Using the Right Picking and Stocking Equipment
Reduce Retail Hazards
You might think that working in a grocery store or a big box retail store poses minimal safety risk. In most cases, that is true. However, some employees, including stockers and order pickers, face potential hazards daily. Simple tasks like bending down to grab a specific product or reaching up to stock shelves can cause injuries, especially if proper safety procedures aren’t followed.
Employers are responsible for providing a safe environment for their workers and customers. Part of that responsibility includes supplying well-maintained equipment. Moreover, that equipment should allow employees to perform their job safely. Read on to discover how the right equipment can reduce the risk of employee accidents.
Common Retail Workplace Injuries
Overexertion injuries caused by improperly lowering or lifting merchandise are among the most common types of workplace accidents. Extreme physical effort sometimes causes these injuries, usually found in soft tissues such as strained or pulled muscles, ligaments, and tendons. Recovery from these types of injuries may require physical therapy and/or surgery leading to high medical bills and time away from work.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, slip, trip and fall situations are the third-highest cause of lost time for retail and wholesale workers. These causes often result in fractures, sprains, strains, bruises, back injuries, cuts and lacerations.
Other common workplace injuries are:
- Lacerations from common tools such as box cutters.
- Employees running into objects or something falling and hitting them may cause minor to severe injuries such as bruises, cuts and broken bones.
- Merchandise stacked on pallets falling and striking workers causing serious harm.
- Pallet jacks and forklifts striking employees causing bruises, broken bones, and other serious injuries.
Providing The Right Equipment Is Essential
Even with safety programs implemented, employee error is unavoidable. They use an unstable ladder or stool to reach high shelves, use a damaged stocking cart or even climb shelves to reach the top, but employers can reduce the risk of accidents by supplying safe, well-maintained equipment.
Cannon Equipment developed several types of equipment related to retail operations including stocking and picking needs. They use sturdy materials to build every piece of equipment they sell and incorporate safety features into every design.
Flexible Powered Conveyor
Employees must unload merchandise from the delivery truck as quickly as they can, so retail shelves can be stocked. For trucks that are floor loaded, using a manual conveyor system poses risks to employee safety from them potentially pushing or pulling goods down the conveyor.
Cannon Equipment designed the AgiliFlex, a flexible powered conveyor system, to reduce the risk of employee injury while speeding up processing times. Employees simply put the merchandise on the conveyor and with an easy push the packages engage the roller system and are automatically moved down the conveyor reducing the physical stress on the employees.
The AgiliFlex was also designed with large rolling casters to allow employees to simply maneuver into place for cross docking and other unloading situations. When the conveyor is not in use, it effortlessly compresses to save space and locks it into place for easy storage.
Stocking Carts
Employees must move merchandise onto the sales floor, often using stocking carts to bring the goods from the backroom. Products that go onto high shelves often require employees to climb ladders. Carrying a ladder and moving it constantly to reach different shelves can be a hassle.
Cannon Equipment designed its ProStock Series Ladder Cart to combine efficiency and safety. This cart has a built-in ladder, three shelves and uses easily activated locking casters. The 800-pound capacity allows employees to stock lots of merchandise in one trip from storage areas, and the ladder has a 400-pound capacity.
Cannon Equipment's two and three-sided stocking carts were designed with easy maneuverability and safety in mind. The 2-Sided ProStock stocking cart is versatile, allowing employees to reach merchandise from either side. The open design allows for safer loading and unloading of the cart. Two sturdy shelves hold a combined weight of 1,000 pounds and can be safely and easily moved when fully loaded. It is often used to stock shelves, pick orders, and store back stock.
The 3-Sided ProStock stocking cart allows you to transport merchandise from a distribution center straight to your retail shelves. Adjustable extensions and a fold-down shelf provide a greater capacity for more products.
Picking Carts
Today’s businesses fulfill more customer pick-up and delivery orders than ever. Cannon Equipment offers several picking cart solutions to suit the needs of retailers and click and collect operation, whether picking multiple small orders at a time or a single large order.
ProPick Tote Picking Carts are designed to pick multiple orders at one time. Current designs from Cannon Equipment include a six and nine tote picking carts with foldable shelves to also allow for bulk items in orders. The open design allows for employees to pick orders from either side of the cart.
Multi Shelf Adjustable Carts allow for flexibility for using totes of different sizes, or no totes at all. Cannon Equipment’s 3-shelf adjustable picking cart features two rubber-coated, slip-resistant shelves along with an adjustable base and two fold-down side shelves. Its four swivel casters are quiet and provide excellent maneuverability.
Nestable Picking Carts were designed with ease and efficiency in mind. The lightweight design allows for easy maneuverability through busy store aisles while the flexible design allows for the capacity to hold multiple products of different shapes and sizes. The convenient nesting capability reduces storage space when the carts are not in use.
Cannon Equipment Provides the Solutions You Need
Cannon Equipment supplies safe stocking equipment to businesses. They design and engineer equipment to address specific customer needs, then manufacture those products. Although they offer standard equipment, they also work with customers to create custom solutions for their customers unique needs.
