workplace safety Archives

4 Ways Ergonomic Motorized Equipment for Manual Material Handling Improves Safety

Motorized Material Handling Equipment

Workplace musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs) include injuries such as carpal tunnel syndrome, back strains and hernias. Did you know that, in addition to direct treatment costs, WMSDs can cost up to five times as much in indirect costs? Find out how equipment such as our motorized trailer dolly can increase workplace safety and reduce risk of WMSDs.

How Does Ergonomic Motorized Equipment Improve Material Handling Safety?

1. Minimizes strain and fatigue

Excessive stress placed on joints and muscles is one of the leading causes of WMSDs. Employees may lift materials that are too heavy or

perform repetitive motion tasks that create undue strain. Use of motorized equipment takes the physical burden of such activities off the employees, relieving the causes of musculoskeletal stress.

2. Encourages correct posture and position

Have you ever seen workers attempting to extend their reach to retrieve an object on a high rack? Maybe you’ve noticed people bending over to pick up heavy items, rather than bending at the knees and using their legs. When an employee operates our motorized trailer dolly, they can maintain optimum posture as the dolly performs any necessary turns, twists and lifting.

3. Limits time spent on manual tasks

Alarmingly, nearly three-quarters of workers who participate in manual material handling, or MMH, experience back-related pain. These injuries, in turn, account for approximately one-third of compensation costs and lost productivity. Motorized material handling equipment moves items safely and efficiently, without the need for manual labor.

4. Reduces risk of slip-and-drop accidents

Many objects in a warehouse are heavy and bulky or have an irregular shape. This makes it difficult for workers to get a secure grip when handling or transporting these items. As a result, an employee may twist their body or limbs to gain better control, or they may lose their grasp altogether, causing injury to themselves or damage to the item.

Choose the Motorized Trailer Dolly from DJ Products

Are you ready to make safety a priority in your warehouse? Contact us at 800.686.2651, where our knowledgeable Sales Engineers are standing by to help you find the right ergonomic motorized tug, mover or pusher for your application.

Three of The Most Common Warehouse Injuries

Common Workplace Injuries

Based on statistics, industry experts estimate that five percent of warehouse workers will suffer a workplace injury each year. Use our electric Trailer Dolly and other proactive methods to cut down on these three common warehouse injuries.

1. Forklift

Not surprisingly, forklifts are involved in a significant number of workplace injuries. Based on data from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), each forklift in your facility has a 10 percent chance of being involved in an accident this year. In addition, nearly 80 percent of forklift accidents include pedestrians.

2. Overexertion

The physical nature of warehouse work puts a great deal of stress on a worker’s body. Nearly two-thirds of these injuries affect the back, but arms and legs are also vulnerable. In some cases, overexertion can lead to heart attacks. These types of injuries are especially costly to you and your workers because they can result in chronic pain that affects work performance and quality of life.

Poor body mechanics are a leading cause of stress injuries, so training in the correct methods can go a long way toward reducing the risk. Make sure that workers are both fully trained and physically capable of performing any tasks they are assigned.

3. Slips, trips and falls

Slips and trips occur when obstacles on the warehouse floor or outside grounds cause a worker to lose balance. Frequent risk factors include:

- Uneven walking surfaces
- Loose rugs or protective mats
- Exposed cords and cables
- Spilled water or other liquid materials
- Ice and snow in the truck yard

While falls can happen on ground level, they most often occur at elevated levels. Loading docks and ladders are common sites of falling accidents. One potentially dangerous practice involves workers using a forklift to raise themselves up to the higher shelves. This move is risky, even for experienced employees.

Improve Workplace Safety with the Trailer Dolly from DJ Products

Our Trailer Dolly and other material handling solutions are ergonomically designed to reduce the musculoskeletal stress caused by many warehouse task. Visit our website and use the handy online chat feature to learn more from our friendly Sales Engineers.

Common Warehouse Workplace Injuries and Risks

Warehouse Risk Reduction

Thanks to the boom in e-commerce sales, warehouse employment in the United States is at an all-time high. Unfortunately, warehouse workplace injuries continue at an alarming rate, affecting four to five of every 100 workers.

These injuries can take a long-range toll on workers’ health while severely impacting company productivity. Here’s a look at some of the top risk factors behind the most common injuries.

