The annual cost of workplace injuries in the UK was equivalent to £5.2 billion last year*. In total, 581,000 workers sustained non-fatal injuries, and 20% of these were as a result of handling, lifting, or carrying. As an industry sector, manufacturing witnesses a statistically higher than average workplace injury rate than many others.
We know that there can be significant health and safety issues surrounding manual palletising. Historically, Injuries caused as a result have seen payouts of between £34,000 and £141,000.
Mitigating these risks along with the additional labour costs of manual palletising can be offset by installing an automatic palletising system.
Having worked in the palletising industry for many years, it still surprising that some clients think that installing an automatic palletising system will cost far too much; the expectation that they will spend over £100,000 just isn’t true. PALpack have machines which start at less than €60,000 – this includes all infeed conveyers and guarding, complete with a twelve-month warranty.
However, when taking into consideration labour costs, loss of labour due to ill-health, and potential for payouts; the payback can be achieved in a very short period of time. In fact, we carried out a recent installation of four lines into a well-known crisp manufacturing organisation and they achieved payback in less than six months.
*according to the HSE summary statistics for Great Britain in 2019
*40% of all work-related musculoskeletal disorders in 2018/19 were back related. This accounts for 200,000 in the UK.
