Autor: Myriam Koch

Musculoskeletal disorders are responsible for about one quarter of all days of incapacity to work in Germany. In order to identify which types of strain lead to an increased risk of the emergence and aggravation of work-related musculoskeletal disorders in operational intra-logistics and to identify in which types of jobs this risk especially occurs, 30 people working in different companies were interviewed. It was discovered that almost all types of manual handling of loads (lifting, carrying, pulling and pushing), and both standing permanently as well as forced sitting are relevant.

In order picking, the workers lift, lower, push and pull variable loads. This manual handling is a common cause of musculoskeletal disorders. In order to assess the risk of musculoskeletal disorders, risk assessments in order picking are nowadays performed manually. This article presents an approach how to integrate two methods of risk assessment in warehouse management systems so the physical workload in order picking systems can be determined automatically.