Case study 3 - ULDs in a factory environment

Summary of problem

Operatives in a company making pre-prepared pasta dishes had to pick up rectangles of pasta from a delivery conveyor and place them into foil trays on a narrow conveyor. This job involved 8 hour shifts and was carried out standing in front of the conveyor. The job was highly repetitive and involved extreme reaching to pick up pasta layers from the row furthest away. The weights involved were very low.

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Action

After a routine inspection and consultation with employees, the employer and safety representatives, it was agreed that changes needed to be made to this task. After consulting a specialist, it was agreed the main area that needed attention was the distance that workers had to reach to get the pasta layer from the row furthest away.

Fig 3. Information on People's reach capabilities at a standing workstation (Corlett and Clark)

This involved:

• removing 'dead space' and bringing components as close together as possible. It was possible to move the conveyor for the trays so that it was below and overlapping the pasta conveyor;
• Moving the pasta layers closer to the operator - by altering the position of the cutting machine, this meant that the pasta came along the belt closer to the near edge of the conveyor.

Under these conditions all four rows of pasta were within 450mm of the operator in the red zone shown above. See figure 4.

A better solution, which involves picking only the first two rows would be to allow picking from both sides of the conveyor and to install an additional tray conveyor.

Advice

Always consider how people with different heights and reach are able to do a job. Ensure there is sufficient clearance space available for larger people and that smaller people can adequately reach things.

Involving the workforce can often lead to simple but effective solutions.

Remember to ensure that the pace of the work is properly controlled (eg by conveyor speed and placement of product on the conveyor).

Other considerations:

Provision of seating: some workers may be more comfortable in a seated position, depending on the task.

Anti-fatigue mats: may be useful if staff have to stand in the same position for long periods of time.

References

A pain in your workplace? Ergonomic problems and solutions. HSG121 HSE Books, 1994. ISBN 0 7176 0668 6

Upper limb disorders in the workplace. HSG60 HSE Books 2002. ISBN 0 7176 2228 2

Corlett, E N and Clark, T S The Ergonomics of Workspaces and Machines. Taylor Francis, London, 1995.

Fig 4 - New workstation set up The conveyor for the trays has been moved so it is partly under the other conveyor. The reach zones are shown.