3 Things to Implement into a Manufacturing Setting

COVID-19 has catapulted many American companies into a season of life that wasn’t anticipated, nor was prepared to handle. A lot of companies find themselves making decisions they never thought they would have to make. The most common decision for those companies is how to maintain social distancing while still remaining to be open and operating.

For companies in manufacturing, this can be quite a hurdle. Especially when their current manufacturing system consists of manual operators. In this newsletter, we will explore three things manufacturing plants can implement to their current systems to help apply social distancing.

1. Providing Plexiglass Barriers Between Operators

Social distancing doesn’t always require the “distancing” part. A good way for companies to prevent physical interaction between system operators is to provide plexiglass barriers. These barriers can be easily implemented into existing systems by being bolted to nearby equipment such as conveyors or workstation tables.

 The biggest benefit of this option is that it significantly decreases physical interaction between employees, without hindering social interaction. Considering that social distancing may be part of the foreseeable future, this option will help maintain morale, especially during these challenging times. In addition, this option will also be the least expensive. Especially in comparison to the next two options.

2. Reconfiguring/Relocating Workstations

Sometimes you have no other option than to literally spread people out. This usually only results in reconfiguring or relocating operator workstations. This doesn’t always mean we need to completely reconfigure the system process or configuration. Sometimes it can only require some small adjustments.

Here are three adjustments that can be made to minimally relocate or reconfigure operator workstations:

Back to Back Instead of Side By Side

In order to create the 6’ that is recommended for social distancing, operator stations that are currently placed side by side may be reconfigured to be back to back. This would help create distance between operators without having to alter the system’s process or existing design.

Keep in mind that this adjustment should only be made as long as both operators aren’t required to work on the same assembly line or the product being assembled.

Racetrack Configuration Instead of Side By Side

If your company is already looking to consolidate in order to create additional floor space, then reconfiguring side by side work stations into a racetrack configuration may be your best bet. On a straight assembly line this would require additional conveyor curves. However, given the right design, a racetrack configuration could increase throughput rate of the product being assemble.

Across the Line

In situations where both operator responsibilities consist of working on the same conveyor line, a better option to create distancing is by relocating one of the operators to the opposite side of the line. This may be the best option if the width of the line itself is enough for each operator to work in close proximity of the line without the operators being too close to each other.

3. Integrate Automated/Ergonomic Equipment

Lastly, integrating automated or ergonomic equipment to a system. This equipment might consist of stackers/destackers, lifts, or tilters. Integrating this equipment can help decrease the demand for operators to work in a specific space, and therefore, can allow for operators to spread out amongst an assembly line. This option might be considered when deciding how to reconfigure or relocate operator workstations as we mentioned before.

In addition, robots or other automated equipment may be in order to reduce the demand of operator labor in general. If your company joins the many of others who struggle to find laborers, integrating robots into your existing system may provide the labor you’re needing while creating social distancing spacing.

Obviously this option would require the most financial investment, but could also improve your throughput rate, labor expenses, or product assembly restrictions in the long term.

The biggest challenge most companies face today is learning how to stay open and operating, while also doing whatever is necessary to keep our employees safe. At Tuff Automation, the safety of our own employees is our top priority, and therefore, the safety of our customer’s employees remains at the forefront of our efforts as we provide solutions to their material handling needs.

If you have any question or would like to speak to someone about implementing some of these options, please feel free to contact us here.