Train Order Pickers to Pick Safety First

Back injuries are among the most common hazards for order pickers, of course, and the majority of these injuries occur when a worker is lifting materials. But there are other injuries as well—for example, trips and falls; shoulder, elbow, or arm strains; injuries from falling objects; and injuries involving forklifts and other automated material-handling equipment.

Special steps must be taken to protect these workers. And the first and most important of those steps is effective and on-going training. The more order pickers know about the hazards they face and the precautions they can take to prevent accidents, the fewer injuries workers will suffer and the fewer problems you’ll have to deal with.

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Injury Prevention

You can easily teach order pickers and other material handlers strategies to reduce physical stress and make the job easier on their bodies. For example, these employees should be trained to take the following precautions:

• Use material-handling aids whenever possible. Even low-tech equipment, such as hand trucks and four-wheel carts, can convert lift/carry tasks into less stressful push/pull tasks.
• Try to keep materials and supplies between knees and shoulders. It is physically much harder to lift things off the floor or remove items from a shelf above the head.
• Slide, push, or pull instead of carrying whenever possible. And when there is a choice, push instead of pull.
• Avoid twisting the body while carrying a heavy object.
• Use both hands when carrying loads and keep the load close to the body.
• Ask a co-worker to lend a hand with objects that are too heavy to carry alone.
• Rotate heavy lifting duties with lighter work to reduce the wear and tear on the body.
• Do regular physical conditioning and stretching exercises to keep the body strong and flexible. This is a key factor in preventing musculoskeletal injuries.

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Picking from a Platform

Because many modern warehouses require less floor space, such facilities feature high shelving—sometimes up to 30 feet in height. As a result employees often perform order picking with high-tech operator-up lift trucks that increase the hazard of a deadly fall.

When order pickers are working at heights, make sure they are equipped with and wear proper fall protection, which usually means a full-body harness with a fixed-length or retractable tether.

Also make sure your rules require that the working platform is elevated only when actual order picking is in progress. And make sure workers understand load capacities and stability requirements of equipment so that they don’t overload picking equipment or create unstable loads.

Train them to watch out for overhead obstructions as well, and to avoid turning while the platform is elevated with a load, which could cause a tipover.

Tomorrow, we’ll look at another material handling safety issue—use of pallet jacks.

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