Manual Handling Solution

[benstacey]

Hey All,

I work at a food based subscription service, we have recently started making the ice packs used to keep the protein cold in house.

We use a machine to create the ice packs, a team of 3 people then put them into crates and move them onto a pallet which is only about a meter away from the machine the packs come off, they're are then stored for use on production days, the issue were having is each crate weighs around 24 kilos which is fine to lift but they are fitting 36 on a pallet and making about 8 pallets a day, this week we've had an incident with a back injury due to this.

I've been trying to find a solution to stop any further injuries happening, such as reducing the weight of each crate, but obviously the same amount of ice packs need to be made a day so there still going to lifting the same amount overall.

I was looking into back support belts, but I've heard these don't really help at all and can actually cause a false sense of security and cause more issues.

Can anyone suggest anything that could help?

Thanks.

[Waterbaby]

Good Evening benstacy

Others will be along with practical advice

In the meantime, a lot of information on the HSE microsite http://www.hse.gov.uk/msd/manualhandling.htm including :

"Free tools
HSE has developed tools to help employers analyse lifting, carrying and team handling (the MAC tool and the V-MAC tool), repetitive upper limb tasks (the ART tool) and pushing and pulling (the RAPP tool)" (see webpage ) and resources listed to right of page

WB

[ddlh]

Sorry - but could you supply pics of the issue so we can have a better understanding of the issue? I dont understand the issue?

[quality_somerset]

Agree some pics would help the members help you.

QS

[grim72]

I too am struggling to picture the scenario so images would help. If I'm guessing correctly then maybe try searching for vacuum lifting equipment which might offer a solution? No idea on cost though.

[LittleNell83]

Carry out the manual handling assessment then identify what exactly caused the injury.

Rather than the weight of the 24kg, from experience I would suggest that the problem might have been to do with how they lifted, or whether they twist during the lift, which is easy to do and trickier to avoid. Is it a repetitive motion which can also cause problems.

Things to consider would be ways of removing the twisting motion, and how they lift. Are you doing this onto floor level, or a work station or desk?

Start with the manual handling assessment, watch how they carry out the job... then work on the solution from there.

Nell