Jess Penny, General Manager of Sales at lifting equipment specialist Penny Hydraulics, outlines how using mechanical handling equipment can increase your business’s productivity as well as protect your workers…
Whether it’s a factory environment or somewhere more retail-oriented such as a pub or builder’s yard, the value of using mechanical handling equipment cannot be understated. Not only does mechanical lifting and carrying allow workers to transport more goods in a single load, but it also makes the workplace a lot safer, significantly reducing the likelihood of injury to staff members and customers.
If you have already considered using mechanical handling equipment in the past, you may have been deterred by the upfront price or the cost of keeping the equipment running. This is understandable, as it can be a sizeable initial outlay to purchase the type of specialist equipment your business requires. However, you must always balance this cost against the long-term savings and benefits that the equipment will bring to your business.
Have your mechanical lift designed around your needs
Factory and storage space doesn’t come cheap, so businesses must take advantage of vertical storage to ensure space efficiency. This can be problematic, however, as storing your goods on shelves or up a height can make them very difficult for workers to handle. A mechanical lifting aid can actually be designed specifically for your space, giving you a made-to-measure solution.
Penny Hydraulics recognised that pubs with cellar storage (the majority of them) faced a literal struggle when transporting casks and kegs up into the bar area. This was taking up workers’ time, required more effort than necessary, and was slowing down the working day — not to mention being potentially dangerous. Our cellar lifts were designed to eliminate these issues, with the emphasis being on designing a mechanism to fit your space. Choosing a crudely fitting mechanical lift would be a wasted expense and would not solve the problems you set out to.
Increased productivity
While you may have taken time to ensure your business consists of only highly skilled workers, no worker can handle more than a mechanical lift or crane. Not only is a crane or lift capable of physically transporting a higher mass than any worker, but a machine is not subject to the manual handling guidelines that a human is. The government issued manual handling guidelines restrict how often a worker can handle goods, how much they can carry, and how long they work for. Evidently, not only can a mechanical aid lift more mass than a worker, and more frequently, but they can also work for longer without a mandatory break period.
The guidelines also outline that a risk assessment is necessary before manually handling goods — this can be time-consuming and arbitrary, which is not productive. No such risk assessment is required for mechanical lifting, but a decision must be made as to whether using the equipment would be appropriate given the item and its relative mass.
Adopting mechanical lifting aids does not necessarily mean letting go of employees either — unless you want to. Individuals will need to be hired, or employees must be trained, in order to operate a mechanical lifting device. This means that while an employee may feel their work is redundant due to the new equipment, the machine will always need someone to operate it — this is a full-time job in itself. Of course, if the mechanical aid only requires one person to supervise it, and the machine does the job of three workers, there is certainly money to be saved by reducing your workforce. Alternatively, you could sizeably increase your operation by utilising more mechanical aids, giving your workers new roles in the process.
Improved safety
According to the HSE Manual Handling Operations Regulations 2004, over a third (38%) of industrial accidents are attributable to improper manual handling. Of these manual handling accidents, 47% lead to a back injury. Employees working for long periods, lifting heavy goods, and lifting goods using a reaching or twisting motion are most at risk of a manual handling injury. This can be difficult to get around without using mechanical lifting aids, especially with the requirement of a risk assessment. The most effective way to reduce the risk of injury in your workplace is to reduce, if not try to eliminate, the manual handling that actually occurs in your business.
If your business is one that requires lifting and transporting goods in different locations, not just in a fixed space, you can also have mechanical lifting aids fitted to vehicles. This would greatly benefit delivery trucks or haulage vehicles. With a mechanical lift or crane installed directly on the unit, you have a lifting aid that can be transported easily between sites. This is also much safer for workers, as transporting items from a vehicle to ground level can be notoriously difficult and dangerous, especially in outdoor conditions.
Businesses will do well to embrace change in a workplace, particularly when that change will go on to both save them money and ensure healthy, happy workers — these are two things that are essential to the running of a successful business.
Jess Penny
General Manager of Sales
Penny Hydraulics