Automation Protects Your Skilled Workers

In our climate of skilled-labor shortages across the US, it’s just as important for manufacturers to automate for worker safety as well as for productivity.

Manufacturing facilities such as high-volume machine shops, packagers, shipping docks and warehouses, have workflows that are very fast-paced. Heavy materials constantly need to be moved, staged, shipped — and far too often this means workers focus on keeping up, rather than keeping safe.

In these conditions, the risk of worker injury increases. Workplace injuries are not always the sudden, catastrophic accidents we read about in the media. More often, it’s the daily, repetitive twisting of the back or wrists, lifting from the floor or from high overhead and other actions that eventually cause worker disability.

Repetition injuries, also called ergonomic injuries, can develop gradually, but may often turn into chronic health problems for the worker. And that means absenteeism, worker’s comp and sick time off. Thirty-three percent of all workplace injuries in the US are caused by ergonomic injuries. Nationwide, these cost US employers $20 billion annually in lost time, workers’ compensation insurance claims and production.

Prevent Ergonomic Injuries

Machines, such as conveyors or robots, don’t get muscle strains or slipped discs by doing repetitive tasks all day. Human ergonomic injuries can be greatly reduced in a workplace where repetitive tasks are automated. If a task repeats and repeats, without need for human decision-making, a machine is actually better suited for the task. The machine needs no lunch breaks or vacations and won’t quit because it’s bored.

Consider the simple idea of adding a Mini-Mover conveyor to the discharge box on a CNC lathe. The conveyor unloads parts from the machine, freeing up a human. For fast cycle times, and many parts, add a Mini-Mover Rotary Table Accumulator (RTA) to the other end of the conveyor to automatically accumulate the finished parts. Your skilled worker can be off performing other duties while the unloading is done. And the worker is spared the boredom of standing around waiting at a single machine, and of the repetitive twisting and turning and lifting.

Mini-Mover’s small and portable conveyors and RTAs have many ergonomically friendly options for manufacturing and business users. They run quietly, are height- and angle-adjustable, portable, and can squeeze into tight spots so your workers’ fingers or arms don’t have to.

Contact Mini-Mover Conveyors today to learn how you can improve your worker’s safety with conveyors or RTAs that encourage safe body mechanics and ergonomics.

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