Case Studies

Lift Table Speeds and Simplifies Grocery Returns at Central Distribution Center

At a large east coast grocery chain, the stores daily have merchandise that needs to be “reclaimed” or returned. Items include all types of groceries from canned goods, to bottles, to cartons and cases that are out of date, damaged or possibly even subject to a recall by the original supplier. Each individual supermarket collects these goods and packs them into empty Banana Boxes for return to the chain’s central distribution center.

At the distribution center all items had to be unpacked and hand sorted.

Accident Prevention Worth its Weight

The safety manager worries about twisted knees, broken ankles, medical bills, recovery periods, new recruits and overtime. He is not a coach, yet he has responsibility for 13 “teams.” He is the safety manager for a company that is the leader in corn and flour tortilla production. With plants around the United States that turn out 12 kinds of tortillas and a variety of tortilla chips, taco shells and snacks.

Every day, thousands of pallets piled high with these products make it out the door on their way to stores, and their success is indisputable. Nevertheless, the company had a serious problem: too many on-the-job injuries.

Newspaper Inserts Handling Improved - Workers Morale Too!

Preprinted newspaper inserts are fed into inserting drums at the rate of 25,000 per hour at the newspaper plant.

At that speed, a pallet load of 14,000 inserts goes down pretty fast. Feeding the drums required a lot of nonstop stooping and bending by employees and led to injuries, reduced productivity and low worker moral.

Improved Ergonomics at Large Office Furniture Manufacturer

This company specializes in the production of high-end office furniture. The production process includes a sanding operation to prepare the tops of conference tables for various stains and final finish.

Operators employed in sanding the table tops formerly worked at 30" high work platforms – a height too low for comfortable sanding of hard to reach areas. Excessive bending and stretching led to numerous back complaints. 

Pallet Levelers Eliminate Bending and Stretching at Aluminum Castings Manufacturer

Always alert to the well-being of its employees, management was especially concerned with a pallet loading operation that involved constant reaching and bending as workers loaded finished castings on a pallet resting on the floor prior to shipment.

Each pallet holds about 200 pieces in five layers and workers had to inspect, package, and load as many as 700 or more five to ten pound castings per shift. It was tiring work and fatigue was a real problem. 

Increased Productivity / Reduced Worker Fatigue at Pallet Loading Station

Electric insulators range from small 5 pound units to much larger one that weigh several hundred pounds. The heavier insulators are handled with power lifting equipment, other sizes are handled manually. Loading and unloading insulators stacked on skids four or five feet high involves considerable stretching and bending on the part of workers.

At inspection stations, work pieces were removed from stacked skids and workers would find themselves lifting insulators from floor level, a physically demanding job.