When you are one of the world’s largest tire manufacturers, you have a hectic production schedule to stay on top of. And like many busy manufacturers, material handling carts keep the assembly lines moving.
A challenge for the tire company revolved around four cart designs that were extremely heavy and hard to push. Overexertion injuries were increasing, with multiple strains to elbows, shoulders, and upper back, as well as a very long list of complaints.
Between all four cart designs used in various locations, up to 118 operators would handle these carts daily. Push forces on these carts can get up to 120 lbs. when full– needless to say, it was a big ergonomic challenge! And this was not an isolated incident.
The company’s ergonomist, Dave C, sat with me to review the issues with their carts. Dave explained the top 4 carts that they were having trouble with. I took precise measurements to determine what size caster was needed and provided three sets of TWERGO® casters for a trial run.
I was fully confident that the casters would solve the push-force problems the company was having. And in the words of Dave, “Boy, was Paul right. After trialing the casters on the 4 cart designs, we’ve seen an immediate 71% reduction in push force!”
That’s because TWERGO casters exhibit less rolling resistance, which means you can lower push force to let more people push a cart safely or increase your cartload without increasing push force.
A significant reduction like this was unexpected and appreciated because the ergonomist had never gotten these results from a caster change/upgrade before. This push-force reduction also thrilled the cart operators. By switching to Caster Concepts’ Twergo casters, more than 60 High-Risk Tasks were eliminated, positively affecting over 500 cart operations.
The question now was, would these results hold up over time?
“In my 23-year professional career in ergonomics, I have used good and even great casters, but the results slowly but surely dwindle as the caster wears down over time, notes Dave C. “Although blown away by the results of these casters when they were new, I expected the same diminishing results from the TWERGO casters. However, I was again blown away!”
After three years in total production, the Twergo casters have only lost about 1% of their original gain. Dave has pushed the Twergo casters into many of the company’s other North American sites and has now started ramping up sister sites in South America, Europe, and Asia. Dave HIGHLY RECOMMENDS the TWERGO Caster to any customer regardless of industry type.
| Eliminate Overexertion Injuries and Increase Productivity. |