Common Causes of Warehouse Workplace Injuries

- According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), forklifts are number one on their “hit list” of most frequent safety standard violations. Other moving machinery, such as conveyor belts, creates danger points as well.
- Warehouse work involves almost constant repetitive motions, such as reaching, stretching and lifting. The cumulative effect places significant wear and tear on muscles, tendons and nerve tissues that never has a chance to heal. Doctors often refer to this as cumulative trauma disorder (CTD), and over time it can lead to chronic discomfort and loss of mobility.
- In the short term, physical exertion of maneuvering heavy objects can result in strains, sprains and other musculoskeletal injuries, particularly involving back muscles and vertebrae.
- Falling objects are generally due to improperly stacked materials or faulty shelving and supports. Forklifts can also play a part in these types of injuries, if they are used improperly and cartons fall off the forks.
- Solid ground presents its own forms of danger. Workers may slip on wet floors or trip over obstacles in the aisles, especially if the warehouse is poorly lit. While general maintenance is important, OSHA also has regulations covering guards for wall and floor openings.
- Hazard communication is another one of OSHA’s top safety violations. When dangerous warehouse areas are not visibly marked according to OSHA standards, workers run the risk of electric shock or exposure to toxic substances.

DJ Products: Putting Safety First

Make workplace safety a priority in your company culture. DJ Products features an extensive line of electric tugs, movers and pushers for every application that help reduce common injury risks.

The Right Tool for the Right Job – the WasteCaddy Dumpster Mover

This is the Tool You’ve Been Needing at your Job.

You may already know that workers in the waste management sector have significantly higher incidents of accidents and injuries than people working in other fields. People working for your company may be exposed to many of the same risks associated with waste management, even though it’s not their primary responsibility.

In fact, manually moving heavy dumpsters full of trash is a time-consuming process that takes your employees away from other duties. Do your part to keep them safe and working efficiently by providing them with the best tool for the job.

How injuries often occur

Trash dumpsters are designed to hold large amounts of practically any type of material that gets thrown in. To hold up to the demands, dumpsters are heavy and bulky, and when filled with trash, a dumpster can weigh up to 2,500 pounds. Yet many companies still have their employees manually moving dumpsters across wet floors, through narrow areas, on loading ramps, across uneven pavement, and in all types of weather.

WasteCaddy Dumpster Mover

A motorized dumpster mover is like adding another employee to help your team members move heavy loads but at a fraction of the costs of hiring someone new. In addition to preventing workers comp claims due to back injuries, falls, and muscle strains, you can reduce the likelihood of property damage. If your employees must manually move a dumpster across busy parking lots, there’s always the possibility the dumpster could get away from them and strike a person or vehicle.

Contact DJ Products to speak with one of our sales engineers about which motorized dumpster mover is right for your business.

Can You Avoid Workplace Injuries? What You Need to Know.

Avoid Workplace Injury

Perfection is an admirable goal but an unattainable standard. While you can’t completely eliminate workplace injuries, you can effectively reduce risk by following these safety tips that apply to any business or industry.

1. Maintain a Clean Workplace

Cleanliness is more than just a matter of eye appeal. Untidy workplaces can force employees to operate in a constricted space that doesn’t allow for free movement. In addition, clutter can cause obstacles that result in tripping, twisting and other accidents.

2. Conduct Ongoing Training

Training should include instruction in proper safety procedures as well as job duties. Periodic refresher courses reinforce good habits and keep employees up-to-date on the latest safety methods.

3. Avoid Shortcuts

Saving a bit of time here and there is not worth the risk of incurring serious injuries. Make sure your employees are not sacrificing safety in pursuit of greater efficiency.

4. Encourage Accurate Reporting

Employees may be reluctant to report accidents and injuries for fear of losing work time or being blamed for the problem. Emphasize the importance of accurate reporting so that injuries can receive medical attention and safety hazards can be corrected.

5. Provide Proper Equipment

Many workplace injuries are caused by poor body mechanics due to improper equipment. It’s well worth the investment to supply your employees with quality equipment that relieves stress on muscles and joints.

Create a Safer Workplace with the WasteCaddy from DJ Products

The trash room is one of the more dangerous places in any workplace. Our WasteCaddy allows a single employee to safely move the heaviest dumpsters. Visit our website to learn more from our knowledgeable sales engineers.

Protect Your Hospital Property with These Slip and Fall Tips

Safety is always in season, but winter brings a special set of concerns. Hectic schedules, understaffed shifts, and even tracked-in snow and sleet can make a workplace more vulnerable to accidents, such as slips and falls. EHS Today has some winter safety tips for businesses of all kinds, and the lessons can certainly be applied to hospitals and health care organizations.

Regarding slips and falls, the main concern during the cold months of the year stems from wet surfaces. Even indoors, the threat may be greater than normal because people track snow in on their footwear. The inevitable melted pile of slush can make hospital hallways slippery in unexpected places.

