Risk Management Assignment: Improving Safety of Large Warehouse

Question

Task: Risk Management Assignment Scenario:
You are the Safety and Risk Manager for a large distribution warehouse.
The company has recently won two major contracts in succession, and with increased production, has been required to employ more staff and change the packaging of goods coming into the warehouse. Staff on the two new packing lines stand and work at fixed height benches and are cutting open boxes, removing and packing hand held products into new boxes. The boxes are then are placed onto the conveyor belt line and two employees take the boxes from the line and stack them onto two pallets on the ground at the end of the line. The job of pallet stacking is rotated among those working on the line. Once the pallets have been stacked to a height of around 1.5m a fork lift truck removes them and brings new pallets to be filled.

The assignment should consider the following two parts:
Part A In preparation for the ergonomic assessment of the new packing line, detail what ergonomic assessments you would carry out, noting:

(i) The specific tasks you would focus on and why
(ii) The suggested ergonomic improvements

Part B
Later, you return from annual leave and you discover the Production and Facilities Managers have ordered, purchased and installed mechanical lifting aids for the end of each line. Both Managers are unhappy as production seems to have slowed down rather than increased, and the lifting aids are not always being used. They report to you that a member of staff “pressed the wrong button and dropped a number of boxes”. Fortunately, the boxes just missed a member of staff’s foot. You are asked to speak with staff to “fix the problem and get them to use the lifting aides properly”. During initial discussions, a number of staff say they feel the lifting aide takes longer than manual handling and also is too complicated to use.

Outline:
(i) the ergonomic approach that would have improved the purchase, installation and ultimate use of the mechanical lifting aid

(ii) any potential breaches of health and safety law that could arise from the way the machinery has been brought into use

Answer

1. Introduction
The report has covered detailed information of a large distribution warehouse. The report will be executed from the viewpoint of a Risk and Safety Manager. It is directed towards the chief executive of the company. The provided case study reflects that the company has received two big contracts. As a result, the company is searching for new employees who are eager to fulfill the organization's requirements. The employees are needed to deal with packaging. The article has divided into two parts consisting of various ergonomic approaches to make the employees' workload easier. Aims- This report aims to indicate ergonomic approaches to lift the boxes effectively and efficiently mechanically.

Objectives- This report's main objective is to improve the overall work efficiency of the employees keeping in mind their safety and health factors.

Part A
2. Overview of the scenario
According to the scenario of part-A, the warehouse company has recently received two successful contracts. Upon receiving the contract, the production rate of the company also increased. Thus, the company is having urgent requirements for employees. The huge warehouse needs more staff to increase productivity. Alongside that, two new packing lines are established. The staff's main work is focused on opening the old package and transferring the products to the new box. Post that, the new packets are carefully studied by other staff. Then the boxes are stacked into the beltline of a conveyor. Now employees take those boxes from the conveyor belt and place them into pallets in the ground. The pallet stacked is now rotated among the employees of the company working in line. The timeframe divided among the employees of the organization is generally similar. When the pallet is filled up entirely and is reached up to the height of 1.5 meters, then the fork lifter removes the stack from the ground.

3. Ergonomic Assessment
3.1. Reason for the selected task
It is evident that workers that work on the two new packing lines work at a fixed height bench, and then they open the boxes by cutting them. Post that, the employees remove the hand-held goods into the new containers and keep them ready for progress in the warehouse. Post that, the containers that are located below the conveyor belt line and workers take those containers from the conveyor belt line and transfer that into palettes on the other field at the finishing line of the beltline. As per the scenario, it is evident that the new manufacturing line in the large distribution warehouse is required to increase the organization's productivity. Besides that, to increase the productivity of the organization, the reasons for the task are:

