Below are some of the most important necessary safety precautions that you would need to follow when you are moving heavy materials manually.
Wear Your Safety Equipment
Perhaps the most important factor in safeguarding the security of the people working in heavy materials moving facilities is the availability of safety equipment and their disposal. However, at the same time, it is also the factor that is overlooked the most often. The workers in a manufacturing unit required to move heavy materials and loaded packages must be provided with adequate and appropriate personal protective equipment. This equipment would be inclusive of long sleeve shirts so that the workers’ forearm is protected against any external harm such as sharp edges and gloves that protect their hands from getting scraped or injured while working. Apart from that, it is also necessary that the workers are given safety goggles so that the vision can be protected from external elements. Additionally, it is also a prerequisite to wear steel-toed safety shoes or boots to protect the workers’ feet and toes when lifting heavy units.
Use Regulated Techniques For Lifting
Once the workers’ safety equipment has been secured in place, you would have to direct your attention to making sure that they are properly trained in using proper lifting techniques to move loaded packages from one place to another. This is about their posture, for which they would have to bend at their hips and use their knees to squat down on the load, keeping it near their bodies and lifting it straight up. As this technique requires a great deal of physical effort, the workers must wear a lumbar support belt to provide adequate support to the spine and lift the loads. Making sure that they maintain a good posture would also make sure that they are not inflicted with unnecessary elements such as back pain or other serious injuries that might act as an impediment to the functionality and productivity of the worker as well as contribute to the inefficacy of the manufacturing unit in itself.
Ergonomic Designs
Be certain that you are also investing in ergonomic designs for moving the materials manually. Among other options, you can take the necessary steps to include ergonomic designs such as the attachment of handles or holders to the load capacity so that the packages can be moved or removed easily by the workers in the manufacturing unit.
Work As A Team
Working in a manufacturing unit where you have to move loaded packages from one point to another manually might not be an easy task all the time. This is why you would require to group your workers in a team so that they can help one another when moving these packages. This makes it easier for them to do their job and works as a safety buffer so that there is no chance of any worker getting overworked over a heavy package. This is especially true when you are working with an oversized load that is extremely bulky and cannot be lifted easily without coworkers’ assistance. In this way, you minimize the risk of the workers getting injured and material in question getting damaged by being dropped. Encourage your workers to group themselves and work as an organic team to foster workplace productivity and efficacy.
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