Performing work within the best and preferred work zones shown below facilitates productivity and comfort.  Work is safest when lifting and reaching is performed in these zones.  Working outside these work zones results in non-neutral postures that may increase the risk of injury.  It is particularly important to perform heavy lifting tasks within the best work zone.

The checklist presented below is from the book Kodak's Ergonomic Design for People at Work.  It helps users to identify any job risk factors that my be present in the job.  This checklist is applicable to jobs requiring the routine handling of objects of 10 pounds or more.

customers informed, and to provide feedback from AGVs’ stakeholders related to benefits and market of AGVs.

OSHA’s Ergonomics for the Prevention of Musculoskeletal Disorders: Guidelines for Retail Grocery Stores provide practical recommendations to help grocery store employers and employees reduce the number and severity of injuries in their workplaces.

This free full color downloadable booklet was developed by EASE in partnership with CAL/OSHA, NIOSH and CNA; this booklet will help all companies, particularly small to mid-sized companies, recognize high-risk manual material handling work tasks and choose effective options for reducing their physical demands including: 1) Eliminating lifting from the floor and using simple transport devices like carts or dollies, 2) Using lift-assist devices like scissors lift tables or load levelers, 3) Using more sophisticated equipment like powered stackers, hoists, cranes, or vacuum assist devices, 4) Guiding your choice of equipment by analyzing and redesigning work stations and workflow.  View Interactive version .

From Human Factors: The Journal of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society. This article evaluates the effectiveness of two interventions: a self-leveling pallet carousel designed to position the loads vertically and horizontally at origin, and an adjustable cart designed to raise loads vertically at destination to reduce spine loads. Low back disorders among workers in manual material handling industries are very prevalent and have been linked to manual palletizing operations. Evidence into the effectiveness of ergonomic interventions is limited, with no research that investigates interventions with adjustable load location.

This White Paper provides an overview of the issues involved in manual pushing and pulling, including ergonomics; cart, wheel, and caster design; and important operating environment factors.

This presentation illustrates all the basics of good design for this industrial trucks and trailers.

The American Conference of Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH) offers this handy tool to evaluate limits for lifting and otherwise handling objects.

The changes on the working population has an effect on how material handling equipment is designed. This presentation discussed what these changes should consider.

Designed for retailers and safety experts, this NIOSH booklet has a goal to prevent MMH (manual material handling) injuries in grocery stores. MMH injuries, also called overexertion injuries, account for 60% of the injuries and lost work in select retail businesses. This 23-page booklet has 13 unique illustrations showing employees in a grocery store using various mechanical assist devices. This booklet was inspired by the Ergonomic Guidelines for Manual Material Handling. 

The purpose of the worksheet is to increase basic awareness of potential problems associated with jobs and tasks.  This awareness can help provide clues on how to make effective improvements.

This handy one page document is an excellent primer to appreciate the basics of good ergonomics and what problems to look for.

This simple chart helps identify ways to move materials for the advantage of the worker.

Manual handling of loads (MHL) includes lifting, holding, putting down, pushing, pulling, carrying and moving a load. It is one of the major causes of musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs). These are impairments of the bodily structures such as muscles, joints, tendons, ligaments and nerves, or localised blood circulation systems that are caused or aggravated primarily by the performance of work and by the effects of the immediate environment where the work is carried out. MHL should be avoided as much as possible, but sometimes it is impossible to avoid entirely in the workplace.  It is then the responsibility of management to minimise the risks.  This checklist includes questions related to all aspects of manual handling and offers examples of preventive measures that can help to improve handling and therefore reduce risks. The preventive measures follow the general principles of prevention in the Council Directive concerning health and safety at work (89/391/EEC).

An extremely useful and informative guide to ergonomic assist and safety equipment, this publication provides a detailed overview of the major classifications of equipment. These classifications include scissors lifts, adjustable worker elevation platforms, balancers, manipulators, vacuum assist devices, workstation cranes, stackers, conveyors, container tilters, workstations, pallet rotators and inverters. Illustrations cover each type of equipment along with recommendations on how the equipment should be applied.