• Moving informally is emphasized on searching for a proper position in a country that deals with low labor cost. On the other hand, the issue that mainly chooses the rearrangement of a new startup can be accessed for initiating payments, whose unique positions are not capable enough of sending the required amount of raw materials(Chan, 2018). Trade of the warehouse should continue operating in the country so that it is needed to retain and recruit employees that serve the company's requirements.
• Mechanical engineering organizations started operating by facing several issues regarding their work functionality(Fowler, 2020). Nevertheless, as the demand for emerging and new products reached the top of the demand list, new technologies were brought to the fore concept, and as a result, the work done was made easier. To facilitate the entire work procedures and productivity, the workshops need to undergo suitable modifications. Technological advancements in this field can make the work of the employees easier, and thus the productivity of the organization can be increased on a higher note. A new kind of engineering system can adapt to market fluctuations and deal with market fluctuations(Amini, 2017). The basic motive of engineering systems is grade if a product, price, and receptiveness to industry. It can inevitably be said that receptiveness in the warehouse can be made possible by designing the workshops as per the industry standards.
• Apart from all these, the other main motive lies in interpreting the information for the end product and into the manufacturing units to boost the efficiency and effectiveness of the entire manufacturing stage(Meanazelet al., 2021).

3.2. Suggestions
As the distribution warehouse has received two major contracts, the production lines need to be increased. Thus, the organization requires more staff for employability purposes, and hence it is evident that the entire packaging system should be changed(Huysamen, Power and O’Sullivan, 2018). The company should majorly aim to establish a suitable target market and recognize what they are looking for. Besides that, the company should choose a suitable packaging alignment as per the type of the product. They should install smart systems fitted with chemicals or biosensors to ensure that products are as per the standard. The products need extra care if the boxes contain glass products or any liquids. The packaging should neither be too small nor too large. On the other hand, the company can incorporate artificial intelligence to develop the business and increase productivity.

Part B
4. Scenario
This scenario is also viewed from the point of view of a Risk and Safety Manager written to the company's chief executive. Having returned from the annual leave, it was found that the manager that deals with production and facilities have ordered lifting aids for each line's end. When purchasing, installation of the mechanical aids were completed. It was discovered, the production process had reduced speed, and the productivity was found to have decreased rather than increasing. Then, the scenario states that once a staff member pressed a wrong button, several boxes were dropped the hanger of the mechanical lifting aid. Fortunately, the employee did not get hurt. Post this issue, the risk and safety manager was asked to communicate with the staff regarding the issue. Once the communication was over, it was established that the lifting aid takes a longer time than usual, and the entire process is very complicated for using it further.

5. Ergonomic Approach for Purchase Improving
The enormous products distribution warehouse requires more workers to assist with the pending products into the warehouse. It is obvious from the setting that mechanical lifting assistance is one of the most usually skilled jobs followed in the warehouse. So, driving laborers to lift correctly can give rise to a quick lift of the manufacturing line boxes. Unsuitable lifting can generate substantial damage and mishap to the workers laboring in the company (Naeini et al., 2018). Therefore, it might have a factor in if the company workers would have been suitably instructed concerning the usage of the mechanical instruments concerning the lifting of the boxes. It is of complete significance to have decent ergonomics as having decent ergonomics may ignore all the complications that are begun by blockages. If lift benches, elevators, manipulators, turntables, load levers, and conveyors keep on fixed with machine-driven assistance, it will enable the ergonomic procedure of lifting manufacturing boxes.

The process will assist in removing all kinds of disasters and mishaps in the office. Most of the good ergonomic powered bits of help are utilized instinctively to keep away from mishaps or accidents. For instance, if containers might be loaded into a machine-driven palette, it might have created the elating of the containers much quicker. Along with that, the addition of a spring balance to the conveyer by attaching will assist the workers in lifting a heavy amount of weight instead of doing the whole procedure physically (Hayden and Schwerha, 2019). It can certainly be stated that aligning and elating devices expand laborers' protection as the spring balance stretches power to the whole lifting mechanism. It assists the staff not to oppose any pressure while lifting and managing automatic tools. Conversely, good involvements help decrease the office damage of the employees and incidence of lifting weighty apparatus. ?

