Retail Grocery Stores Gain Practical Recommendations from OSHA Guidelines

March 7, 2013 - PRLog -- Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) Guidelines for Retail Grocery Stores were published to provide "practical" recommendations to help grocery store employees reduce the number and severity of injuries in the workplace.  Ergonomic solutions at the retail level are needed.  Retail operations require automation according to Brian McNamara, founder of Retail Handling Solutions, based in Falmouth, Maine. Many of the processes, including retail stocking, is time consuming, labor intensive, and fraught with productivity road blocks and the potential for injury and product breakage. With all the advances made in other areas of the store, this key operation function has been largely ignored.
Retail Handling Solutions (www.retailhandlingsolutions.com) is at the core of revolutionizing retail products handling.  For nearly a century not much has changed in the way retailers’ stock shelves. The process is time-consuming, labor intensive, and fraught with productivity road blocks and the potential for injury, product breakage, and customer inconvenience.  Retailers in the grocery trade have more challenges as they operate on very thin margins.
Southworth International Group is the parent of a family of companies whose mission is to make work faster, safer, and easier.  It has extended its focus to include the opportunity rich repetitive handling requirements of many retail operations. Store goods are handled multiple times, often in awkward positions and almost all operations are done over and over again. Safety problems are clearly an issue and applications to improve productivity abound.  Recognizing that retail store operations are significantly  different from manufacturing and somewhat different from warehousing, Retail Handling Solutions was created to concentrate the practical application of ergonomics on the specific circumstances of the retail work environment. Limited space, high volumes, thin margins, packaging necessities, as well as consideration for in-store shoppers and merchandising frequently require a unique approach to optimizing the productivity and safety of these stock handling applications.

Retail Handling Solutions
www.RetailHandlingSolutions.com
Alison K. Shea
Market Development Manager
ashea@retailhs.com
(207) 317-4222