Ergonomic Packaging Devices and Solutions

Packaging plays a vital role in today’s fast-paced business landscape, ensuring product protection, preservation, and presentation. As the packaging industry continues to grow and adapt to changing market demands, it’s crucial for companies to stay ahead and offer exceptional packaging solutions. To provide insights into this dynamic landscape, we have developed Packaging Talks – a series of conversational panels with Crawford’s packaging experts. Whether you’re a business owner, a packaging professional, or simply curious, our panels aim to offer valuable information and inspiration.

In this installment of our Packaging Talks, we chat with Chris Shabatura, Crawford’s Packaging Specialist, about ergonomic packaging devices and solutions.

What are you seeing in the field regarding companies’ approach to ergonomic working conditions?

That’s a good question. I’d say there’s a growing awareness among companies of the critical link between ergonomic working conditions and overall workforce health, productivity, and retention, particularly in labour intensive environments like large fulfillment centres or manufacturing facilities. These jobs often involve repetitive tasks, lifting, bending, and operating heavy equipment, which can lead to fatigue, strain, and injury if not managed properly.

The same goes for product innovations – there’s an increasing range of products available that address the physical challenges associated with certain tasks, especially for the end-of-line packaging process.

Could you elaborate on this? What innovations do you see in the market?

Well, there are a few, but one that stands out is ergonomic stretch film dispensers for hand wrapping pallets. Traditionally, hand-wrapping a pallet requires operators to use a roll of film, bending, reaching and twisting in awkward positions, which can be daunting and lead to strain and fatigue after several hours of repetitive work. Ergonomic stretch film dispenser, however, allow operators to wrap a pallet from a forward facing, standing position, which is not only safer but also far more comfortable. Best-in-class dispensers are designed to apply the necessary tension automatically, eliminating the need for operators to exert force manually to secure each layer. This reduces physical strain, lowers the risk of injury, and enhances productivity, enabling operators to wrap pallets consistently and efficiently without needing extra breaks.

This sounds very interesting. What other products are you seeing?

Tape dispensers. Not your regular tape dispensers, but ergonomic ones specially designed to improve both work efficiency and sustainability, especially in high-frequency packaging environments. Traditional tape dispensers can be cumbersome to operate, requiring repetitive motions that place strain on the hands, arms, and shoulders. Ergonomic dispensers are built to minimize this strain, using special mechanisms to smoothly dispense tape with minimal effort. This design significantly reduces the physical burden on operators, allowing them to work faster and more comfortably, which is particularly valuable for repetitive tasks.

These are all great solutions, especially if you don’t need specialized stretch wrapping or case sealing equipment.

They are great indeed, and we see customers utilizing both solutions – automated equipment and hand tools. It all depends on their workloads and requirements.