The heavy strand area of Draka Wire, a high volume producer of copper wire, reported several back injuries over a period of a couple of months, although, in previous years, the area had reported very few. Investigation showed considerable manual handling of empty and full reels of copper wire using lifting straps; this included the lifter bending and twisting. Once out of the machine full reels of copper wire were rolled along the floor, using the foot, to a pallet onto which they were lifted by hand. Recently the workers had changed their method of working and were loading the pallet with two or three layers of reels, requiring more lifting while in a bent position. It was this that probably caused the back injuries.
There was discussion with the workers, safety representatives and a HSE inspector about how to redesign the work; then the company worked with a lifting aids manufacturer to develop engineered solutions for three tasks.
As a result, manual lifting has been virtually eliminated, the number of times a reel has to be handled has been significantly reduced and the workers say that the changes have made the task much safer, easier and quicker.