6. Breaches of Health and Safety Law
In the safety and health law, the workers must take numerous duties to alleviate or decrease the harmful hazards and regulate the dangers of any injury to health. Many hazards are regulated by the safety and health actions, such as

• To train workers about health and safety.
• To analyze the whole atmosphere by the organization frequently.
• To perform the daily evaluations of the risks.
• The workers can interact with each other for their risks and security actions.
• The safety and health law picture can be shown in the office.
• The employees and workers might have essential insurances.
• The corporation can employ a first aiding guide accompanied by a first aid box.
• Consistent disruptions are presented within the focused job.

There are various breaches in the health and safety law despite numerous advantages. These breaches can damage the company along with its workers (Furci and Sunindijo, 2020). The breaks in the health and safety law occur due to the deficiency of exercise and absence of operative execution of a written structure. "The health and safety laws" are significant for the company along with its workers. It assists in managing the protection of the workers. If any difficulties occur, then the workers can demand their insurances. The deficiency of "health and safety law" can damage the organization's rules and policies (Cedillo, Lippel and Nakache, 2019). Though, the workers cannot demand safety and health insurance if there are any breaks in the rule. The breaks occur if any incorrect or defective tools are utilized in the organization and if there are organic contact.

The possible breaches in "health and safety law" comprise:

• The used applications are someway defective, and they are being used in the company.
• The chemicals in the goods are unprotected in the company.
• The fire exits are congested.
• The gas security rules are being breached.
• Improper apparatus is used in the corporation.
• The floors are damp, and anyone can blunder there.

7. Recommendation

• The excess load of the work can throw pressure on the workers. It is important to reduce their anxiety levels by giving several advantages. Most of the workers who perform in the warehouse do the picking and packing work. With inducements can assist the workers in working more professionally and effectively.
• Recent workers have to be trained in an appropriate technique to do the job successfully without making any mistakes.
• The two new lifting supports have to be detected and evaluate the efficiency of the job.
• Providing suitable pauses to the workers is significant to maintain the warehouse.

8. Conclusion
The entire article consists of an ergonomic assessment for improving the productivity of the organization. It was evident from the scenario that the warehouse has faced many safety and risk violations. The given scenarios established that faulty work procedures within the organization can inculcate the employees' health risks and can have a long-lasting effect on the worker. The entire writing consists of various ergonomic approaches that are required for increasing the productivity of the organization. The other idea established from the scenarios is that communication and employee training were not appropriate enough to lower the warehouse's risk.

9. References
Amini, M. 2017 'Determination of Recovery Time for a Simple Lifting Task Based on Weight, Frequency, and Duration of the Lift,' pp. 1–99.

Cedillo, L., Lippel, K. and Nakache, D. 2019 'Factors influencing the health and safety of temporary foreign workers in skilled and low-skilled occupations in Canada,' New Solutions: A Journal of Environmental and Occupational Health Policy, 29(3), pp. 422–458.

Chan, V. 2018 ‘A Comparison of Augmented Feedback and Didactic Approaches to Reduce Spine Motion During Box and Paramedic Lifting Tasks’, pp. 1–136.

Fowler, C. 2020 'Guidebook for safe manual lifting ergonomics in the removals industry into minimizing demands on the lower back', pp. 1–40.

Furci, J. and Sunindijo, R. Y. 2020 ‘Impacts of the WHS Act 2011 on safety management in small and medium construction companies’, International Journal of Construction Management, 20(3), pp. 196–206.

Hayden, M. A. and Schwerha, D. J. 2019 ‘Value stream maps: Improving procurement of ergonomic office equipment’, Professional Safety, 64(05), pp. 53–58.

Huysamen, K., Power, V. and O’Sullivan, L. 2018 ‘Elongation of the surface of the spine during lifting and lowering, and implications for design of an upper body industrial exoskeleton’, Applied ergonomics, 72, pp. 10–16.

Meanazel, O.T.A., Al-Shudiefat, A.A.R.S., Al-Momani, H.A. and Aqlan, F., 2021. Factors affecting spine loading in a box lifting task: a digital human modelling study. International Journal of Industrial and Systems Engineering, 37(2), pp.168-178.

Naeini, H.S., Dalal, K., Mosaddad, S.H. and Karuppiah, K., 2018. Economic effectiveness of Ergonomics interventions. International Journal of Engineering Science (2008-4870), 29(3).