Manual lifting: protecting your staff's health

At markets, building-materials depots and wholesale warehouses, carrying a 50-kilogram sack of flour, sugar or cement on the shoulder counts as ordinary work. A bad back is accepted as "just part of the job". But this is preventable: an injured experienced worker is off for weeks, a new person has to be trained in their place and the warehouse slows down. Manual lifting cannot be removed completely; the aim is to reduce it and do the rest correctly.

First calculate: how many tonnes per shift

Few people ever measure the volume of manual lifting. For example, one loader takes in 600 cartons of 18 kilograms in a shift: 600 × 18 = 10,800 kilograms, nearly 11 tonnes. Each carton is lifted twice: taken off the truck and put in its place. After a figure like that it is hard to say "it's not that heavy".

Then find the heaviest lifts. For each task ask three questions: is the load heavy, is the lift repeated many times a day, is the situation awkward (from low down, from high up, at arm's length or with a twist). A task where all three answers are "yes" is made easier first.

Ways to reduce lifting

The best lift is the one that does not happen. Consider these routes in this order:

1. Hand it to equipment: a pallet truck, a scissor-lift table, a roller conveyor, a belt conveyor, a picking trolley. When unloading a truck, take the cartons down a roller track instead of by hand.
2. Make the load smaller: ask the supplier for lighter packaging, for example a 25-kilogram sack instead of 50. A limit on carton weight can be written into the contract.
3. Change the slotting: put heavy goods in the comfort zone, between knee and chest height. The heaviest pallet sits on the floor or at waist height, the lightest goods at the very top and the very bottom.
4. Share out the work: one person should not do heavy work all day, so rotate tasks and give breaks.

Correct technique

For lifts that cannot be mechanised, a few simple rules apply:

• before lifting, look at the route and test the load: nudge one corner to feel its weight;
• set your feet shoulder-width apart and stand close to the load;
• bend your knees, not your back, and keep the back straight in its natural curve;
• hold the load close to the body, since a load held away multiplies the strain on the lower back;
• lift with the legs, without jerking;
• when turning, turn with your feet, not your waist;
• follow the same rules when setting the load down.

If the load is long, awkward or very heavy, it is lifted by two people: two of similar height, one gives the command ("one, two, lift") and the movement is made together.

Rules and preparation

Set an internal limit yourself. For example: "one person does not lift more than 20 kilograms without a lifting aid". The exact norms are set in labour-protection rules, get them from the responsible specialist, and your internal limit may be stricter. A new employee is mentored on the first day: an experienced colleague shows correct lifting in practice.

In winter cold muscles are prone to strains, so a two-minute warm-up at the start of the shift helps. Safety footwear and gloves are a must: a load that slips or falls from the hands is no less dangerous than a back injury. Goods that arrive in sacks are better stacked on a pallet and moved with a forklift; if they have to be carried by hand, provide a trolley or a second person.

Spot the signs of overload

Pain in the back, neck or arms and numb fingers are warnings that get ignored because "it will pass". Let staff report such a sign to the shift supervisor as soon as they notice it, without being punished for it. Write down every minor injury and complaint in a simple log: date, workplace, what load, what situation. At the end of the month the log shows whether complaints are piling up in one zone or at one task. If so, the problem is not the employee but the process.

Conclusion

There are three ways to reduce manual lifting: measure it, hand it to equipment and slot goods correctly; correct technique deals with the rest. During a warehouse audit, SkladKontrol helps examine heavy manual tasks, storage heights and picking routes and find the places where the load can be reduced.