The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has a special webpage where it outlines some of the ergonomic issues that face workers in grocery warehouses that highlights “Traditional Order Picking” as an area of ergonomic concern because this system “accounts for a large number of musculoskeletal disorders.”
In the Traditional Order Pick System, products arrive on pallets and are placed on slots that are stored vertically to make the most efficient use of space. OSHA points out that this system also makes efficient use of employee effort since the pallet is not moved around several times, but only gets lifted once and placed in its correct slot until it is time for the products to be removed to fulfill an order. Employees are also able to take “frequent micro-breaks” as the go from one slot to the next.
However, since there is no perfect system, OSHA also points out the disadvantages of this process: workers are “exposed to a number of musculoskeletal stresses including heavy lifting, bending, reaching, twisting, etc.”
Perhaps you haven’t really examined the systems you have put in place at your warehouse, but if a number of employees have either complained of work-related strain or filed for workers compensation because of injuries, it may be time to look at your processes.
Even if you are not able to rearrange your warehouse, change the way products are delivered, or alter the way orders are fulfilled, you can make certain that your employees have material handling solutions that can help minimize strain. DJ Products offers power pullers and industrial power movers that can help workers fulfill orders without undue strain.