DJ Products, Inc.

This week we’ve been talking about the growing worker crisis that faces the material handling, manufacturing, warehousing, logistics and related industries (see our Nov. 3 post). By 2010, American industry will face a 50% shortfall in its material handling workforce. Attracting workers to material industry jobs is one of the biggest challenges of our industry (see our Nov. 5 post), particularly with worldwide growth in our industry expected to remain robust over the next several decades. Developing and instituting a comprehensive ergonomic plan in your company is an excellent way to attract new workers and retain your current workforce.

Ergonomics is the science of designing equipment and planning work tasks with the goal of eliminating workers’ risk of musculoskeletal injury. Equipment and tasks are designed around the capabilities of workers and seek to make it possible for workers to perform tasks with a minimum of physical strain and effort. A comprehensive ergonomic plan combines the use of ergonomically-designed equipment with ergonomically-planned task procedures to make it possible for workers to perform tasks more efficiently with a minimum of potential injury-causing motions.

Any time a worker has to bend, stretch, reach, push, pull or lift, he runs the risk of serious musculoskeletal injury. These injuries cost U.S. businesses more than $150 billion a year. More than 13 million American workers suffer non-fatal injuries each year, and 6,500 people die from workplace injuries. Workers’ compensation costs U.S. businesses $60 billion annually, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. More than 25% of those claims are for back injuries caused by repetitive lifting, pulling, pushing and straining. Back injuries alone affect more than 1.75 million workers a year, costing American businesses more than $12 million in lost workdays.

When you implement a comprehensive ergonomic plan, you send an immediate message to your employees that you respect their contribution to your business and value their health and safety. That, in turn, engenders worker appreciation and loyalty. The ability to offer a safe, ergonomic work environment is a powerful inducement in attracting and retaining your workforce.

DJ Products is an industry leader in the manufacture of ergonomically-designed electric and motorized cart pushers. Our equipment is less costly, smaller and more maneuverable than traditional equipment used to move carts and equipment. Ergonomically-designed equipment increases worker efficiency, thus improving production efficiency. In most situations where ergonomic equipment is introduced, businesses recoup purchase costs within the first year in medical, insurance, workers’ compensation and lost work-days savings alone. An investment in ergonomic equipment is a win-win situation for both businesses and their workers. DJ Products’ ergonomic specialists can help you assess your equipment needs and explore custom applications to benefit your business and your workers.

Are you familiar with the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) lifting equation? The lifting equation provides valuable guidelines for performing and evaluating two-handed manual lifting tasks in the workplace. It defines the recommended weight limit as the weight of a load that can be lifted by a healthy worker repetitively over an extended period of time (such as an 8-hour shift) without risk of developing musculoskeletal trauma injuries such as lower back pain.

Under ideal conditions, the maximum weight that the average healthy worker can safely lift with two hands is 51 pounds. Of course, in the real world, conditions are never ideal, and the physical ability of each individual worker will also limit maximum lifting weights.

NIOSH identifies a number of lifting conditions that must be taken into account in computing the recommended manual weight limit for a particular task, including:

• Horizontal and vertical location of the load. The optimal horizontal and vertical lifting position is directly in front of the worker, close to the torso, and between the knees and shoulders, with optimal height being hip height. 
• Distance the load must be moved. Obviously, shorter distances place less strain on workers.
• Balance of the load. An asymmetrical load places unequal stress on the worker’s body, requiring greater effort to balance the load during transport. The more symmetrically balanced a load, the easier it will be for a worker to carry.
• Frequency of the lift. The more repetitions required, the greater the cumulative stress placed on the worker’s body. The amount of time between repetitions is also important. The shorter the time between repetitions, the greater the risk of muscle damage.
• Hand coupling available. Designated handholds assist with lifting, balancing and controlling an object as it is manually transported. When handholds are not provided, additional strain is placed on muscles during lifting and carrying.
• Length of time over which lifting will occur. In addition to the number of lifts and amount of time between each lift, the total length of time over which lifting must be performed will also affect worker performance. Repetitive lifting through the course of an 8-hour shift will be create greater risk of injury than lifting for two hours alternated with other activities.

It is important to take these conditions into consideration when determining the recommended weight limit for manual lifting tasks in your workplace. However, given the wide range of variations in both worker physical capabilities and workplace conditions can be realized by utilizing powered carts to move equipment and materials previously handled manually. By replacing manual tasks with powered material handling equipment, companies can realize considerable savings in both production efficiency and lift-related worker injuries. Contact the ergonomic experts at DJ Products for more information.

In a cost-benefit analysis of ergonomics in hospital laundries, musculoskeletal injuries decreased and “88% of the workers felt the changes made their work better,” according to the report conducted by the School of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. When you’re watching every dollar in a tight economy, cutting workplace injury and it associated hefty healthcare and insurance costs can give your bottom line a real boost.

Implementing ergonomic solutions to workplace problems provides the added advantage of increasing employee morale. When employees are happy, productivity, efficiency, quality and customer service improve right along with employee satisfaction. You benefit, and equally important, your customers benefit. It’s the ultimate win-win scenario.

In the two-year Canadian study of three laundries, both laundries that implemented ergonomic improvements and trained employees in ergonomic practices enjoyed a marked decrease in worker injury and unexpected escalation in employee job satisfaction. No changes in injury rate or employee psychosocial factors were noted in the control laundry which made no changes. The benefit-to-cost ratios for the two test laundries were 0.97 and 1.5, “demonstrating a one-year or less payback on ergonomic improvements,” the study reported.

In addition to medical/insurance savings, the greatest returns on investment were reported “in productivity and savings in overtime, turnover and return-to-work costs,” study authors noted. The incidence of medical costs and lost man-hours dropped from 48.8% to just 18.6% over the two-year study. The boon to workers was even more extraordinary. Questionnaires asked  employees to assess how implemented ergonomic improvements had impacted their jobs:

• 70% reported that ergonomic improvements made their jobs less physically demanding
• 69% said they were less tired
• 75% noted less muscle soreness
• 75% said their job was now more interesting and more varied
• 93% said they felt happier and more satisfied about their job

DJ Products’ highly maneuverable motorized cart pushers and cart pullers are specifically designed to meet the needs of hospitals and healthcare facilities. The CartCaddyShorty electric cart pusher can maneuver heavy laundry carts, food trays or diagnostic equipment from 3,000 to 20,000 pounds. Our flatbed powered cart allows easy movement of materials, parts or machinery by a single operator.

Our smallest caddies are designed for lighter loads and exceptional maneuverability in challenging settings. The CartCaddyLite electric cart puller can manage loads up to 1,000 pounds and is easy to manipulate when maneuvering in constrained spaces like equipment-filled hospital rooms. Excellent response from easy to handle ergonomic controls also assures instant response when negotiating heavily-trafficked hospital corridors.

For complete information about DJ Products’ ergonomically designed cart pullers and pusher for hospitals and the healthcare industry, visit our website.