Materials handling equipment specialist Lift Safe has worked with Holland’s to greatly reduce manual handling. Holland’s Pies, one of the UK’s best-known producers of pies and pastries, has been making them for over 160 years.
Famous for its rich, tasty fillings, traditional baking methods and of course its unique shortcrust pastry, Holland’s uses only the freshest British ingredients to make up its classic, savoury selection, which is delivered daily from its Lancashire-based factory to retailers, chip shops and football stadiums across the UK.
The challenge
Following a series of manual handling assessments, Holland’s Pies, which employs over 300 people, identified the need to reduce, and ideally eliminate, the risk of manual handling to avoid injuries, such as musculoskeletal disorders and repetitive strain injuries, caused by lifting heavy equipment.
Problem solved
Lift Safe supplied a total of eight handling machines, including two 90kg capacity reel lifters; a stainless steel 125 kg lifter with stainless steel forks to raise sterilised tubs of cubed beef on to stainless steel trolleys; another stainless steel lifter fitted with a rotating stainless steel attachment for tipping the tubs into cooking pans; an electric truck lift for pallets containing trays of pies to allow them to be put into glazing machines at waist height; and two hydraulic high-lift scissor pallet trucks to enable loading in the manufacturing department.
“Working with our colleagues and Lift Safe we have come up with significant improvements in this area,” explains Jason Clark, Walter Holland Health & Safety Manager.
“Operators can now stack the trays from waist height, so there is no longer any need for excessive bending and lifting.”.
Working relationship
“We have developed a good working relationship with Lift Safe and we look forward to working with them again on any further projects we identify,” says Jason.
Future
“Holland’s Pies continue to look at ways to improve their operations, it’s an ongoing process” concludes Jason, “We want to carry on producing the best pies for another 163 Years.”
