Manufacturing, warehousing and distribution have traditionally been associated with some amount of physical strain on employees. But heavy lifting, repetitive movements and the constant pressure to improve productivity often result in injuries and high turnover. In an effort to avoid those consequences, end-users and suppliers have worked to develop ergonomic solutions that better serve an aging and diverse workforce.

Lift trucks, initially intended to simply move materials through a facility, are borrowing from the creature comforts of modern cars to provide enhanced comfort and productivity. Workstations, once designed to cram as much as possible in the smallest space, are now optimized to reduce strain and can even be adjustable to the specific dimensions of an individual worker. In nearly every case, an emphasis on form has also improved the function of equipment and operators.

“Customers are giving more thought to ergonomics than they did even five years ago,” says Lance Reese, director of technical solutions for order fulfillment at Intelligrated. “In years past it was not much of a consideration at all. But in most projects we see now, there is a focus on ease of tasks, organization, effective communication and basic comforts.”

Reese predicts these sorts of workforce issues will continue to challenge the industry as technology, equipment and work areas are re-imagined in light of ergonomic optimization. Modern spoke to a few industry experts to get a sense of the customer concerns and goals that are giving ergonomics a comfortable seat at the table.

One size does not fit all
Since fatigue, retention and injury rates are far from predictable, it can be tricky to quantify the return on an investment intended to improve worker comfort. But the value of an ergonomic mentality is undeniable, according to Mike Shannahan, owner of Cynergy Ergonomics. “Some companies use a couple of young, strong people in a low-paid job, and the policy is to just burn through them in six months,” he says. “A company with that mentality won’t invest in ergonomic solutions, but seems to ignore the cost of training someone every six months. The companies with 30-year veterans always make the investment, and if you prevent one worker from blowing out his rotator cuff, you’ve paid for it all right there.”

But it’s not enough to ensure an aging employee is comfortable. Many other demographics—gender, height, weight, youth, special needs—should impact the design of equipment and processes. With the correct equipment, says Shannahan, a small woman can do the same work as two strong young men. There are also trends such as SKU proliferation and e-commerce that impact labor management in a different way. For instance, cross-training might be a good way to enable the dynamic reassignment of labor, but prevents a worker from customizing a workstation only to his or her preferred specifications.

Suppliers, on the other hand, are increasingly customizing workstation solutions to the application. Dehnco, a supplier of industrial workbenches, emphasizes the importance of a partnership in the creation of the optimal workstation. In these environments, the concept of the “golden zone” has been around for some time. Operating in this zone, items should be presented to workers in such a way that they rarely need to lift their arms above their shoulders or reach below their waists. But those heights are decidedly different for a 5-foot-3-inch worker and a 6-foot-3-inch one.

“All of that wasn’t taken into consideration in the past as heavily,” says Ross Halket, executive director of automation sales for Schaefer Systems International. “The golden zone puts fast movers in the middle and slow movers on bottom, but the slotting was mostly about moving product. Now it’s about keeping associates happy and productive longer.”

Moving the product, the person or both
Adjustable workstations can help position the golden zone, but according to Michael Renken, vice president of sales for Advance Lifts, it’s not always possible to bring the work to the person. Sometimes you have to position the person to the work. Work access platforms, marketed decades ago as carousel order picking lifts, have been repurposed to serve this need for precise worker positioning. “The adjustable platform can be reset between shifts or in an application where the lift is moving every 3 minutes, 6 inches at a time,” says Renken.

Such lifts might be customized with advanced sensors to enable precise movements around high-value works in progress, or they might be basic replacements for ladders and step stools, says Louis Coleman, director of sales and marketing for Autoquip. Coleman says no detail can be overlooked when considering the ergonomics of a platform. “Should a handrail be tilted or padded where a worker rests his elbow?” Coleman asks. “If he has to open the handrails repeatedly, how much effort does that take? Should there be an assist mechanism for that?”