Warehouse Ergonomics and Productivity: an Inseparable Relationship

Improving the ergonomics of any warehouse operation may be the single easiest way to improve productivity – and that’s aside from the obvious safety and labor force protection aspects. Consider all the ways people move and work every day, every week, every year. Those repetitive motions take a toll both on the people doing the work and overall productivity. Ergonomics and productivity are not only related: they’re essential to each other.

Day after day, month after month, year after year

Consider the reality of the way people do something simple. Just walk your plant floor and watch. People are bending, stretching, walking, picking, packing and lifting things. Sometimes these actions are as efficient as you can make them. Other times, simple tweaks will create incremental, measurable gains.

Observing the reality of the work

• Look for people bending and stretching. Some of these motions aren’t easily fixed, but at this stage you aren’t there to solve them, only to document them.
• Unsafe practices in lifting, pushing, pulling or other work activities. These you should address as quickly as possible.
• People walking longer distances than needed. You can observe this, but to get more data, ask warehouse workers to wear simple pedometers for more exact information.
• Talk with your people. What’s hard? What’s the thing they dread doing? Where are the snags in the process? What do they fear doing? They’ll tell you a lot of what you need to know.
• Discuss the situation with floor management. What are they seeing? What are the problems from their perspective?
• If you have a warehouse management system, you can use its data to correlate what you are seeing on the floor.

What we like to think happens during a busy day is usually different than what happens. People may try to adapt if they are being watched, even if the outcome improves their health and their working lives. Find ways to ensure that doesn’t happen.

Picking and transport issues

If you’ve been in enough picking operations, you know how it works: they’re similar in many ways but vary wildly in practice. Order picking can be confined to a small area, a large zone or an entire facility depending on the picking schemes.

Reducing the impact of transport and walking

Most storage picking systems are designed around using space, time and effort in the most efficient ways. If you add ergonomics to that mix as a primary goal, it helps you see the relationship between all these aspects of the work. Walking is a waste of time in most operations and is related to space utilization as well as ergonomics. The unbreakable relationship between productivity and ergonomics is very apparent when we discuss internal transit and walking time.

The average warehouse worker puts in about five miles a day. If they match the average human walking speed for a 20-year-old, that’s close to two hours doing nothing but putting foot in front of foot. Aside from the wasted transport time, these workers are getting tired. They’re more prone to errors and more likely to get injured some other way.

• Why “Travel Time” Might be your Largest Order Picking Expense
• How to Reduce Wasted “Walking” Time in Distribution Operations

Walking is good for people, but it’s another matter when you’re pounding the pavement all day on a hard warehouse floor carrying or pushing things. You’re less productive, you waste more time and you make more mistakes because you’re not focused on value-added tasks.

The ergonomics of carts

Carts are a fundamental product transport method, whether you’re picking, putting away or transporting.

Even in automated systems with zone picking or high-density systems usually use carts because they can plug gaps. Conveyor systems handle the bulk of material flows, but can’t always address certain zones, areas, or tasks. This can be a slow-moving area, a quick transit of something from one area to another, or tons of other tasks that automation simply can’t handle. What are some ways to ensure people are using carts the right way?

Push – don’t pull – carts. It’s sometimes easier to pull a cart behind you than it is to push it, but don’t allow that. The stress on people’s shoulders is more when they pull than push and can cause injuries over time. Pull a cart, and it could roll into the worker. The easiest thing to communicate is that you can apply more force when you push, making the process easier.

Workstation design and utilization

Workstations should be designed around people and processes, rather than having people adapt to the situation. Adjustable-height workbenches or packing stations ensure workers can perform tasks comfortably without excessive reaching, bending, or twisting. Incorporating ergonomic equipment like anti-fatigue mats can also reduce strain on legs and backs.

Workstations tend to incorporate storage and working surfaces in the same area, which makes ergonomics more difficult.

• Working height should be variable. Ideally, your stations should be adjustable-height to fit a range of users. The adjustment mechanism should be easy to trigger.
• Seated operations must consider legroom. It should allow a minimum 30 inches of width, 20 inches of depth and no less than 27 inches of height for knees for both comfort and ADA compliance.
• Don’t use the work surface for storage. It should be reserved for activities and have nearby storage that lets workers easily access the things they need.
• Consider the entire flow of work into, on, and out of the workspace.
• Understand the reach zones for your workers. Where do they need things, how often and in which positions?
• Make sure your storage places the most commonly needed supplies in the ergonomic golden zone between the waist and shoulders.

Finding ways to improve the work at the point of assembly or packing is one of the best ways to improve your entire operation, so this area can be critical.

More on ergonomics

• Ergonomics experts encourage task variation, which helps prevent workers from continual, repetitive motions. They use different muscle groups and make different motions. Rotating tasks throughout the day can help workers use different muscle groups, reducing the risk of overuse injuries. This is a good idea because it also helps cross-train people. The work in picking, packing, shipping and putaway is all a little different.
• Provide regular training on proper lifting techniques and the use of ergonomic tools and equipment. Educating workers on the principles of ergonomics and the importance of reporting potential hazards can foster a culture of safety and proactive risk management.
• Can you provide ergonomic lifting assistance? Implement lift assist devices like vacuum lifts, hoists, or pallet lifters to reduce the physical strain of lifting and moving heavy items whenever it’s feasible. One of the best places to consider first is manual palletizing, which is laborious, backbreaking and increasingly easy to automate.  Read more: Ergonomics and Pallet Handling.

Implementing these strategies not only promotes a healthier working environment but also contributes to a more efficient and productive operation by reducing the risk of injuries and improving employee satisfaction.

Scott Stone is Cisco-Eagle's Vice President of Marketing with more than thirty years of experience in material handling, warehousing and industrial operations. His work is published in multiple industry journals an websites on a variety of warehousing topics. He writes about automation, warehousing, safety, manufacturing and other areas of concern for industrial operations and those who operate them.