How to Improve Manual Material Handling in the Workplace
How can we work to improve material handling in the workplace?
Let’s take a look at three interdependent aspects of a well-managed material handling operation: Worker Safety, Ergonomic Considerations, Quality and Efficiency
The Need to Create a Safer Material Handling Workplace
Since 1970, the Federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration, better known as OSHA, has been charged with making work environments safer, and conditions have improved overall.
Where does material handling fit into the picture? According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2014 non-fatal occupational injuries and illnesses in the Warehousing and Storage sector (NAICS code 493) were relatively high, with 5.2 cases per 100 workers. Of these, 1.7 workers had to take days off, and 1.9 employees had to transfer to another job category or work with restrictions.
Again, these statistics are for standalone warehousing and storage operations — since material handling is part of manufacturing and other industries, we should look at some other major industry categories for a comparison:
Industry Category
As it turns out Warehousing and Storage occupations are quite dangerous, more dangerous than all manufacturing jobs with the exception of Wood Product Manufacturing, and more dangerous than construction and mining jobs, including oil and gas extraction.
After looking at these statistics, we’re left with more questions than answers. For example, why do standalone warehousing and storage operations have more accidents compared to other, similar industries? Is this representative of material handling safety overall or not?
If we had more workplace safety data, we could drill down into the statistics for comparable industries (like food and beverage manufacturing) to see if material handling is responsible for a disproportionate number of accidents within these industries as well.
However, there may be another way to assess material handling safety in the workplace — by taking a look at the leading causes of injuries that result in disability claims.
According to Liberty Mutual’s 2016 Workplace Safety Index, these are the Top 10 accidents responsible for disability claims — to the tune of $50 billion dollars:
- Overexertion involving an outside source (NOTE: this item alone represents 25% of the total!)
- Falls on the same level
- Falls to lower level
- Struck by object or equipment
- Other exertions or bodily reactions
- Roadway incidents involving motorized land vehicle
- Repetitive motions involving micro-tasks
- Struck by object or equipment
- Caught in/compressed by equipment or objects
- Slip or trip without fall
Just scanning this list, it’s clear that any one of these accidents could very easily happen during material handling operations. This would help explain why the safety record of the Warehousing and Storage category fares so poorly in the BLS worker injury statistics above.
Improving Material Handling Quality and Efficiency Can Improve Safety Culture at the Same Time
Look at the list of Liberty Mutual’s Top 10 disabling workplace accidents again — then take a moment and visualize your material handling operation.
- What if you could design your facility so that it had a more efficient layout, so materials flowed in a logical path with the fewest possible steps?
- What if you were able to reduce the number of material transfers in and out of storage by half?
- What if you segregated forklift operations completely away from foot traffic?
- What if your storage racks and conveyors were more secure and also incorporated safety features that helped prevent accidents, like materials falling on workers?
- What if you used mechanical assist lifts throughout your facility that prevented workers overexerting themselves by lifting heavy objects?
These kinds of changes to your material handling operations will not only improve overall quality, efficiency, and profitability; they will also reduce the statistical chance of injuries to your employees.
Get an Outside Perspective on Your Material Handling Operations
Sometimes it helps to have fresh eyes look at an existing problem. As you probably know already, Formaspace does more than manufacture work benches, laboratory tables, material handling and packing stations; we also provide 5S and Lean Manufacturing consulting to industry clients who are looking to improve the efficiency of their operations.
Our Rapid Plant Assessment can help.