Winter Slips and Falls in Hospitals

Workers are more likely to slip and fall inside your hospital when they’re moving equipment. For one thing, their view of the ground in front of them may be obstructed. If they’re exerting force to manually push a wheeled cart, a wet floor is even more dangerous.

Hospital cart movers that use battery power to propel motorized carts can help with this situation. The worker can walk at a normal pace, alongside the cart if preferred. By avoiding pushing heavy carts manually, your workers retain a better sense of balance and are less prone to slipping on the unseen wet floors.

Hospitals can also post safety notices, add non-slip mats to key areas, and hold staff meetings about safety practices. However, hospital cart movers are a more permanent solution.

Looking to avoid slips and falls at your hospital? Consider DJ Products’ electric hospital cart movers to improve safety for health workers and maintenance staff.

Tips to Preventing Back Injuries in Your Warehouse

Preventing Back Injuries

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, back injuries account for almost 20 percent of total workplace injuries and illnesses. Only the common cold causes more loss of manpower hours.

Are Back Injuries Affecting Your Company’s Productivity?

Back injuries negatively impact your company through expensive medical claims and reduced efficiency. Implementing safety tips will reduce the risk of back injuries that lead to temporary or permanent loss of employees.

• Take periodic breaks to stretch your muscles, especially if you spend long periods of time in one position.

• Avoid lifting whenever possible by keeping boxes and other objects up off the floor.

• When you do need to lift, bend your knees and let your legs do the work.

• Pushing is easier on your back than pulling. Use carts and dollies to move heavy objects.

Dumpster Movers from DJ Products Create a Safer Workplace

Dumpsters are some of the heaviest and bulkiest items that need to be moved. One of our clients discovered that this activity was the cause of a high number of workplace injuries, limiting their maintenance staff and impacting resident satisfaction. In response, they changed their policy to require that dumpsters must be moved by two employees unless one was using a battery-powered tug.

Another client found that our dumpster movers are “like having another employee on staff!” Instead of having two employees handle the task, one uses a dumpster mover, which frees up the other to respond to resident requests.

Visit our website and chat with one of our sales engineers to learn more about why our dumpster movers are the solution to your workplace back injury problems.

Pushmi-Pullyu Mentality Increases Workplace Injury

Remember the Pushmi-pullyu (push-me-pull-you) from Hugh Lofting’s Dr. Dolittle stories for children? It was an antelope with two heads, one on each end of its body. (In the popular Eddie Murphy movies, they used a llama.) Whenever the creature wanted to move, both heads would take off at once, pushing and pulling back and forth and going nowhere. Since pushing and pulling exert two of the greatest stresses on the body, the poor critter must have been in constant need of the good doctor’s chiropractic skills! That same Pushmi-pullyu mentality toward workplace task and equipment design can put your employees at serious risk of sustaining disabling musculoskeletal injuries.

Pushing, pulling, lifting and carrying tasks place a greater strain on the human body’s soft tissues — muscles and tendons — than any other tasks. These tasks are also universal to nearly all work environments. Wheeled carts, platforms or equipment must be loaded and unloaded and pushed and pulled through manufacturing plants, distribution centers, hospital corridors, grocery store aisles, hotel hallways, office buildings and retail establishments. Most jobs require at least occasional pushing, pulling, lifting or carrying; and many jobs require workers to spend their entire workday engaged in these activities, performing the same, repetitive movements hour after hour. The cumulative wear and tear on the body can lead to serious injury of soft tissues and eventual disability.

Too often tasks, work spaces and equipment aren’t designed to accommodate the natural differences in the size and physical capabilities of workers. A task performed first shift by a six-foot, 180-pound, 25-year-old male may be performed second shift by a five-foot three-inch, 130-pound, 45-year-old female and third shift by a five-foot seven-inch, 260-pound, 60-year-old male. Because work tasks and equipment are usually designed around a “standard” worker type — which, unfortunately, few workers match — most workers are forced to assume awkward postures while exerting force to complete work tasks. Serious, debilitating strains and sprains can result, particularly when these actions are repeated over time.

When soft tissues in the arms, shoulders, back and legs are injured, the tissues recover, though it may take some time. But repeated injury, particularly when it occurs before tissues have had time to fully recover, interferes with the body’s natural healing process, overwhelming the body’s ability to recover and leading to permanent, disabling injury. Such cumulative traumas are called musculoskeletal disorders. Also referred to as repetitive stress injuries and repetitive motion injuries, these serious, disabling strains and sprains cost U.S. businesses tens of billions of dollars each year.

