaces.

Why? There is increasing evidence that sitting for long periods of time can be as dangerous to your health as smoking cigarettes. Our variable height packing workstations can help workers change position throughout the day, which can help improve circulation and help reduce lower back injuries.

5. Are your material handling setups flexible enough to meet new challenges, yet also built to last?

The logistics market is changing rapidly, so you need to have the flexibility to reconfigure your shipping stations.

Don’t get locked into shipping station designs that cannot be modified in the future.

Thanks to our modular furniture designs, Formaspace packing stations can be updated or extended to accommodate additional volume or to incorporate more automation technology, such as robotics.

If you need to move to a new facility, modular design also makes it straightforward to disassemble, transport, and reinstall Formaspace packing tables at a new location, thus preserving your investment.

You can also come back to us at any time and order matching parts to replace, extend, or duplicate your existing Formaspace installations.

We can also build prototype packing stations so you can test out different configurations under real-world conditions. This is highly recommended when you want to fine-tune packing operations before committing to a major investment.

And your investment is protected by the Formaspace guarantee. All our products are backed by a 12-year guarantee, even if you use it 24×7, 365 days a year.

Formaspace Wants to be Your Material Handling Partner

Join the ranks of our Fortune 50 and Fortune 500 customers who depend upon Formaspace to meet their demanding challenges for ergonomic work environments, shipping and distributions centers, laboratory research centers, and more.

Our friendly Formaspace Design Consultants are ready to share a wealth of information with you on how to best organize your space with our custom and semi-custom furniture solutions, all built-to-order here in the USA at our factory headquarters in Austin, Texas.

Make the right move today. Fill out the quick contact form below, and a Formaspace Design Consultant will contact you today.