Baking & Snack - December 2021 - 74

ERGONOMICS
Some baked
goods like braided
breads require
both endurance
and skill by talented
employees.
Sosland Publishing Co.
ers to observe and react, resulting in
increased downtime, product loss and
quality issues. The most common concerns
involve soft tissue injuries such as
back, shoulder and wrist strains.
" It seems that these injuries are perhaps
more numerous due to increases
in production and labor shortages, " Mr.
Anderson observed. " In some cases,
people are working longer hours or longer
work weeks with fewer days off, and some are just feeling
the results of heavier workloads. "
Lightening the load
When Tippin's Gourmet Pies moved into its new facility
in 2020, the Kansas City, Kan., pie manufacturer improved
product consistency, efficiency and capacity, but labor savings
also played a vital role.
" We put automation in to help impact our workers, " said
Jim Antrup, vice president of sales and marketing, Tippin's.
" It wasn't to replace them, but to limit the amount of lifting
and repetitive motion. With the current labor market,
thank goodness we put some automation in because hiring
has been so difficult. "
In the older facility, he recalled, pies were manually
loaded and unloaded onto 6-foot racks that were pushed
into cooling areas and the freezer, then pulled out later for
finishing and packaging. Now everything is conveyorized,
which provides labor savings and enhanced food safety.
" From a workplace safety perspective, we eliminated all
of the pushing and pulling of those heavy racks filled with
ABA to recognize 2021 safety achievements
As the year comes to an end, many manufacturers will take a
close look at workplace safety as a part of an annual review
of their operations. To acknowledge bakeries and allied
companies that excelled in this area, the American Bakers
Association (ABA) created the Safety Recognition Program.
Last year, the program awarded 19 ABA member
companies across 128 facilities for their effective and
successful safety programs. That number was more than
double compared to the inaugural year in 2016, when eight
member companies received recognition. This year, the
individual operations with the best safety records will be
announced at ABA's annual convention, which runs March 27
to 30 in Palm Springs, Calif.
Robb MacKie, ABA's president and chief executive officer,
said its members continue enhancing the work experience of
employees by ensuring a safe and healthy workplace. He added
that these efforts to develop strong safety programs also
prove to be an investment in the company's financial health.
74 Baking & Snack December 2021 / www.bakingbusiness.com
pies, " Mr. Antrup said. " From a quality and food safety perspective,
the fewer times you touch something, the better
it is. "
The bakery also added pallet lifts to eliminate any strenuous
bending and picking up of flour bags. New robotics
assist to reduce repetitive motion in the decorating of pies.
" We still do limited hand decorating, but we're very conscious
to make sure that we don't have the same people
hand-decorating for 8 hours at a time, " Mr. Antrup said.
" Mostly they're hand decorating if we're running behind or
to touch up what the robotics may have missed. "
He noted that automatic case erecting also reduced repetitive
tasks and paid for itself in a matter of months. The
next step will involve further automating the mostly manual
packaging department.
" I can remember the number of hours that I stood there
building cases, " Mr. Antrup recalled. " It's not hard work, but
it takes time and space. If you are building cases for tomorrow,
you need space to store them and keep them clean. "
Mr. Gabris pointed out the Occupational Safety and
Health Administration (OSHA) has long considered commercial
bakeries a higher-risk work environment because
of its overall recordable injury rate, which is 5.4 per 100
employees.
" From a numbers standpoint, as a member of the ABA,
we represent 800,000 employees in North America, " he
said. " If 5.4% of them are injured, that's 43,200 people who
are injured in bakeries on average each year. "
That overall average differs based on the type of bakery,
such as a tortilla or cookie operation, and it varies by
company. At Aspire Bakeries, which has 15 manufacturing
plants, the rate is less than half that average, but the goal is
always zero.
" When you talk about safety, you always talk about the
numbers, and those numbers on that spreadsheet are people, "
Mr. Gabris said.
Those numbers also come with a dollar sign, and here's
where the ROI for ergonomics is calculated. Mr. Gabris
said the average cost of recordable injuries where employees
need medical attention - based on four years and
1,400 data points - is $13,200. Most are for small injuries,
but some are for musculoskeletal issues that can cost hundreds
of thousands of dollars.
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