Next time: Ergonomics; just what the doctor ordered.

Ergonomics: Just What the Doctor Ordered

Pushing, pulling, lifting and carrying tasks place a greater strain on the human body’s soft tissues — muscles and tendons — than any other workplace tasks. Universal to nearly every work environment, these tasks are the source of musculoskeletal injuries that annually cost U.S. businesses tens of billions of dollars. Fortunately, most of these injuries are preventable. The debilitating and disabling strains and sprains that annually plague millions of U.S. workers can be largely prevented with the adoption of ergonomic practices and the use of ergonomically-designed equipment.

Workers come in all shapes and sizes, but work tasks and equipment are usually “one size fits all.” Most workplace musculoskeletal injuries occur when workers are forced to adapt their bodies to fit the task or equipment, torquing their bodies into awkward postures that increase stress on muscles and tendons. For example, when pushing, pulling or maneuvering a heavy wheeled cart, a worker must exert significant force to overcome rolling resistance. While handholds designed to assist in force delivery may be at the correct level for an average-sized male, even an averaged-sized female worker will have to stretch and strain to move the cart, placing undue stress on back, leg, shoulder and arm muscles. The risk of musculoskeletal injury is great when worker and equipment are not a perfect fit.

Ergonomics is the science of fitting the equipment or task to the capabilities of the worker to prevent musculoskeletal injury. Ergonomically-designed equipment, like the powered carts and movers designed and manufactured by DJ Products, takes into account a host of variables that affect worker production and efficiency. The type of task, force required, worker gender and diversity, optimal handhold height, distance, and frequency of the task must all be considered in the design of ergonomic equipment.

DJ Products is a major innovator in the design and manufacture of ergonomic solutions to material handling situations. Our ergonomically-designed electric and motorized carts, tugs and movers eliminate the strains and pains associated with manually pushing and pulling heavy carts, equipment or materials in a wide variety of industrial and retail environments. Our products are less costly, smaller and more maneuverable than traditional electric equipment used to move carts and equipment on production floors and in warehouses. Our battery-powered walk-behind movers provide maximum operator control and safety while offering superior maneuverability, even in narrow or tight spaces like busy hospital corridors and crowded grocery aisles. As a leading manufacturer of ergonomic powered carts and movers, DJ Products has built a reputation for developing ergonomic solutions to unique and specialized customer material handling challenges. Contact our ergonomic sales engineers today for an evaluation of your ergonomic needs.

Obama’s Mandate to Transform America

“The deepening recession creates the opportunity for federal intervention and government experimentation on a scale unseen since the New Deal,” wrote Charles Krauthammer in a column for the Washington Post Writers Group that was widely published last month. Krauthammer is one of many Beltway watchers who have been predicting “a domestic transformation as grand as Franklin D. Roosevelt’s” once President-elect Obama takes the oath of office barely a week and a half from now. Krauthammer believes that Obama’s statement, “This painful crisis also provides us with an opportunity to transform our economy to improve the lives of ordinary people,” presages what will become the key thrust of the new president’s administration: the transformation of America from the ground up.

It’s hard to argue with Krauthammer’s view, particularly given the details about the President-elect’s economic stimulus plan and jobs initiative that are beginning to trickle into the press. As Krauthammer points out, the current situation is a community organizer’s dream and that’s always been Obama’s self view. He sees himself as a world changer but it’s his own world he most wants to change. He’s got Hillary Clinton and Robert Gates on board to keep the dogs of war at bay so he can focus his energies on rebuilding America.

The economic meltdown and jobs crisis have given Obama the public mandate to foment massive changes in governmental policy. People are clamoring for help and looking to Obama to provide it. A definitive win in November and the healthy Democratic majorities that rode into the House and Senate on Obama’s coattails gave him the political mandate and clout to drive new policies through Congress. The massive bailout funds already approved, with another huge chunk of money on the way, put at Obama’s disposal what Krauthammer calls “the greatest pot of money in galactic history.” Combined, current social, economic and political forces would seem to give Obama almost unlimited power to effect change.

That change is certain to increase regulation, government oversight and red tape. Bush administration regulations that critics say weakened the EPA and OSHA at the expense of environmental responsibility and worker safety are expected to be rescinded by Obama’s team in favor of measures that place the burden of responsibility and expense of accountability back on the doorsteps of manufacturers and American business owners.

Next time: Rolling with the punches; taking a proactive approach to coming change.

Tag: workplace safety