6 Benefits Of Using Ergonomic Casters
So, the topic of “casters” probably doesn’t send a jolt of dopamine or adrenaline through most people.
Wheels and casters are often seen as nothing more than a minor part of the operations of a business. In the minds of many, “If the cart moves, the casters are working like they should.”
In reality, this couldn’t be farther from the truth. Casters are the primary piece of equipment for moving your product around.
If they are high-quality ergonomic casters, then your product and the people moving it benefit tremendously.
If your casters are subpar, and we’ve seen some really bad ones, you are risking the health of your employees and are 100% losing money every single day.
At times, it may be a bit confusing as to what an “ergonomic” caster is, but this is simply a way of referring to a caster that decreases the amount of effort required to push or pull a cart.
But, make sure that when you want to measure a decrease in push/pull, you have the proper measurements, such as with the methods found within Caster Connection’s collaboration with The Ohio State University Spine Research Institute.
We’re happy to help, so if you’d like some guidance with this process, click at the bottom of the post.
Now, that we know how to establish what an ergonomic caster is, let’s look at the 6 main ways high-quality ergonomic casters benefit you.
QUIETER WORKING ENVIRONMENT
First, you get a much quieter working environment. Most ergonomic casters are made from sound-dampening materials or are designed to minimize noise.
A quieter working environment benefits your employees and business in many ways. You can read about 12 that are covered in this article. There are a few that are particularly applicable, however.
When you have a loud working environment, your employees are more stressed, tired, and possibly even injured.
Hearing loss is an incredibly serious injury and can add to the anxiety that an employee feels at work.
When employees work in a loud working environment, they have lower productivity and lack focus.
This affects your business and working conditions in many ways. These ways are similar to the additional 5 benefits below.
Bottom line is that your business and employees benefit greatly from a quiet working environment brought about by sound-dampening casters.
LESS INJURY
The most obvious benefit from ergonomic casters is that your employees, and possibly you, injure themselves much less frequently.
This is because the carts are substantially easier to push. This is important because the lower back has fewer pain receptors than other parts of the body.
That means that you often injure yourself but only later realize that you have injured yourself. The easier your cart rolls, the less likely you are to injure yourself.
Besides the many benefits this offers your company, by using ergonomic casters, you are protecting the health and well-being of a real human being. An injury to anyone can affect them and their family on a very deep level.
MORE MONEY & LOWER COSTS
Injuries, particularly to the lower back or any other MSD (musculoskeletal disorder), cause around $50 billion dollars in lost costs each year.
This is not even including lost costs from sound and other injuries found on the job. This money that can be saved is completely separate from the money that you can earn and maintain through higher productivity.
HIGHER PRODUCTIVITY
When your employees aren’t injured, they continue to work, and therefore, you don’t have to retrain other workers or redistribute other workers from different parts of your operations. When you lose an employee for any period of time, you lose this employee’s productivity.
Besides these more direct savings, you gain higher productivity and savings through the direct performance of the caster.
This allows your employees to move more product faster and with greater energy. It doesn’t take a genius to recognize that the more product is moving and the less workers are fatigued, the more revenue is coming in.
Just think of how many times employees are moving carts from point A to point B. Then, add up all of the hours these employees struggled to move a cart when they could have been moving it with ease.
The ROI on high quality ergonomic casters is virtually guaranteed.
BETTER QUALITY PRODUCT
Because you save money, have better productivity, and your employees aren’t injured, this allows you to concentrate on producing a higher quality product. Better ergonomics more directly affects the product quality, however, and this has been proven in scientific studies.
When employees must continuously strain, bend over, and push heavy carts needlessly, quality suffers.
It is much easier to forget/ignore training than follow best practices since your body eventually tries to cut corners.
High-quality ergonomic casters help your employees remain consistent in their training and allow them to concentrate on their work. This, in turn, produces a more consistent and higher quality product.
HAPPIER, MORE ENGAGED EMPLOYEES
It’s not hard for us to envision the worst conditions of some sweatshop in the 19th century. We can also imagine how these workers’ morale was.
They were, in many cases, worked to death. Now, we know that most working environments are nothing like these sweatshops, but we also know that the more an employee is looked after and not forced to work in conditions that are unergonomic, the happier they are.
These employees become more loyal and engaged because they have an employer that looks after them.
They are better able to do their job and are more likely to stay with the company. And not to be overlooked, you are treating these real people how they deserve to be treated.
We wish we could have offered our casters in the 19th century. They would have put an end to a lot of misery.
Using ergonomic casters has a ripple effect on your company towards success. Every aspect of your business’s operations is affected by these casters.
Not only do they improve your business short-term, but they are inherently good for long-term initiatives to maintain better ergonomics.
If you have any questions about any of these 6 advantages or you need help getting accurate push/pull readings, feel free to contact us by clicking the button below.