Thinking about weight limits and a worker’s ability to lift an item is important. But it might be time for a mindset shift. Instead of asking ‘how much weight can a person lift?,’ operations can ask ‘why are we lifting this item?’ or ‘what’s the best way to lift it?’ 

Whether a person is lifting 20 kg or 50 kg, repetitive lifting can lead to physical strain and the potential for injuries. This means that safer manual lifting happens when workers lift items less often, do a team lift, or the need to lift the item is removed. 

This article explores how to design systems and processes that improve safety and efficiency when it comes to material handling. 

• Understand Your Current Workflow & Ergonomics
• Promote Safe Lifting Techniques & Processes
• Design an Ergonomic Space
• When to Consider Lifting Solutions

 

Understand Your Current Workflow & Ergonomics 

You should understand your current workflow, so you can identify where the process can be improved.  

Walk through the flow of goods and identify areas where items are being lifted. Some common areas are receiving, order picking, palletising, and loading. 

Consider using a mapping tool to help organise information. Or use tally marks to record the number of lifts, reaches, and twists that workers are doing during a shift. This will highlight the physical exertion of lifting tasks. 

Also, make sure to include workers during this evaluation. They are the ones who do the work every day, so they understand what tasks are difficult, painful, or exhausting.  

Ergonomics is essential for workplace injury prevention 

However, it is also important not to overlook the role of industrial ergonomics in work-related injury prevention. Poor ergonomics is a very common cause of severe and long-term injuries that will inevitably affect employee health and productivity. 

Discover the 3 most common manual handling injuries, so you can prevent them from happening at your facility. 

What is industrial ergonomics? 

Industrial ergonomics studies how to design and use industrial equipment in ways that do not damage the workers' health. It can also be explained as adapting the man-machine interface and/or working procedures to suit natural human body movements. 

In comparison, office ergonomics typically focuses on details like wrist support, chair and monitor adjustments, sitting position or the type of keyboard used. All of these factors are fairly easy to adjust at a minor expense. The opposite often applies in industrial ergonomics, where advanced equipment is typically needed to assist with e.g. heavy lifting or assembly procedures. 

In other words, providing workers with the equipment they need to work ergonomically in an industrial setting often requires sizeable investments. But these investments come with major advantages in terms of happier and healthier employees, as well as considerable productivity improvements when making the right choices. 

 

Promote Safe Lifting Techniques & Processes 

Once you have collected information about the process, you can redesign the job to make it safer. 

Safe lifting techniques  

Workers should take training that teaches them safe lifting techniques. OSHA (2022) suggests some important lifting tips to consider: 

• Keep your feet shoulder-width apart. 
• Bend at the hips and the knees, not the back. 
• Carry an item around waist height to reduce strain in your back. 
• Don’t try to lift an item above your shoulders. 

If you don’t want to create a training in-house, your workers could take online courses from safety organisations that cover safe lifting techniques. 

Job rotation 

Heavy lifting or lighter, repetitive lifting takes a physical toll, so it’s helpful to rotate tasks. Move workers between tasks with different physical or mental requirements, so workers don’t get burned out. 

Also, you can consider how long people can do repetitive lifting tasks and set a time limit. Then, use that time limit to structure shifts. 

Recovery breaks 

Along with job rotation, you could add short recovery breaks into workers’ schedules when they have to complete repetitive lifting tasks. This prevents workers from becoming exhausted and can be more effective than having workers manage fatigue on their own. 

 

Design an Ergonomic Space 

The way a space is designed can have a big impact on ergonomics. Different considerations like the layout, heights, and reach can make lifting easier or harder for workers. 

Design efficient workflow 

Think about the flow of materials. Arrange items in storage, so heavy or items that need to be lifted often are easy to access. They can be placed on shelves closest to workers and at a level that is easy to reach.  

Consider the distance that loads have to be moved. If you can reduce the distance an item is moved, then workers have less physical exertion. It also makes the process faster and more efficient. So, examine if any areas like packing/shipping can be rearranged to make lifting distances shorter. 

Optimal height 

Bending down to lift an item from the ground or reaching up to lift an item from above shoulder height leads to significant physical strain. Design the workspace to avoid that kind of lifting. 

Place items around waist or chest height, so it is a safer lifting height. 

 

When to Consider Lifting Solutions

You might realise there are still safety concerns and lifting risks after you implement safe lifting and design a space with ergonomics in mind. That means it might be time to explore lifting assists like vacuum lifters. Or if you need to cover different areas in your facility, a mobile lifting solution can help. 

Here are some trigger points that can show that a lift assist is necessary: 

• High frequency of lifting tasks 
• Very heavy or awkwardly shaped items 
• Older workforce 
• Increasing injury rates 
• Hiring challenges for roles that are physically demanding 

Lift assists can be designed into your process, so it fits into the existing layout. It can speed up lifting tasks, so using equipment is an asset and not an extra step. 

Discover more about preventing work-related injuries and how automation can help. 

Not sure where to get started? Contact the lifting experts at TAWI and we’ll help you find a lifting solution that can fit into your process.