The current method of manually moving things around at George Weston Foods (GWF) is contributing to roughly half the number of our TRIFR (Total Recordable Incident Frequency Rate) incidents. The TRIFR outcome is evenly shared across both manufacturing and the distribution network.
The Manufacturing Environment – significantly relies on many lifting, placing, tipping and moving tasks. Common tasks include:
- Lifting and tipping of raw material bags and bins up to 25kg
- Manual movement of bins of product and other items on wheeled transport devices
- Packing operations – lifting and stacking of boxes and bread crates
- Lifting of machine parts in changeover and cleaning operations
In Distribution and Merchandising – the bulk of what we make is distributed on bread crates weighing up to 15kg which are manually stacked & unstacked, and moved around in stacks on manually wheeled dollies. The majority of TRIFR injuries here are back, shoulder, arm muscle and skeletal strain.
We have also identified that people are more likely to get injured in the first 2 years of employment, or after long service of 10-20 years And while needing to make changes to reduce TRIFR, current industry standard and store set-ups restrict significant change in process.
Any thoughts on these areas in context to safely managing manual tasks would be of interest.
If you can assist please contact me via email.
Thank you in advance for your support and cooperation.
Ben Frazer
GM Operations and Supply Chain
George Weston Foods NZ – Baking Division
M +64 21 027 67190
A 666 Great South Road, Ellerslie, Auckland 1051