Why Ergonomics is Essential in Loading Bays: A Key to Safety and Efficiency
Building a successful and efficient loading bay is a complex task that goes beyond just installing world-class equipment. It requires a comprehensive understanding and optimisation of the entire process’s ergonomics, including the design of the workspace, the equipment, and the tasks performed.
Improving the tanker loading or unloading process involves going back to first principles, which include understanding the nature of the task, the capabilities and limitations of the operators, and the design of the equipment and workspace. In doing so, we must ask the following:
- What are you trying to achieve?
- Can it be achieved using an alternative method?
- What happens when something changes?
This conversation is one we have daily with clients all over the world. The answers to these seemingly simple questions are numerous but, by and large, some of the biggest improvements to operator safety are driven not by the equipment but the ergonomics of the environment as a whole.
These elements are often overlooked because the hard landscaping of process plants (piping, structural steelwork, and roadways) takes precedence. They are planned years in advance, often in Front-End Engineering Design (FEED) studies. These studies, undertaken by highly skilled but generalist EPCs with more significant problems to solve, set the foundation for the project’s design and construction. The universal principles of design are ones we all innately recognise in consumer goods and spaces. Why, then, does the industrial setting need to be less easy to navigate or even, dare we say, less beautiful?
Adopting the operator centred design approach will generate a saving in both time and cost over the lifetime of the equipment. A well-designed loading bay ensures that the correct way to undertake the operation is also the safest and fastest. If the process is intuitive and simple, it is less likely to be unintentionally or deliberately misused.
In this context, misuse can result very quickly in damage and injury.
Consider this scenario:
An operator is required to use a flight of stairs to reach the tank truck; these stairs are slippery because of residual oil vapour inside the loading bay.
There are a number of ways to look at the above statement.
- Why is the loading bay contaminated by vapour?
- Why can’t everything be on the same level?
- Can the stair be re-designed to have non-slip treads?
Out of the three questions, only the bottom one can realistically be addressed after the bay has gone into service. This treats the symptom, not the cause.
Removing the requirement to climb and descend stairs at all and removing the oil vapour from the atmosphere can only realistically be tackled at the start of the project, during the pre-design phase. The impact of these two simple steps, however, will be felt throughout the entire lifespan of the loading bay. Both the slipperiness and the steps themselves negatively impact the ergonomics of the process – repeated tasks with unsure footing. Every step must be taken with care; this, in turn, builds stress because complacency could be catastrophic.
An activity that on the surface appears to be simple (go down the stairs, check the truck, climb the stairs, repeat till the end of the shift) very quickly becomes, at best, a time-consuming chore and, at worst, a genuine hazard.
The majority of site owners are well accustomed to listening to operators and managing the risks of an activity. Some will actively involve operators in the pre-design of a station to gain valuable insight and ensure buy-in.
This is critical to the success of any new loading equipment.
Loading a tanker truck is one of the few wholly ergonomic activities on a process site. Valve handles and control panels can be manipulated with a single hand. However, a loading operation, requires a level of physicality which – while in some circumstances can be simplified – the variety of scenarios as a whole means that no one answer is applicable across the board.
What is the solution?
If we accept that there are some situations where the manual manipulation of equipment is unavoidable, then every step should be taken to minimise the operation’s impact. How can we equip our operators to be happy, healthy, and confident while performing this critical task?
The key is to maximise control over the variables so that there are minimal options available to the person undertaking the task. Consider the following example:
The UK and EU have a vast estate of legacy plants that have been in use since the 1960s. The primary obstacle to overcome, when repurposing these assets, is the changing nature of the global tank truck fleet now servicing these plants. ISO containers were not foreseen and did not exist when these plants were first designed. The implications of ISO containers on both the safe access and processes of a loading operation are huge.
ISO containers and the consequential issues they bring are here to stay. Venting, level monitoring, safe access, product loss while loading, the driver’s native language, and, critically, truck trailer variability are all real problems that must be solved before the first truck arrives on site. However, due to the uncertainty inherent in the global supply chain of bulk chemicals, issues typically come to light when detected by the operator in the loading bay.
Creative problem-solving on the fly is not a desirable solution when dealing with hazardous chemicals. How, then, to manage this variability and reduce the number of options available to the operator?
For an absolutely standard platform, the Bulk Liquid ISO container has a tremendous amount of variability. They can have a dozen or more datums depending on the task to be performed. These locations, relative to each other, can vary wildly depending on the origin and manufacturer of the container. The centreline of the truck is easy to manage. If the next datum to be applied is the front of the cab, there is a cascading tolerance fault that can place the critical parts of the process (loading, offloading, and vent points) well out of the range of their designated connecting equipment.
How, then, to approach this?
The answer is to control the variables and manage the unknowns by deploying adaptable systems. In the above scenario of a variable ISO tank, that has to be either loaded or unloaded, the datum that is most relevant to the activity to be performed should be selected. This is relatively simple for top loading or unloading; the truck’s centreline, the centre of the loading point, and the height are the only three required. Long-reach top-loading arms combined with a suitable access system that can cope with the variability in height will solve all issues.
For any operation involving rear loading or offloading, this is more complex, especially when factoring in a top vent. For these, a more nuanced approach needs to be taken, but this is (with careful thought) also manageable.
Finally, the process could be restricted as much as possible by utilising prominent and distinctive features, including things like:
- Coloured roadways that correspond to the pipeline colour to remove the ambiguity of the task in any given space.
- Overhead digital signage to guide drivers to the correct locations around the site.
- Automated or interlocked traffic barriers that hem-in the truck in the correct position.
- Clear road markings to indicate a correct centreline position to remove the risk of re-spotting and, thus, potential vehicle collisions.
- Appropriate task lighting
- Restricted pedestrian zones utilising the most sensible paths for walkers rather than the ones that work best for vehicular traffic.
- Obvious and robust bollards to protect equipment and walkways.
- RFID cards are handed to the driver, which automatically controls the batch and prevents cross-contamination.
- And many more.
With inciteful planning, regardless of the truck that turns up on the day, the operator will be able to safely complete their task.
Loading bays are generally the last thing to be considered. The process itself and the storage of the product are at the forefront of the process engineer’s mind. There is a comparative lack of exposure to bulk loading and offloading systems across the various industries that require it. But think about it. The export phase should be the only point where the expensively produced liquid will potentially meet the atmosphere and humans for the first time in its life cycle. No matter how complex and perfectly designed, the manufacturing process relies on humans to ensure that the export transfer is carried out without spillage, atmospheric breach or consequential accident.
An operator-centred tanker loading / offloading operation shouldn’t be an afterthought or a luxury. The operator (at the centre of this critical and sometimes dangerous activity) should also be in the centre of the design intent from the outset.
We have seen thousands of truck loading stations all over the world, both good and bad examples.
Don’t let this critical part of your process become a hastily assembled afterthought.
This blog piece was written by Robert Keeler, a Carbis Loadtec Regional Sales Manager.
